Genetically engineered cannabis.

Dutch Passion is not involved with Genetically engineered Cannabis, or planning to get involved with GMO crops. This article only discusses the subject.

All Dutch Passion seeds are 100% natural and free from any type of genetic engineering.

 

Genetic engineering is the manipulation of the genetic code (or ‘genome’), it can be done to either plants or animals. Mice were the first to get their DNA meddled with back in the 70’s. The first plants were modified in the 1990’s and since then we have learned a great deal about tinkering with the genome to enhance certain plant qualities. Food crops are now routinely genetically modified to yield better, be drought resistant, to be insect and disease resistant etc. Genetically modified (‘GM’) Soybean, corn and many other crops are now grown all over the world. The genie is out of the bottle.

The first people I expect to create GM cannabis are the pharmaceutical companies, they have the cash to make it happen. They are on the crest of a wave as medical marijuana begins to enter mainstream medicine. At the moment this market has an annual value worth just tens of €millions but this market will grow exponentially, in a few years I expect the pharmaceutical market for cannabis medicines will be worth literally €billions as cannabis starts finding its way into mainstream treatment for pain relief, MS, epilepsy, sleep problems, depression, cancer treatment etc etc. GM cannabis could be created to grow into large ‘tree’ style plants that may be able to yield insane harvest quantities perhaps over several years. The mind boggles. Yet realistically GM cannabis will be tried if, and when, the pharmaceutical companies start realising the true financial pharmaceutical potential for ganja.

I also suspect that by manipulating individual genes and specific parts of the plant DNA, cannabis could be genetically modified in a way which would selectively favour production of certain cannabinoid compounds. Natural marijuana produces over 85 different cannabinoid compounds of which THC is the most abundant. Cannabinoids are the only compounds that work in conjunction with the human cannabinoid receptors. Sooner or later people will understand the precise role of each of the cannabinoid family and that will allow a second generation of cannabis medicines to be created. These they will use selective groups of cannabinoids or even individual ones, for highly specific medical purposes. Certain medicines may be more effective with plenty of cannabinoid CBN and CBD enrichment, who knows. Perhaps they will remove the THC so you can’t get a pleasant buzz from it.

The pharmaceutical companies will feel they have to convince everyone that the benefits of their particular marijuana medicine can’t be achieved with normal weed. Some of the drug companies will shy away from involvement fearing that medical marijuana may actually cut company profits as it eats into existing premium-priced medicine markets. But ignoring a new emerging market is never a smart way to deal with it in a free market economy. ‘Sooner or later someone will exploit and dominate the medical marijuana market so it may as well be us’, the pharma companies will conclude. By embracing medical marijuana they can grow their own raw materials and use the various active ingredients in different combinations for different medicines. It is the ultimate business model, one raw ingredient that is easy and cheap to farm and multiple medical products, all with very few costs.

Personally I expect the pharmaceutical companies will invest heavily to genetically engineer a cannabis strain that yields ultra high levels of the whole spectrum of cannabinoid chemicals. The aim will be to extract and isolate them into individual cannabinoids on an industrial scale using thousands of tons of bud. Once individual cannabinoids are isolated I expect they will find their way into pills for very specific medical purposes. This is the best way for pharma companies to remove the ‘threat’ of homegrown weed, they will simply say that their preparations are more effective because they are more sophisticated. Of course not everyone will believe them, but they will become rich enough anyway. Perhaps a few seeds or cuttings of these GM strains will find their way back to Amsterdam…..just imagine the great hybrid strains!

In the meantime the traditional cannabis seed breeders will continue to make the most useful contributions to the medical marijuana movement by working with grow cooperatives. I am personally sure all marijuana is medically effective, yet there are some strains that are often better known by the medical marijuana users. In Dutch Passions case, it is often strains like Ortega, Mazar, Strawberry Cough which are perhaps mentioned most frequently by med users.

So perhaps we will see genetically modified cannabis in the not-too-distant future. I think it will take 5 years before they build up the courage to announce plans to try it, and another 5 years before they show us the results. I am sure the medical marijuana movement will be involved in a very big way, but have you ever wondered what the implications and experiences might be for the recreational stoner? Could GM cannabis give you radically different weed to that which we enjoy today? Maybe weed that doesn’t stink when you grow it, or weed with a quite different buzz? As crazy as these questions seem, I reckon one day very soon they will be asked for real.

