The results call into question the legitimacy of government-led research
In a few words, federal cannabis is terrible. This was the conclusion reached by researchers at the University of Northern Colorado (UNC), who decided to test the federally-provided cannabis and walked away scratching their heads.
There is still only one facility in the U.S. that is authorized to cultivate cannabis for federal research programs, even though authorization has already been given for expanded efforts. That facility is the University of Mississippi, which has a history of producing cannabis that is inferior on all levels.
The UNC researchers determined that the research-grade cannabis was more genetically similar to hemp than it was to cannabis that is found through legal retail chains across the country. They explained, “Most federally funded research where participants consume cannabis for medicinal purposes relies on (National Institute on Drug Abuse) NIDA-supplied product. Previous research found that cannabinoid levels in research-grade marijuana supplied by NIDA did not align with commercially available Cannabis from Colorado, Washington and California.”
As a result of the researchers’ efforts, they determined that the legitimacy of federally-led research programs cannot be trusted. Hemp and cannabis are two completely separate plants that share common traits, but which differ greatly in the amount of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) contained.
The researchers added, “NIDA research-grade marijuana was found to genetically group with hemp samples along with a small subset of commercial drug-type cannabis. A majority of commercially available drug-type cannabis was genetically very distinct from NIDA samples. These results suggest that subjects consuming NIDA research-grade marijuana may experience different effects than average consumers.”