Study authors give thumbs down to U.S. federally produced weed, rate it “terrible”

Emma Spears - thegrowthop.com Posted 5 years ago
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U.S. federal government-produced weed is terrible, argues a new study from researchers at the University of Northern Colorado.

Research-grade cannabis, which is produced by a sole cultivation site with federal authorization at the University of Mississippi, was shown to be more genetically similar to hemp than to cannabis sold through licensed retailers in states that have legalized the drug, study authors report.

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“Most federally funded research where participants consume cannabis for medicinal purposes relies on (National Institute on Drug Abuse) NIDA-supplied product,” reads the study. “Previous research found that cannabinoid levels in research-grade marijuana supplied by NIDA did not align with commercially available Cannabis from Colorado, Washington and California.”

The results cast doubt on the relevance of the U.S. government’s cannabis research and the accuracy of its findings, given the apparent lack of proximity between the products being tested and the products that are actually being used by consumers.

Hemp and cannabis are genetically different. Hemp contains no more than 0.3 percent tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the psychoactive and intoxicating compound found in both plants. Cannabis contains much higher quantities of THC, commonly from five percent to 20 percent.

Hemp is federally legal per the 2018 Farm Bill, whereas cannabis is legal in certain states, but remains a Schedule I drug under federal law.

The study examined 49 samples of cannabis, including a variety of cannabis cultivars from legal dispensaries, as well as hemp and cannabis samples provided by NIDA. The NIDA-provided cannabis samples demonstrated stronger “genetic affinity with hemp samples in most analyses” than those derived from the commercial market, researchers found.

“NIDA research-grade marijuana was found to genetically group with hemp samples along with a small subset of commercial drug-type cannabis. A majority of commercially available drug-type cannabis was genetically very distinct from NIDA samples. These results suggest that subjects consuming NIDA research-grade marijuana may experience different effects than average consumers,” write the authors.

 

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