Dutch Joe

September 30th 2011
Categories : Cannabis Plant

Leave a comment

Login to write a review

comments

John doey do

2023-10-11 07:59:59

They are already GMO here in the U.S. I know it. I can tell. I try my hardest to get natural weed. Highs clean. Too much nitrates too. It's sad really.

Bill Vann

2017-08-03 19:17:14

A GMO supporter and anti-GMO activist arguing to convince the other is essentially a christian vs atheist or president Trump vs Obamacare. Everyone has a deep gut feeling of "I am correct and anything the opposing party has to say will change nothing with my opinion." During debate we are tapping into the roots of the opponent beliefs and threatening their moral compass. There must be respect for every open-minded opinion and not answered with ignorance or scorn. Do not feel threatened with the thought of changing your opinion because if anyone comes to the table pre-determined then debate will escalate into anger, frustration, etc. Do not tap into your own negative emotions when presenting your argument, even if the opposing person is being provocative. The first person who expresses any form of insult or looses control of their emotions has lost the debate from a moralistic standpoint. People who are emotionally intelligent should only be granted the spotlight because they avoid words such as "disgusting, sick, waste, poison, destroying, terrible" which are tactics for taping into their supporters emotions and sidetracking everyone from the actual argument, while disrespecting the opposing party's opinion.

george

2016-09-16 15:55:27

greetings from greece, i am agriculturist and i cultivate only with biological and biodynamic way medicinal plants. i follow steiner if u know way and not only. i cultivate aloe vera,aloe arborescens, agave tequilanna and some greek herbs. the reason i send this, is because i plan to cultivate cannabis sativa under 0.2% THC because it is the only one i can here in greece and dont have any problems with the law. the varieties i can cultivate are limited and specific.does anyone knows if i recommend some of them if they are gmo or monsanto varieties?please if anyone knows i will send a cataloque of them in order to let me know it.i am looking to find some greek varieties from early 50's but they dont give me permission. thanks i am looking forward for your answer as soon as possible

raven

2016-08-18 05:52:00

Try the "ebner effect".

DP2

2016-07-06 03:17:40

Your defense of GMOs is totally wrong. Read and learn:http://bigbudsmag.com/marijuana-cannabis-maximum-yield-monsanto-sunlight-supply/

james grady

2016-07-04 17:50:30

The GMO that scares people is merely a technological technique which is just a "better mousetrap". Humans have been genetically altering the environment with cross breeding. The GMO as used by genetic engineers, merely allows for patents, and documentation. It is high time for folks to get over their "earth-is-flat fears of genetics.

Felipe

2016-06-02 17:43:29

hahaha you made me laugh hahaha

Specialist

2016-03-19 05:43:07

There could be unforeseen Negative Pleiotropic effects .

Brian T

2016-02-20 22:33:39

GMO? What exactly is GMO? Well that depends on what exactly you mean by the term Genetically modified organism. the kind of thing Monsanto was trying to do with its genetically modified food crops i.e. modify them in such a way that they were incapable of producing viable seed making the company the only source is both morally wrong and dangerous. But and here's the thing, all the various strains of cannabis we are currently cultivating are genetically modified, that is what plant breeding is. When you take the pollen from one strain and pollinate another strain or cultivar with it to produce a different plant with modified characteristics you have a genetically modified plant. This is not a bad thing IF you get a better plant. If the plant you wind up with is not as good as either of the parents it is crap. Most of the 'GM' cannabis will be from the likes of Monsanto, developed either to improve the medicinal value of the plant or to make it impossible for it to be grown by anyone other than the big pharma growers or both. Also consider this, Industrial Hemp is cannabis. It has relatively insignificant THC levels. Imagine the impact of several hundred thousands of acres of industrial weed reaching maturity and scattering its pollen to the winds ... and consider the effect that pollen will have on YOUR plants and nearby medicinal growers. I may be a little cynical but I cannot think of a more effective way of destroying the recreational and medical cannabis market and it has cost benefits for someone from the fibre, oil etc.etc.

