Science Is Pursuing the Future of Marijuana: Consistent Highs

It’s hard to have a consistent high with dry marijuana flower. Even though a strain is the same, it may vary in cannabinoid content from cultivator-to-cultivator and batch-to-batch. For this reason, some marijuana users are looking more to concentrates for consistency.

Front Range Biosciences is one of a few cultivators that want to obtain a patent to be able to grow consistent marijuana plants harvest after harvest to provide the reliability users want, according to NBC News.  Some scientists, like those working at Phylos Bioscience in Oregon, want to be able to research and sequence the DNA of marijuana strains which could help to create consistency in dry flower.

“Folks are using it in new forms, low-dose, edibles, tinctures, capsules, and what they care about is the effect,” said Jon Vaught of Front Range Biosciences.  “But there are consumers who want to consume cannabis the way they have for years. They like the things they know.”

The ideal way for consumers to have a consistent high is to know what cannabinoid profiles work best for their bodies. Being able to research menus and strain information will provide users the ability to find strains that possess the cannabinoid profiles that their bodies need.

Mowgli Holmes of Phylos Bioscience said, “We’re using genetic information to help people do plant breeding and develop new varieties. No one ever knows what they’re getting, and it’s a huge problem. It’s making it so the industry doesn’t work very well. Often it’s way too strong. It’s Russian roulette. New customers get burned and don’t come back.”

Greg Zuckert and his team at Harvest Health & Recreation use special software to analyze tissue cultures to view the genetics of marijuana strains. This helps the cultivation facility to produce plants with consistent and expected effects.

“There’s not any true indica or true sativa anymore,” said Zuckert. “Everything is a hybrid. Forty years of breeding without any provenance being recorded and that’s the reality.”

The process of producing plants that are consistent is a process. It involves the identification of specific cultivars and reproducing them. A “genetic recipe” would have to be drawn up that shows what the exact cannabinoid and terpene profiles of each strain are.

“I’m working on genetic markers and looking at taking DNA from different species, trying to create genetics to fit neurochemical profiles to treat different ailments,” Zuckert mentioned.

In the near future, marijuana users will be able to walk into a dispensary anywhere in the world and buy a specific marijuana strain that will always produce the same effects, much like beer and wine.