This past week yielded some exciting news in the field of “Cannabis science” with the announcement that the Cannabis Sativa genome (DNA) has been sequenced. Every organism, Cannabis and Human included, has a genome that contains all of the biological information needed to build and maintain a living example of that organism. Therefore, the sequencing of the Cannabis genome is significant in the research and better understanding of the Cannabis plant, but it will also allow scientists to grow genetically modified cannabis.
The raw sequence was posted on Amazon’s EC2 public cloud computing service by a start-up company called Medicinal Genomics, which aims to explore the genomes of therapeutic plants. According Medicinal Genomics founder, Kevin McKernan, one of the main reasons the company published the data publicly was due to anti-marijuana laws in most countries.
“A lot of people who want to contribute to this field can’t, but now that this information is available, a lot of research can get done without growing any plants,”
McKernan, who has a lab in the Netherlands where he can legally study the plant, has spent most of his career studying tumors in humans. However, he became interested in Cannabis after several friends of his with cancer asked him whether medical marijuana could be of any help to them.
Most current research into Cannabis and cancer has been done on the two most commonly known compounds, THC and CBD. However, KcKernan hopes that the genome will allow scientists to explore other cannabis compounds for potential medical benefit, as well as starting a breeding program to create new, genetically modified, Cannabis strains.
Good intentions aside, the medical marijuana business is huge and is growing by over 50% a year. There is big money to be made, especially if pharmaceutical Cannabis products or genetically modified cannabis strains are the only legal form of the drug.
“It’s going to have to be a fairly regulated market,” McKernan says, “and regulation is going to come through genetics and fingerprinting of which strains are approved.”
“It may be possible through genome directed breeding to attenuate the psychoactive effects of cannabis, while enhancing the medicinal aspects.”
Taking the “marijuana” out of marijuana, whilst still retaining it’s medicinal qualities, might just be the thing that swings full-blown support for medical cannabis. Although, this is highly unlikely as the main compounds responsible for making us high and relaxed (THC and CBD) are the ones with all the medicinal qualities, as is the case with the legal cannabis based pharmaceutical drug, Sativex [read more]. But that’s not to say more compounds with medicinal qualities wont be identified.
Unlocking the Cannabis plant’s genetic code gives way to an array of possibilities, as well as a lot of potential money, but it’s all tied up in the medical field. For us as users and patients, we can be happy that this research will potentially help those living with diseases like cancer and glaucoma. On the flip side, however, “cannabis genetics” could lead to stricter regulations and controls when it comes to medical marijuana, therefore keeping it out of the hands of those patients who can’t afford to pay the exorbitant price-tags on patented medication, but need it none the less. After all, it’s just a plant.