Richard Head

2016-02-18 17:42:50

weed is great especially gmo'd

D. Vreeken

2015-11-14 09:20:41

I am under the impression that "gmo " happens in nature when two separate species happen to propagate near each other and one of said species has antiseptic values that inhibit viral bacterial and fungal growth during germination phases. Nature is still the best medicine and can produce this effect over and again.

Bifrost

2015-09-02 00:23:56

I say bring it on! Genetic modification is not scary or inherently dangerous.

sam skunkman

2015-05-27 09:50:21

The posters that claim GMO Cannabis is here, being grown and sold are just lost, they have no idea of what they are saying, it is not true. Polyploids are not GMO, they can be made with GMO techniques if you wanted to, but 75% of the flowering plants on earth are polyploid, made by nature, not man. People need to understand what it is they hate, if it is GMO Cannabis then go back to sleep, there is none being grown and sold anywhere. GMO cannabis for Cannabinoid profile is stupid that can be done easily with classical breeding. Pure CBD, pure THCV, pure CBC, etc. Classical breeding is not GMO regardless of what several posters think.

Jon

2015-03-06 17:11:23

I'm not here to argue the science of GMO's. My thought is that you have an extremely hard time fighting the big money that's in the process of entering the game. My concern is that we don't know enough about how it affects human health. The thing that has me skeptical is the amount of money that goes into anti labeling propaganda that is spewed across the airwaves at election time. I want the choices available to the general consumer to be easy choices if they wish to avoid GMO products.

Ron

2015-02-28 16:21:31

Why think small and do genetic engineering on whole plants? Why not have pure cannabinoid-specific Cannabis cell lines with high expression yields that we can grow in mini- and desktop photo-bioreactors? No pharmaceutical companies will want to deal with plants (too complex/indirect; dirty/non-sterile) when they could simply cell culture, with much better control and relatively small bioreactors, much purer products much the same as biopharmaceutical (recombinant proteins/antibodies) are currently manufactured. Or why not just skip cell culture and go direct to even more higher technology - synthetic biology? Develop and sell us the enzymes and terpene starting materials/intermediates for home-brewed semi-synthetic THC and variants?

Michael

2014-11-26 21:41:33

80% THC plants coming with large thick stalks to hold it up 10 foot high with insane yields with insane anti-mold/fungi and pest resistant? That can handle extremely low/high temps, and sub-par soil? Sign me up, I'd make BHO all day.

randomemailofanilliteratepublicofficial

2014-07-10 16:34:25

Responding especially to Carol M... and AWitnessofRevelation 11. You are correct. GM is everywhere. You can't find wild-type MJ anymore. It's all GM. This conversation is a decade late... that's when my friend was GM-ing it (fruit that's rich in cannibanoids)... before going to the big house for lesser matters. FYI, Al Capone seved a life sentence for tax evasion. Also, GM is not as effective as polyploids with respect to production. This has truly been a public service announcement.

AWitnessofRevelation11

2014-06-28 15:42:29

genetically enhance marijuana to have a perrenial trait, and the ability to grow fruit that's rich in cannibanoids. That's the map leading to the tree of life.

Fox Mulder

2014-06-27 17:59:37

Have you ever thought about bringing genes for THC into organisms like yeast? Would be interesting to make beer or bread with this modified yeast.

NO GMO CANNABIS

2014-06-22 19:20:16

I am a fan of Dutch Passion. I strongly urge you to quit creating Genetically Modified Cannabis. It is not a natural way of breeding. Genetically Modified Corn And Soybean Are Terrible for Humans and the environment! Please do not cross the GM line!!

GMO IS POISON

2014-06-18 22:56:29

I'm going to make this really short and to the point: GMO is poison to the human body! Millions of people across the planet are DYING of bowl diseases and multiple forms of cancer BECAUSE of GMO's!!! This is PROVEN FACT and anyone who says otherwise has been completely brainwashed with propaganda. Studies show that humans beings have a 500% greater chance of becoming sterile when fed a high GMO diet!!! Look this stuff up and don't fall for the propaganda! This is VERY real!!!

