Pubdate: Thu, 27 Aug 2015
Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC)
Copyright: 2015 Postmedia Network Inc.
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/477
Author: Erin Ellis
Page: A5

CANNABIS STRAIN CLASSIFICATIONS 'MUDDLED'

DNA Testing Finds Mismatch Between Reality and What's Claimed

When the product is called Atomic Haze, you might expect a 
description of its contents to be rather fuzzy - and a team of 
Canadian scientists has found just that.

"The genetics of cannabis are muddled at this point and we need to 
spend some time doing research to figure that out," says Jonathan 
Page, a University of B.C. botanist who co-wrote a study published 
Wednesday in the online journal PLOS One. "There's a lot of confusion 
and a lot of chaos in the system now."

The study found only a moderate chance that the strains of marijuana 
reported as being in 81 samples were supported by analysis of the 
plants' genetic code.

"Cannabis breeders and growers often indicate the percentage of 
sativa or indica in a cannabis strain, but they are not very 
accurate," Page explained.

It's an issue with implications for Canada's legal medical marijuana 
and hemp growers, and also illegal shops in Vancouver which offer 
menus listing marijuana hybrids - and their purported effects - with 
little scientific evidence to back them.

That knowledge is lacking because it's a controlled substance not 
heavily studied. So suppliers have come up with their own system, he says.

Marijuana menus online or in stores offer poetic descriptions of 
products' effects based on the type of plant. Indica-type plants are 
said to relax or relieve pain, while sativa's effects are more often 
described as cerebral and euphoric.

"And yet we don't really have a good idea about what the genetic 
bases for those differences are and how those differences relate to 
the properties of marijuana," says Page. "We're still trying to 
figure out the scientific truth behind that."

Dana Larsen, vice-president of the Canadian Association of Medical 
Cannabis Dispensaries and a director with Vancouver's two Medicinal 
Cannabis Dispensary stores, agrees that the classification system has 
its shortcomings. But that's because it's an illegal business that 
would improve its standards if it became legal, he says.

Sean Myles, assistant professor in the department of plant and animal 
sciences at Dalhousie University in Halifax, co-wrote the study, 
which also examined 43 hemp samples. Each sample went though a $50 
DNA sequencing scan funded by Myles' research grants and 
contributions from Page's start-up biotech company called Anandia 
Labs based at UBC. The company hopes to develop a process to quickly 
and efficiently analyze marijuana strains. Such a test could also be 
useful to Canada's thriving hemp industry, says Page.

Hemp can legally be grown for fibre and seeds if it has less than 0.3 
per cent tetrahydrocannabinol or THC, the intoxicating ingredient 
found in marijuana.

The study follows Page's previous work with the National Research 
Council of Canada which published the first cannabis genome sequence in 2011.

Philippe Lucas, vice-president for patient research and services at 
the federally sanctioned medical marijuana supplier Tilray in 
Nanaimo, says Tilray provides information about ingredients that 
create the strongest effects in patients, but says the area is ripe 
for more study.

"The novel findings cited in this article show that despite thousands 
of years of use for fibre, food, and medicine, our scientific 
understanding of the hemp and cannabis plant are truly in their 
infancy," Lucas wrote in an email.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom