Difference between hemp and pot

[johnnybhang]

You are wrong,
I have many tropical varieties that are very low in THC, many with less then 1% THC.
As for Landraces from above the 38th parallel, what about the traditional Hashish producing areas like Kashgar and Yarkand where the best hash in the world was made in history. According the Indian Hemp Commission Report, maybe you have read this?
They are north of the 38th parallel.....
And no if you take low THC feral hemp to grow in the tropics it does not just become high in THC, man has to breed and select to make it high THC and with out the hand of man the THC levels will fall down to approximately 1% in just a few years, specially if there are lots of different feral varieties around.
Again I tell you THC levels are controlled by genes not latitude, I can grow the best Cannabis north of the 38th parallel as long as I have a greenhouse or an early variety.
I can give you tropical seeds that are very low in THC to grow in the tropics and no matter what you do you can't make them high THC without crossing them to high THC varieties, you need the genes not the hot weather.
-SamS

So does this mean that when the spanish introduced hemp to mexico in the 1500's they were carrying high potency acapulco gold with them for rope and sails? Obviously that seems a bit of a stretch. How is it that mexican sativa became so potent? Were the spanish and/or indians selectively breeding for thc? How did the low quality hemp the spaniards introduced to mexico become such a powerful strain? There are reports of the potency of mexican cannabis way before there was any modern breeding program. Just trying to understand the way cannabis has evolved to potency without the intervention of human breeding.

 

[3dDream]

Just trying to understand the way cannabis has evolved to potency without the intervention of human breeding.

It didn't.

Here is a before and after for corn:



Man did that over time in mexico.

 

[BlueGrassToker]

Industrial hemp was bred for the traits that made it best for it's intended purposes.
If we select for some traits and neglect others, it can easily work out that those traits you are not focused on could become more and more latent over generations. A trait such as resin production would not be considered when breeding for fiber production. And as a result plants with low resin production may well be selected.

It is my belief that magic was bred OUT of cannabis, rather than bred into it.
In the US feral hemp would be the bastard result of the long lost trade of industrial cannabis production and breeding.

 

[johnnybhang]

It didn't.

Here is a before and after for corn:



Man did that over time in mexico.

So assuming all marijuana introduced to mexico would have been as hemp that the spanish brought in that was low thc. Primarily for rope and other such purposes. Assuming plants were not brought in for drug potency as the spanish were not interested in this. Is it safe to say that any mexican varieties that gained potency over the proceeding centuries did so through human breeding alone? This would assume then that we have the native mexican peoples to thank for any high potency mexican strains occuring in mexico today?

 

[Anti]

Wild Cabbage is the "natural" parent of all of these:

Broccoli

Here's a chart, detailing selection characteristics and the results.

All of these plants had the same wild ancestor. Humans bred these plants into their current configurations.

 

[DocLeaf]

Wild Cabbage is the "natural" parent of all of these:

Brocoli

Here's a chart, detailing selection characteristics and the results.

All of these plants had the same wild ancestor. Humans bred these plants into their current configurations.

Yeah man,, from 'sea kale' .. nice illustration of the facts

 

[Haps]

THC is the plant's defense mechanism, and it has been so for millinium. High thc strains developed naturally wherever they were eaten year after year, until the predator learned not to eat them, cause getting too stoned caused the ones that did to be eaten themselves, so they did not breed. The environment shapes and changes everything on the planet.

H

 

[Anti]

Now, THC acts in a different way for most cannabis plants... Plants that have higher levels of THC are still more likely to pass on their genetics...but not because it keeps their predators from eating them, but because the THC causes humans to take great care with their environment, in their growth and handling.

High THC strains live in basements and warehouses in sophisticated, sealed environments. Low THC strains are forced to fend for themselves in the wild, in dirt.

 

[CannaBunkerMan]

THC is the plant's defense mechanism, and it has been so for millinium. High thc strains developed naturally wherever they were eaten year after year, until the predator learned not to eat them, cause getting too stoned caused the ones that did to be eaten themselves, so they did not breed. The environment shapes and changes everything on the planet.

H

I've always heard that the glandular trichomes (contain THC) were produced to protect the plant's seeds from UV radiation. I don't believe which animals ate the plant drove the evolution of high THC strains. Why use a wacky chemical like THC to poison would-be-grazers, when flora already have such a wide array of animal toxins?

 

[3dDream]

Isn't cannabis one of man's oldest crops? I think man is the reason it is found anywhere.

Here is something related to the topic of man's relationship to plants. There is even a segment on weed. Here is a link to the Botany of Desire documentary: http://video.pbs.org/video/1283872815/

 

[CannaBunkerMan]

Isn't cannabis one of man's oldest crops? I think man is the reason it is found anywhere.

Here is something related to the topic of man's relationship to plants. There is even a segment on weed. Here is a link to the Botany of Desire documentary: http://video.pbs.org/video/1283872815/

That's a grreat one, I'll give that one my 5 out of 5 MJ leaf-fingers rating.