GOD

2014-05-22 03:57:30

GM Marijuana already exists. They have been doing it since the 90's, haven't you noticed the 5,000 new potent strains of marijuana to just come out of now here since the mid 90's? The hundred different types of kush, the thousand different hazes; the guy that wrote the first comments is a f*****g idiot.

M. Vaughan

2014-05-05 14:01:44

You all are WAY too late for this discussion. 1- Marijuana has been transgenic for YEARS. You can google "gm marijuana seeds" and come up with countless sites who have no problem saying what they really are. 2- The University of Florida has submitted the first U.S. patent for their method of producing transgenic marijuana. Do you all really think last year was the first time someone created transgenic marijuana? It's one of the most mutatable plants on the planet. It's basically a toy for botanists, and now someone has patented a major method of producing transgenic marijuana seeds. What happens now? Who are they going to sell it to, or are they going to lease the rights? Are they going to sue people who infringe on their patent? Apparently they can do anything they want, because people like this are in denial of its existence. It's a real thing. A real patent, by a real university, with a real botany research program. And speaking of 3- Norman Borlaug started messing with plant genetics in the 1940's. If you've ever been an activist against world hunger, you should have have heard of him. He was given the Nobel Peace Prize for saving a BILLION human lives with his genetically modified crops and is the father of the Green Revolution. Top that.

nochance

2014-04-16 13:14:58

Oh my god ! Most of you on here are under educated. You all rant and rave it's bad this, bad that. Get a grip for the sake of your own sanity, and mine for having to explain this over and over. Genetically modified anything is not bad within set safety perameters. Firstly, nothing is added or taken away per-say from g.m. plants. The genes which are already present within the plant, or from another plant are taken and realighned if you like to accentuate or eradicate specific criteria. This is EXACTLY the same as the following example. You have to shop for food every week. So imagine every week you shop for your neighbour and they shop for you. Every week you get shopping, some times you get something you really like, most of it is o.k. and some is not needed or disliked or even unsafe if you have an allergy to say nuts or something, or maybe you have a special dietary requirement like low sodium. Imagine this method of food shopping as the cannabis plant. Now say you could write a list of specified foods, you end up totally satisfied with your shopping that week. No nut traces in your gluten free bread so to speak. That's your g.m. crop right there. You could Taylor any detail of the plants genetics to suit your needs. Higher thc or faster flower time, bigger buds whatever you like. Lets look at selective breeding. You are slowly generation by generation genetically modifying cannabis. You cross a sativa with an indica, well done you just modified the genetics of a plant. You could have taken another indica to breed with your indica and the same for the sativa. But we all know that hybrids are the way forward, because they are a tailored version of what we want. Otherwise why would you cross that short fat indica with a dank smell n fat buds, with that tall fast growing sativa that takes forever to flower, has small buds and smells vaguely of ass. Because you are hoping you can get a tall plant, with fat buds that smell dank, with a nice short flower period. G.m. is a way of eleviating the guess work. Imagine if you could change that short gene for a tall one, or the gene that makes your lovely plant have low potencey and switch it out with a high potencey one. We aren't talking food crops, even though it's the same. We are talking about weed. You all rant it's super safe doin weed, so why the panic. Don't be a sheep and follow the rest of the crowd with the hype. Rest assured my friends G.M. IS the way forward in future. Your kids will be eating it if you don't, and it's idiots like you that stop the progression of future advancements in medicine. That stupid, pig headed blindness never serves anyone well. I can't wait to see, smoke and get high on a plant that only produces thc. The high is pure, the potencey is guaranteed no matter what some jumped up punk bitchis trying to sell me on the street corner, and we've all been there with bullshit ditch weed. I agree to the fullest that it should be a seperate avenue completely from the mainstream bud to eleviate problems with purity of genetics aswell as the nostalgia of it. Like organic food now. 30 years ago, nearly every thing you ate was organic. I'm English so nearly everything my family ate would have been sourced from local farms and company's as the transport of goods wasn't what itis now back then. Now people will pay tthrough the nose for it haha. Humanity is by far the stupidest thing I have ever encountered. Have you all forgotten we are the product of each other's natural selection. You are all apes. Not some Devine race. You have the same inate fears and instincts as any other animal. Loud noises, predators and most imortantly fear of the unknown. Do us all a favour and educate yourselves to save people like me half an hour of my life typing this just to help people I will never meet. I will never even see a reply to thus post as when I hit enter and leave this page I won't be back. To all those who know what I'm on about you are gifted, please continue educating yourselves for personal gain. To all the rest , Laters ya god worshipping, dream analysers !

