Rediscovering Cannabis: The Pan-Cannabis Genome Project

It may have taken scientists 13 years to sequence the human genome’s 30,000-40,000 genes, but times have changed, and so has the target. Having been ignored by the scientific-medical establishment for decades, cannabis has begun to garner the attention of serious scientists. Whether this is due to a changing regulatory climate, positive results from early clinical trials, or simply a desire to untangle cannabis’s mythology, scientists have rediscovered cannabis.

Are researchers’ findings bearing out what medicinal cannabis patients and recreational enthusiasts have been claiming all along? Despite the remaining roadblocks to access still preventing unfettered medical research in most states, there has been one cannabis-based therapeutic approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for treatment-refractory seizure disorders. The approved therapy is a highly purified form of cannabidiol, one of the nonpsychoactive compounds found in cannabis.

While a single CBD-based therapy’s approval is far from a landslide of acceptance, every piece of evidence that supports the legitimate medical use of cannabis and its components helps to open the doors to a more unbiased and scientific discourse about cannabis and its derivates.

To fully understand the potential within, researchers at Medicinal Genomics Corporation sequenced the genome of the Jamaican Lion cultivar and uncovered a series of genetic signatures that determine what compounds a plant will produce and in what quantity. The story goes even deeper, so continue reading at the Medicinal Genomics site.
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