The first one to patent a genetically modified strain of marijuana was the multi – billion agribusiness giant, Monsanto.
The scientists and the managers of the agriculture business were pleased with such news. It offers a step towards the industrial usage of marijuana, but as well as this could cause a great shift in the marijuana policies in the USA.
However, other important figures in the community are worried that the genetically modified marijuana will blend with other stains and that can ruin the diversity of DNA, similar to the example of Snopes.
According to the present federal law of the USA, it is illegal to cultivate, sell, buy, use or simply possess cannabis because it is being classified as a Schedule I drug from 1970 according to the Controlled Substances Act.
The experts describe Monsanto’s interest in this field as the precursor of the greatest shift in cannabis policy in the USA.
If the company did not have any previous information about the future legalization of cannabis from the Federal government, it wouldn’t invest time and energy.
The legalization promoters regarded Monsanto’s work as suspicious but at the same time a welcomed step towards global legalization of cannabis. Edmund Groensch, a lawyer and marijuana law specialist admits that this step will assist and support the pro-legalization promoters.
Nowadays, the Federal law bans marijuana because the population is still against it and the legal, commercial production is in the hands of small farmers who are not trusted by the investors. For that reason, Monsanto can give confidence to the government and the investors if he owns a large part of the lands and products.
According to James Adamson, the president of the Medical Marijuana Technologies, marijuana could only become fully legal if there is a branding of a controlled GM strain.
Nowadays, there is no way to control the quality and the production of marijuana so the prestige and credential of Monsanto’s GM strain will definitely help the pro – legalization activists.
Nevertheless, Monsanto’s testing on marijuana is still on the experimental stage and there is no released plan nor purposes for what it would be used for.
Via Snopes