With all the strains that have been developed over the years, and all the great genetics and passionate growers involved in medicinal cannabis today, strains have actually started to be patented.
What are your thoughts on strains being patented?
What Does This Mean For the Future of Cannabis?
One can speculate that with genotyping and genetically mapping strains that, just like GMO companies have sued farmers over crops that contained their specific strain of corn they genetically modified, be it accidental pollination or intentional, and whether you dislike GMO or embrace it, these are all things that could soon be found in the MMJ community.
Imagine if someone was able to patent every cut of OG, and by law, anyone who ever bred with anything related to those genetics and sold seeds or cuts that could be traced to that phenotype or genotype through genetic mapping would then owe royalties, or be fined. These are all real possibilities that need to be explored to protect the community as a whole.
Cannabis is a gift from God and should be shared through seeds to allow patients to find the perfect phenotype of a strain that fits their medicinal preferences. The last thing this amazing plant needs is more roadblocks to keep the CBD strains like ACDC and Canna-tonic, or THCV varieties like Rainbow, from being patented by big name corporations, which could put a major wrench in evolving new cannabis varieties.
I hope that patenting strains will actually help breeders protect their hard work; and it may very well do just that, but only time will tell.
Think about it.