 

[Sam_Skunkman]

The first hemp introduced was probably low THC because high THC was of no importance for hemp. And high THC must be selected for to be maintained in a seed variety.
Afterwards later introductions from India, Africa and elsewhere were made to the Americas, and these included high THC varieties for consumption. Large numbers of Indian workers were imported into Jamaica and the Americas, as well as African slaves to Brazil and elsewhere, maybe just a few brought seeds?
You assume that the hemp imported by the Spanish was likely low THC, so do I, but not no THC, you also assume that that low THC hemp was changed into Acapulco gold. I presume that it is from different seeds, not hemp.
But yes all that is required is to selectively bred using only the highest in THC rejecting all others, and even hemp will change over the years, abet very slowly.
For sure Cannabis did not evolve to potency without the hand of man.
But much more likely is that they used imported drug varieties and then bred them to keep the high THC trait maintained.
-SamS

So does this mean that when the spanish introduced hemp to mexico in the 1500's they were carrying high potency acapulco gold with them for rope and sails? Obviously that seems a bit of a stretch. How is it that mexican sativa became so potent? Were the spanish and/or indians selectively breeding for thc? How did the low quality hemp the spaniards introduced to mexico become such a powerful strain? There are reports of the potency of mexican cannabis way before there was any modern breeding program. Just trying to understand the way cannabis has evolved to potency without the intervention of human breeding.

 

[Sam_Skunkman]

The problem is you assume that only "hemp" seeds were brought and only by the Spanish. But this is not correct.
Read Ernest Abel's book, Marijuana the first 12,000 years.
-SamS

So assuming all marijuana introduced to mexico would have been as hemp that the spanish brought in that was low thc. Primarily for rope and other such purposes. Assuming plants were not brought in for drug potency as the spanish were not interested in this. Is it safe to say that any mexican varieties that gained potency over the proceeding centuries did so through human breeding alone? This would assume then that we have the native mexican peoples to thank for any high potency mexican strains occuring in mexico today?

 

[Emil Muzz]

Sam, what's your opinion on the likely origin(s) of Colombian strains?

 

[Sam_Skunkman]

Sativa's from India or Africa or Asia or all three? Post 1492....

-SamS

 

[Emil Muzz]

Sam, given you've grown many Colombian strains have any made you think this is like thai, or this like south Indian or are the plant's genes to mixed up up to tell?

 

[Anti]

There's a current genetic experiment being done in Russia at the moment. It's been going on since the 1960s.

They started with wild foxes. Out of each generation they select the animals that are the most FRIENDLY toward humans and breed them together. Over the course of about 50 years, they've gone from wild foxes to foxes that have floppy ears like dogs, piebald coats like dogs, wag their tails like dogs and whimper in order to be petted. They will also jump up and lick the faces of their human masters.

What's my point? Human selection IMMEDIATELY starts making an impact on the species that is being selected. Cannabis is no different. Even before modern times, people would notice effects from a given plant and cultivate that plant to enhance those effects. This has been done for at least 4000 years with cannabis.

 

[johnnybhang]

There's a current genetic experiment being done in Russia at the moment. It's been going on since the 1960s.

They started with wild foxes. Out of each generation they select the animals that are the most FRIENDLY toward humans and breed them together. Over the course of about 50 years, they've gone from wild foxes to foxes that have floppy ears like dogs, piebald coats like dogs, wag their tails like dogs and whimper in order to be petted. They will also jump up and lick the faces of their human masters.

What's my point? Human selection IMMEDIATELY starts making an impact on the species that is being selected. Cannabis is no different. Even before modern times, people would notice effects from a given plant and cultivate that plant to enhance those effects. This has been done for at least 4000 years with cannabis.

So we know that most high thc strains have been bred by man. What about feral strains that have high thc. Is it assumed that these were once bred by man to be high thc? That they escaped cultivation, continuing on. Or have they evolved that way, particularly the lowland tropical varieties?

 

[johnnybhang]

"Around 1800, the British sent a Russian hemp expert to Jamaica to see if the plant could be profitably raised on the island, but the attempt failed and production was abandoned.[56] Nevertheless, the plants began to grow wild. When indentured laborers from India came to work in Jamaica following the emancipation of the Negro slaves in the British Caribbean in the mid-nineteenth century, they found ganja already growing there."
-quoted from "Marijuana - The First Twelve Thousand Years
Cannabis Comes to the New World".

It more likely seems that cannabis on Jamaica was naturalized from hemp. The fact that hemp failed may have something to do with the plant reverting to non hemp characteristics? Also in that book it makes the case that cannabis in Brazil was more than likely not introduced by slaves from Africa as they would have neither the space nor the inclination to keep seeds on them. This points more towards the Portuguese as the main sowers of hemp? This book seems to point towards introduction of marijuana in the New World as solely for hemp purposes.

 

[Sam_Skunkman]

That is because the use of hemp had economic importance and was part of history, while a poor slave or worker with a few seeds was not. But if they brought any seeds it would make a big change to the Cannabis being grown in the new world.

If you think feral Cannabis is high in THC where is this? Maybe if just escaped from man, but Cannabis not maintained by man is not high in THC. Lowland or highland does not matter.
In Jamaica they brought Indians from India to work on the plantations, this is a culture with a wide use of Cannabis, why do you think none brought drug Cannabis seeds?

I suggest you read all of Abel's book, it is a great read.

-SamS