cannabisnews.com: Isotopes in Marijuana Are Natures Tracking Devices





Isotopes in Marijuana Are Natures Tracking Devices
Posted by CN Staff on August 20, 2007 at 21:42:01 PT
By Hillary Rosner
Source: New York Times 
USA -- Every so often, a package of marijuana arrives in Jason B. West’s mail at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. While Dr. West may not be the only one on campus receiving deliveries of illegal drugs, he is probably the only one getting them compliments of the federal government. Dr. West’s marijuana supply is decidedly not for consumption. It is meticulously cataloged and managed, repeatedly weighed to make sure none disappears, and returned to the sender (a laboratory at the University of Mississippi) or destroyed when he is done with it.
With financing from the Office of National Drug Control Policy, Dr. West, 34, is creating a model that can identify the geographic origin of cannabis plants based on certain chemical calling cards. The agency hopes to use the research to help decide where to concentrate its resources.The research, the Marijuana Signature Project, relies on stable isotopes, which are forms of an element like nitrogen or oxygen, that have distinct atomic masses. Long employed in ecological research, stable isotopes are increasingly used for forensic purposes, including investigations into blood doping, arson and trafficking in contraband like drugs and endangered species. “Stable isotopes are a signature on plant materials and things that are derived from plants,” said Dr. West, a research assistant professor in the university’s biology department. “Using them, you can get information about where something grew and its growth environment.” Marijuana is the most pervasive illegal drug in the United States, with 10,000 metric tons consumed yearly by Americans in their college dormitories, suburban subdivisions, housing projects and Hollywood mansions. Although suppliers in Mexico and Canada, especially British Columbia, are gaining market share, most of the marijuana that is bought, sold and smoked by Americans is grown domestically. Six states — California, Hawaii, Kentucky, Oregon, Tennessee and Washington — dominate domestic marijuana production. Beyond that, relatively little is known about where the drug comes from and how it makes its way around the country compared with what is known about harder drugs like cocaine or heroin. The drug control policy office is betting on stable isotopes to identify unique markers in marijuana, distinguishing it not just by geography but also by its cultivation method — for example, indoor versus outdoor. “It’s an epidemiological and forensic public health investigation,” said David Murray, chief scientist at the agency and director of its Counterdrug Technology Assessment Center. Marijuana’s status as an illegal substance is controversial, as is the extent of its criminalization and the resources to control it.Dr. West said his involvement in the project was not tied to any particular policy judgment. “I strongly believe that part of the picture in any policy development has to be the best possible science, and in cases where my work can contribute to that, I think that’s great,” he wrote in an e-mail message. Carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen and sulfur, the base elements of nearly everything on the planet, exist in multiple forms, each with a specific atomic mass. These are called stable isotopes, as opposed to radioactive isotopes, which are unstable. Many natural processes discriminate among these isotopes, a phenomenon called fractionation. A phase change from gas to liquid, for instance, weeds out the lighter isotopes, which tend to stay behind in the gas form. When water rains from a cloud, the water molecules in the rain contain heavier oxygen and hydrogen isotopes than the water molecules that remain in the cloud. The opposite occurs during evaporation, when lighter isotopes diffuse into the atmosphere faster than their heavier counterparts. Fractionation also occurs in enzymatic processes like photosynthesis.In the marijuana project, Dr. West has found that cannabis plants grown in different regions of the country contain distinct signatures based on the isotopic composition of each region’s water.“Plants maintain the fingerprint of the climate and the environmental conditions,” said Gene Kelly, a professor of soil science at Colorado State University and an expert on stable isotopes, who is not affiliated with Dr. West’s research. “Theoretically, high-elevation pot plants should have one sort of signature, coastal California plants another.”Already, the project has hinted at some potentially surprising findings. The marijuana that makes its way to Dr. West’s lab has come primarily from drug busts. One specimen came from a medical marijuana center in San Diego that the Drug Enforcement Administration raided. While drug officials had assumed that the marijuana sold at the dispensary would have been largely locally grown, the isotope research suggested that just a small percentage was grown in the area. “There’s considerable