The first article is pure speculation by loudmouths with degrees, and effectively worthless. None of the last three provide a scintilla of evidence that any strain of drug cannabis has been genetically modified, and in fact, reading between the lines, it surely appears to me that the "modified" cannabis they're talking about is just an ordinary modern high-potency drug strain, imported into a backwoods area where the locals were used to growing seeded schwagg.
For example, "OG kush" (which is hardly new, and certainly NOT genetically modified in any normal sense of the term) can easily clock in at 18%+ THC. No genetic modification is necessary to get to that level of THC content, and there are probably centuries old Afghani landrace strains that are potentially that potent. As a matter of fact, I think a good Columbian Gold/Santa Marta cut can probably get close to that, making me wonder exactly why it is that these Columbians have never seen super potent pot before.
Maybe its because the "war on drugs" made the Columbians switch from growing cannabis to cocaine in the early 1980s.
One major red flag here is that any story that claims that cannabis today is fifty gazillion times more potent than anything from 20-30 years ago is not only false, but deliberately alarmist. We've been hearing these "pot is stronger than anything before" since the early 1980s, maybe longer. That's what the cannabis prohibitionists ALWAYS say when they want to demonize cannabis. "No, you don't understand, the cannabis today is totally different than the giggle-weed you know from experience is totally harmless".
The fact is that any good grade of hashish is going to be FAR more potent than ANY buds (even the most powerful modern "super" strains), and that hash has been around for literally thousands of years. Hash OIL (at greater than 90% pure refined cannabinoid content) has been around for at least 50-60 years, and it was most certainly available in the 1970s.
So in fact, its demonstrably FALSE that cannabis is stronger today than anything before, and also false that genetic modification is necessary (or even desirable) to create super potent product.
Now... Technically GMO means the DNA has been spliced (modified) for some particular purpose.
No, that's
NOT what it means.
Splicing DNA is NOT synonymous with modification.
Also, strictly speaking, splicing isn't necessary to create a genetically modified organism (though in practice it almost always is).
The strict definition of a GMO is an organism that contains a novel DNA sequence introduced via modern biotechnology technique.
Any plant created by old fashioned crossing and breeding of pre-existing ones BY DEFINITION is excluded from the definition of GMO.
Otherwise, EVERY fruit and vegetable on EVERY shelf in EVERY supermarket, and EVERY plant growing in your garden are all "genetically modified", because **NONE** of them are wild cultivars, and *ALL* of them have been selectively bred over centuries by people into modern garden/farm strains.
It may be a toss up to whether or not they're referring to marijuana that has been bread to be potent OR if they are actually referring to transgenically modified marijuana.
Either these growers ARE growing GMO cannabis, or they are NOT growing GMO cannabis, right?
This is not a "toss up", you simply don't know which is correct.
Again, barring actual evidence to the contrary, it seems plain to me that the "GMO" strain referred to in those junk articles is just conventional high potency modern drug cannabis. There is no need to genetically modify ANYTHING to get to 18% THC, and its even possible to get quite a bit higher than that.
Lets put the "common sense" hat on for a second.
If GMO cannabis actually existed, and is more potent than anything else around, why does it only exist in some backwoods part of Columbia? How come its not sold in Dutch coffeehouses, or in the USA (where drug cannabis is legal in various states). Why aren't ceeds of it sold on "Attitude Ceedbank"?
Answer: There is no "GMO" cannabis, only alarmist stories by authors who don't understand what's really going on, or who don't care.
