Sunday Discussions - Is the commercialisation of the cannabis industry a good thing?

[seymore_budz]

"Is the commercialisation of the cannabis industry a good thing?" ........... NO it's not as it bringing way to much bullshit with it

See, I think it could bring some benefits if implemented correctly but we got more chance of recreational cannabis being leagalised this year

Look at what has already been done with genetics etc using traditional methods. I'd love to see the day when I can buy a pack of seeds and I can guarantee that not only the THC, CBD and terpenes levels will be exactly as described I can also expect minimal phenotypical expressions.

Far too many variables in mediums nutes and growing experience for that to ever happen, perhaps locking down phenotypes but surely a loss of diversity intentional or not is a bad thing. Any further than a decent worked line will be problematic in the long run; lost expressions etc.

As for commercialisation: it's like taxi drivers, used to be a well paid job now there's so many got into it that they're all struggling.

Of course there would be differences between numbers if the growing conditions wasn't optimal or you could argue edge cases like light spectrum or amino acids etc but we could get things a lot closer than they are.

Currently commercial growers use clones as far as I'm aware but seed is the preferred way to preserve genetics. I would say the end goal is for a seed supplier to be able to guarantee a less than 5% deviation between phenotypes per batch of seeds. Then a commercial grower could just buy a large batch of seeds and save a shit load of money. Also seed is a much more stable product than clones.

My guess is there will be a fork where pharmaceutical companies will create their own seed from what's currently available, stabilise the desirable traits, give it a weird identifier rather than a name and patent it so you can't make your own seeds. I was watching some tube where this pharmaceutical company were researching polyploidy plants to produce seeds with both male and female plants but the male pollen is infertile. This was so they could produce seeds without the worry of males pollinating the females yet they don't need to use things like STS to force flowering.

[seymore_budz]

[Cave Hill Cole]

I've been thinking about this question for a little while now. Obviously as previously stated, the impact/effect of any change will come spectrum of positive & negative & everything in-between.

What we can say with certainty is the plant is a fountain for a range of extremely positive attributes, from saving lives, making life bearable, to making people smile at the end of the day. However, due to prohibition and legislation these were all held back. Now that the preverbal cat is out of the bag so to speak, there is no way to keep industry away from it...zero. It speaks to the power of the plant itself, which we all know too well. All of us live in mixed capitalist countries, where "money talks and bullshit walks". Cannabis offers too much potential for profit. Like cheese to rats they will come.

For the plant its good, with commercialisation comes popularity. Cannabis is being grown more than ever before. And yes there is talk of the gene pool being polluted, which sure it has. But overall, there are more people growing and searching for the unique than ever before it seems. For both preservation and finical reason. Those cultivars are being held and out crossed. Old lore strains are being searched for and re-created. The very nature of the cannabis industry is that it lives off hype, so it needs new things annually. This forces continual progression. Which inevitably means exploration of the gene pool, or at least one would think so. The plant wins.

Today it seems easier and cheaper to buy grow gear than it once was. Yes power bills suck, there is no way around that unless you sun-grow or green house. But there is so much publication of cannabis growing and growing techniques now than ever before. The first time I saw growing tips was in the anarchist cook book (on a floppy disk). Now you have thousands of video hours at your disposal. Also, while I am personally a coco salts grower, cannabis seems to have kicked off this crazy organic not till soil revolution going on. Organic is hype and what all the cool kids do now. So people have the tools to grow amazing cannabis better than ever before...again the plant wins.

Yeah this talk of legalisation with reduced plant numbers and shitty mid level dispensary weed is real. But honestly going to stop anyone here from perpetually growing out the absolute white hot fire at home in your garage or closet...absolutely not. If you care about having quality weed, you'll pay the power bill, I reckon it will still be cheaper than buying it from a legal vendor.

Humans and cannabis have had a connection for thousands of years. 6000 years ago cannabis was used by the higher end of cultures. Shamans, Alchemist, Scholars & Priests held cannabis as a magical plant granting humans special insights and powers. Shiva gave cannabis to humans as one of the five sacred plants. Scythian horse lords worshipped using cannabis. The frankincense apparently given to baby Jesus was hashish based and a very valuable sacred gift. Nothing has changed in that regard, its just now, more people than ever can enjoy it.

Don't get it twisted, that sly plant we love so much has us all wrapped around one of her serrated little leafed fingers....and I for one, am happy to be here.