movement from multiple sources,” said Dr. Murray, the chief scientist of the drug policy office. “And it ends up that multiple streams of marijuana were present in a single location being offered for sale.”While he cannot pinpoint a plant’s exact home turf, Dr. West said he could, with increasing accuracy, place it in within a region, called an isoscape. On a map, the regions look like undulating bands of color, with differences visible both north to south and west to east. Dr. West has created computer models based on these isotopic variations and other factors and is now trying to increase the accuracy of the models.Ratios of isotopes found in water vary from north to south largely because of temperature differences. When condensation occurs at lower temperatures, — at higher latitudes and higher elevations — lighter isotopes remain in the water. The east-west variation is mainly because of the movement of clouds that form over the oceans. As clouds move over land, each time rain falls the heavier isotopes fall to the ground while the lighter ones remain in the cloud. “The rain gets lighter and lighter as the cloud moves across the land surface,” Dr. West said.The more topographically unusual the growing area, the easier it is to identify. “If it were a sample that grew, say, in the mountains of Colorado, it would be relatively easy to give a fairly restricted source location,” Dr. West said. “Something that may have grown out in Kansas would have an isotope ratio that would be consistent with a fairly large region.”To fine-tune the models, Dr. West is examining other isotopes found in the marijuana plants. Nitrogen isotopes, for example, give clues about whether fertilizer was used and what type. And carbon isotopes can show whether the plant grew in a wet and shady or dry and sunny climate, based on how a plant’s physiology is affected by water availability. Dr. West is not limiting his stable isotope investigations to illegal substances. He is also using the isotopes to determine the origin of wine grapes, a potentially important application for the field of terroir. His research has shown that regions of the western United States impart their own isotopic markers on the grapes grown there. “There’s not much out there that you can’t run stable isotopes on,” said Jim White, a geologist at the University of Colorado who runs the stable isotope laboratory there and is not connected to the marijuana project. “If I fed you with a food that had a unique isotopic signature and then measured your breath, I could see how quickly you were metabolizing.” Dr. White said that back in graduate school, he and his friends used isotopes to find out how long it took for the water in their bodies to completely cycle through. The experiment relied on several types of beer with differing isotopic ratios.Dr. West believes that his forensic investigations will have wider applications, which may include answering questions about global climate change. “I think it has been a real two-way street between these targeted forensics questions and more general ecological questions,” Dr. West said.Dr. Kelly agreed. “This shows us that there are things we do in very basic research that have real-world applications,” he said.Meanwhile, Dr. Murray is optimistic that the Marijuana Signature Project will help the agency better understand and control the flow of the drugs.“We can’t go out and find this information because it’s an illegal activity where they shoot you in the back alley if you try to find out,” Dr. Murray said. “Today we’re making guesses. This will guide us toward a scientific basis.” Complete Title: Telltale Isotopes in Marijuana Are Nature’s Tracking Devices Source: New York Times (NY)Author: Hillary RosnerPublished: August 21, 2007Copyright: 2007 The New York Times CompanyContact: letters nytimes.comWebsite: http://www.nytimes.com/CannabisNews -- Cannabis Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/cannabis.shtml
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Comment #23 posted by Wayne on August 22, 2007 at 20:44:51 PT
AIDS and Cancer
We still haven't cured AIDS and cancer, after all this time. Why are they wasting our money on this stupid shit??Great, so you'll be able to tell where weed is grown. Whoop-de-doo... Once you find out, the growers will just change their location again. The cat and mouse game will continue, leaving life to go on as it was...We haven't cured AIDS, cancer, diabetes, we can't manufacture anything anymore, we can't harvest our own food, we can't provide decent health care or feed the poor or shelter the homeless... but damned if we can't find out where a PLANT grows!We've got so many freedoms, rights, and capabilities... why do our people have to flush them all away and be such f***ing idiots?
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Comment #22 posted by mayan on August 21, 2007 at 17:55:32 PT
Where's Herb From?
Just ask Mr. Big.The big guy in the sky, that is.
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Comment #21 posted by Hope on August 21, 2007 at 14:35:27 PT
Hey, BGreen...good to see you.
