cannabisnews.com: Fingerprinting Technology Could Identify Marijuana





Fingerprinting Technology Could Identify Marijuana
Posted by CN Staff on July 10, 2003 at 07:38:39 PT
By Stephen Strauss, Globe and Mail Update 
Source: Globe and Mail 
DNA fingerprinting technology might soon lay to rest any fears that Canada's newly approved medical marijuana could easily be funnelled into illegal street sales.For the past few years, law-enforcement research scientists in the United States, initially aided by their RCMP colleagues in Canada, have been developing a way to genetically fingerprint pot.
The research, discussed in today's edition of the British magazine New Scientist, has taken a plant gene identification technology originally created for patenting strains of corn and rice and expanded it to identify strains of marijuana."One of the things that we had thought would be a great application was if you keep a fingerprint file of the legal stuff and then compare it to the illegal stuff. Then you could definitely see if someone was moving it around in a way which was inappropriate," said Heather Miller Coyle, a research scientist with the Connecticut State Forensic Science Laboratory.There is no way at present for officials in this country to determine when and if medical marijuana has been sold into the illicit market, Health Canada spokeswoman Jirina Vlk said.The American research team is eager to remedy that by adding the DNA fingerprint of Canada's medical marijuana to the growing database. "We certainly would be happy to process and house the samples for our database and return the results to Canada. And if that sounds like a solicitation, it is, because it is," Ms. Coyle said in an interview.While fingerprinting pot may one day be used to track the flow of medical marijuana, there are other more immediate applications."I have already been asked about a case where a joint has been left at a murder scene, and a suspect had been found with marijuana on him. . . . With fingerprinting, you could see if they came from the same plant, and that would be pretty good evidence for even a criminal trial," said Gary Shutler of the Washington State Patrol's crime laboratory division.Mr. Shutler was formerly with the RCMP's Forensic Laboratory Service in Winnipeg where pure strains of marijuana were grown by Winnipeg police for use in officer training.He provided those varieties to the U.S. researchers, who used them to perfect the new fingerprinting technology. "But the day I left [Winnipeg], the project was shut down," Mr. Shutler said, blaming budget cuts.Another possible application for the technology might be called criminal epidemiology. Law enforcement officials should be able to determine how much U.S. pot actually comes from Canada -- in particular, British Columbia, which has an illicit marijuana industry worth between $1-billion and $6-billion. Without a lot of hard data, it has been estimated that 10 to 15 per cent of the marijuana found in the United States is so-called "B.C. bud."The new fingerprinting technology is close to being applied. Earlier this year, the scientists published a paper showing that it's possible to extract a DNA fingerprint from a tiny amount -- one-tenth of a joint's worth -- of pot."It's not in the courtrooms yet, but we are close," Ms. Coyle said. Source: Globe and Mail (Canada)Author:  Stephen Strauss, Globe and Mail Update Published: Thursday, July 10, 2003 Copyright: 2003 The Globe and Mail CompanyContact: letters globeandmail.caWebsite: http://www.globeandmail.com/Related Article:DNA Profiles Link Dope To Its Source http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16804.shtmlCannabisNews -- Cannabis Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/cannabis.shtml 
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Comment #2 posted by Petard on July 14, 2003 at 20:41:22 PT:
Call me an optimist
But I see this as the beginning of an opportunity to gene map the plant and specifically it's possibilities for genetic modification/engineering. Could give a whole new meaning to "Bermuda grass" lawns.
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Comment #1 posted by delariand on July 10, 2003 at 10:37:09 PT
What about clones?
Commercial growers keep 'mother' plants, and cut hundreds of clippings from each over their lifetimes. They grow these clippings into their final product, so it is theroetically possible for kilograms and kilograms of pot to all share the same genetic information. Of course, there's many levels of distribution between grower and dealer, all this pot is going to end up spread over quite a large are and quite a number of users. So, if somebody is murdered and the police find a joint, everybody who ever bought some of the same weed is a suspect?I don't see this as being fair, but it will probably hold up in court. Sounds to me like a good way for the police to find a "suspect" when their incompetence keeps them from finding the REAL criminal. 
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