Smiley

2014-03-22 11:02:00

People!! What are you thinking?!? Don't do this. It is a very bad idea and I will do everything in my power to sway people away from a GMO anything, never mind cannabis! Please STOP!! Are you not seeing the problems we are having right now with GMO's. Maybe you should look at the issues Hawaii is having. Go back the hybridization for the people, and the planet.

Biochemist

2014-03-20 06:20:44

“Personally I expect the pharmaceutical companies will invest heavily to genetically engineer a cannabis strain that yields ultra high levels of the whole spectrum of cannabinoid chemicals. The aim will be to extract and isolate them into individual cannabinoids on an industrial scale using thousands of tons of bud. Once individual cannabinoids are isolated I expect they will find their way into pills for very specific medical purposes.” I disagree. Dronabinol (synthetic THC) does exist as a Schedule III drug in the U.S., but it is not horribly successful. Crude extracts (just grabbing all the cannabinoids) have also not been really successful. I think pharmaceutical companies will instead make (and attempt to patent) their own protocol for genetically modifying a strain or strains then sell these strains to patients by monopolising the market. “Your friendly neighbourhood kickass special years-of-labour genetically engineered bud”, and then the local shops won't be able to compete.

Biochemist

2014-03-20 05:59:32

“Cannabinoids are the only compounds that work in conjunction with the human cannabinoid receptors." That is incorrect; humans have the endocannabinoid system.

dan

2014-02-19 14:02:45

its funny how all GM feed is making the cattle and the people very sick. Dont trust these parasites and all their lies! monsanto have created terminator sterile seed! how will this feed the planet? its all about control. Cannabis will be next to be tampered with and potentially ruined.

Scintilate

2013-11-26 10:20:14

So, GMO cannabis, what are your thoughts on >seed to sale . tracking?

eye5

2013-11-22 21:12:03

The first 300 plants to be geneticali modified were marijauna .......in 1976 in miramar california part of the mk ultra project .....shhhh its too late breeders

Icenitribe

2013-11-15 20:08:23

I see no harm in experimenting with genetic manipulation of cannabis as it may lead to new understanding of the lesser known cannabinoids. @dirtlife Gmo foods that are pest resistant are not ingested though inhalation...I may smoke a corncob pipe but I don't smoke the kernels..."pop pop". I doubt the first thing a company would want to do is create poisonus medical cannabis as it would defeat the purpose. Augmenting the cannabinoids and growth patterns would seem obvious,possibly even color and appearance or even making a totally different species of plant produce cannabinoids "thc apples". I could see governments doing nefarious manipulations of the cannabis plant.

Marcos

2013-11-08 00:14:55

Please do not GM Cannabis! We don't need it We don't want it It is risky and not possitive Marihuana breeding is ok like has been for years. We don't need to touch directly the DNA lets the natural and growers selection do its work!

Garrett

2013-09-21 22:18:50

I am a freshman in college and the development of strains with targeted concentrations of THC, CBD, and CBN is a subject that completely fascinates me. Does anyone have any insight on what path I should take to be able to work in a field where I would be doing this?

DIRTLIFE

2013-09-12 22:23:51

GM cannabis plants will be genetically modified to produce poison to kill off common insects and will affect the consumer also! The only tests that have been done on GM foods today have caused cancer and sterilization in lab rats I agree with what Canna wrote: "Right now there are 0 deaths related to marijuana and how amazing is that? Something that is "so dangerous" we are having a war against it, yet completely harmless. Do we really want to change those numbers from 0? If marijuana becomes a genetically modified organism we will surely see that number rise from 0."

