Massachusetts Company Sequences Marijuana Genome

[old Grump]

By IBTimes - Friday, August 19 2011


A small Massachusetts company announced it has successfully sequenced the genome of a marijuana plant, a move that may bring scientists one step closer to understanding the therapeutic benefits of cannabis, including its potential to treat cancer and inflammatory diseases.


Medicinal Genomics published the raw sequence strings on Amazon.com's EC2 cloud computing system. The findings, which have not yet undergone peer review, found that the DNA sequence of the plant has 84 other compounds that could fight pain or possibly shrink tumors.


Kevin McKernan, the founder and chief executive officer of Medicinal Genomics, told NPR that he has spent most of his career studying tumors, and became interested in marijuana's healing properties after several friends with cancer asked him about its medicinal benefits. After hearing about a drug called Sativex, a cannabis-derived medication developed by a German pharmaceutical company that treats muscle stiffness, McKernan became more committed to investigating emerging medical research on the plant.


Sativex contains tetrahydrocannabinol, commonly known as THC, and another cannabinoid called CBD, which reportedly negates some of the psychoactive effects of THC. The drug is now available in the United Kingdom, Spain and Germany and is currently in trials to see if it can successfully treat cancer pain.


- Article Originally from International Business Times.

http://www.cannabisculture.com/v2/co...rijuana-Genome

One more reason for the FDA and DEA and congress to get out of the way and allow researchers free rein. How many people will suffer, or die prolonged deaths when the answer to their treatment might be in front of them. Instead we keep up the war on drugs which continues to feed the cartels around the world filling the dopers needs and prohibiting useful products from the plant that much of the rest of the world take for granted. Clothing to paper to cooking oil to pain medication and if we weren't so bone headed it could be grown legally by farmers on scratch ground not much good for anything else.

[LAGC]

Amen, grump. We need to just legalize the damn shit already, it has far more positive uses than negatives. Of course some people will still abuse it, but we could more effectively treat addiction and seriously reduce crime by just making it legal (destroying the black market), regulating it (making it safe), and taxing it (which would be a great revenue boon, while at the same time we could save a bunch of money by vastly reducing funding of the DEA.)

[stinker]

So does this mean doobies will permanently be on sale two for the price of one when they perfect cloning?

[FunkyPertwee]

One more reason for the FDA and DEA and congress to get out of the way and allow researchers free rein. How many people will suffer, or die prolonged deaths when the answer to their treatment might be in front of them. Instead we keep up the war on drugs which continues to feed the cartels around the world filling the dopers needs and prohibiting useful products from the plant that much of the rest of the world take for granted. Clothing to paper to cooking oil to pain medication and if we weren't so bone headed it could be grown legally by farmers on scratch ground not much good for anything else.

I completely agree.

Banning marijuana makes as much sense as banning coffee.

[old Grump]

Henry Ford's first motorcar used plant-based fibers in the body and an early picture of a hammer-wielding Mr. Ford showed the world how strong plant fibers were in reinforcing manmade materials. Ford's work was stymied by the 1937 "Marijuana" Tax Act.



Henry Ford swings hammer at hemp-composite trunk lid on Ford car

http://www.hemphasis.net/Building/plasticmettle.htm

Not exactly a new idea.