Carol M

2013-08-14 02:39:04

I was under the impression that marijuana has already been GM for about a decade now.... http://www.hawaiifreepress.com/ArticlesMain/tabid/56/ID/9027/US-Patent-Pending-for-Genetically-Modified-Marijuana.aspx

Canna an

2013-08-01 20:28:45

I agree completely t smoke. Right now there are 0 deaths related to marijuana and how amazing is that? Something that is "so dangerous" we are having a war against it, yet completely harmless. Do we really want to change those numbers from 0? If marijuana becomes a genetically modified organism we will surely see that number rise from 0. Grow the best you can but leave the natural process of the plant alone.

T Smoke Train

2013-05-14 23:12:03

The problem with genetically altering anything is you will not only alter what you want you will make additional uncontrollable changes which are most of the time not favorable, such could be the creation of toxins not known to the body which could be dangerous and even deadly. This is what we have with our food right now, GM corn produces more natural toxins so it kills of insects by its own but its causing massive damage to the humans that eat it cause its not natural to take the toxin at such quantaties at a time, or worse: its not even a natural toxin at all! Cannabis also has toxins which kill insects and fight off molds, if the toxins where to be modified in the process of creating fatter buds (which wouldnt be a surprise at all) could end up rather dangerous if people are going to eat it or if it gets modified so badly it doesnt all burn in a joint, it might even turn deadly So for the love of jah think twice and please leave the herb alone, leave everything alone! YOU didnt create it so YOU are not in charge!!

jack

2013-02-12 11:50:46

some one please find the genes that manipulates blackberry growth speed and spikes and put it into a weed plant. Result would be a spiky fast growing dope plant :D it would take over and they could not do a thing about it

Patrick

2013-02-02 21:01:46

Marijuana has been genetically altered since the early 70's when I learned how to alter seeds throught the extract of a certain juice of a toxic plant. Many plants are altered through grafting which alters the genetics from one strain to another strain and creates a 3rd strain genetically different from the other two strains. Being genetically altered does not destroy the basic DNA, just as cloning sheep, dogs or humans does not alter the basic DNA. If it alters the DNA it becomes something other than it was and then it would no longer be pot, it would probably be pottie or peyote.

Ina,BG

2013-01-19 14:44:28

Jeff: You dont even have to use pesticides,just have to keep the soils clean and healthy so they can produce many nice crops. I repeat i don't want to smoke that or use it for anything! I made small research by asking more than 100 people in public forums,my friends and others. All of them were terrified by the idea.I suggest you do the same. Once made,genetically modified cannabis will mix with many strains and it will be unstoppable(like the other GM cultures). One day the most expensive weed will be again the bio weed,i bet on it:) The right course for DP will be:"We sell real bio cannabis!"

jeff

2012-11-01 00:56:26

claims of boosted yields are complete fallacies you must be selling pesticide traditionally grown foods can feed the world better than GMOs

MrSparkles

2012-10-30 12:18:59

There is already work going into gene splicing in Cannabis, not for recreational use but pure R&D. At the moment its more controlling Phenotypes by manipulating genes at 4 identified Loci that cannabis has. This is used to control THC(V), CDB(V), CBC(V), CBG(V) in the plant. GM is the way forward and it also needs to happen to keep the human population going in such a high demanding environment. It might not be needed in cannabis but will only better the end product. And to all those “nay sayers” who think they can judge without understanding GM on a scientific level, well in 2008 there were riots in 36 countries due to the 70-130% rise in base-line crop prises. That is what you will all be heading for and are a big part of cause. Nature has a way of balancing itself out. In 25 years we could be up to 9 Billion people. Try feeding them without GM Crops..!!

Tony, Dutch Passion

2012-10-25 12:36:55

Ina, please stay calm ! So far no-one has genetically modified cannabis. We are only talking about the possibilties.

Ina,Bulgaria

2012-10-25 11:16:25

Please don't involve with this GM industry! We,the users who grow cannabis for medical purposes,using it for eating and making tinctures say NO to that! or if you decide to think only for the money and make GM marihuana i want to know which strains exactly will be GM so i will never buy and tell all of my friend to NOT BUY! Thank you!