Obviously, I didn't read the entire article before making my comment about hydro and soil. The other time I heard about this it seemed they claimed to be able to tell the kind of soil it was grown in and pinpoint the area, so I was running with that. This article seems to be saying it's the water.If it's water though, I've noticed that a certain popular brand of bottled water sold in other states is bottled in Texas and the water they sell in Texas is bottled in other states. Apparently, that makes it more special. So they ship it for miles and miles.So, if you used water bottled from another area in your water stuff and created your "climate" with it, they'd think it came from where the water was bottled? It's a "theoretical" proposition, anyway. Which means they only think they can do it, maybe, might. Got to research it more, of course.Aren't isotopes what is measured when they scan people with a machine to see if they've been near drugs?Is there a big problem with winery's lying about where their grapes came from? I know it doesn't matter in cheap wine...but are they telling me they are using our tax money to develop ways that the connoisseur of expensive wine can tell if the grapes in the wine came from California and not Italy, so that the wealthy won't get cheated on their wine stock? That's outrageous in itself. If they have enough money to buy super expensive wine...they have enough money to fund the isotope detection research themselves.Seems the Dr. White has no problem with people drinking alcoholic beverages. "Dr. White said that back in graduate school, he and his friends used isotopes to find out how long it took for the water in their bodies to completely cycle through. The experiment relied on several types of beer with differing isotopic ratios." We probably funded that research, too, with tax dollars.
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Comment #20 posted by FoM on August 21, 2007 at 14:33:42 PT
BGreen
Here's the lyrics to OP.http://www.thrasherswheat.org/fot/lyrics_op.htm
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Comment #19 posted by ripit on August 21, 2007 at 14:26:18 PT:
silly asses!
not to hard to imagine how they destroy the samples? is this some of the research that the dea approves of just because so they can prove they allow cannabis research?
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Comment #18 posted by FoM on August 21, 2007 at 14:25:40 PT
BGreen
We finally have a finished guest bedroom too. Here's a link to the new CD and a little information about a tour. I love Ordinary People. It's an amazing song and that is one that will finally be released. I had a boot of it but my computer crashed and I lost it. We'd love to have you.http://www.mp3.com/news/stories/10059.html
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Comment #17 posted by BGreen on August 21, 2007 at 14:20:22 PT
That would be wonderful, FoM
I have a feeling that we'd all get along so well that we'll have to spend a week with you, and then we'll go home feeling like we didn't have enough time to really get acquainted.The Reverend Bud Green
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Comment #16 posted by FoM on August 21, 2007 at 14:10:17 PT
BGreen
When we find out when Neil is touring this fall or winter maybe you could come up and go with us. 
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Comment #15 posted by BGreen on August 21, 2007 at 13:49:19 PT
Thanks, FoM
It's obvious that everything that was said to me was a lie, which is pretty much what you'd expect from those who reject the Word of God, the God who is Truth with a capital T.I can't tell you how much more than ever that I want to meet my CNews family face to face.I know it will happen, I'd just prefer sooner than later.The Reverend Bud Green
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Comment #14 posted by FoM on August 21, 2007 at 13:41:31 PT
dongenero 
Oh that's a good one. How can they hate us like they do when we are so darn funny. LOL!
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Comment #13 posted by dongenero on August 21, 2007 at 13:37:29 PT
Great job.....
for John Walters there FoM.I would agree to using my tax dollars to send Walters around the country, personally collecting and testing sewage at all the treatment plants.
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Comment #12 posted by FoM on August 21, 2007 at 13:23:47 PT
More Strange News
Sewage Tells Tales about Community-Wide Drug Abuse***August 21, 2007Public health officials may soon be able to flush out more accurate estimates on illegal drug use in communities across the country thanks to a new screening test. The test doesn’t screen people directly but instead seeks out evidence of illicit drug abuse in drug residues and metabolites excreted in urine and flushed toward municipal sewage treatment plants. It will be described in August during the national meeting of the American Chemical Society in Boston. Complete Press Release: http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/532436/
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Comment #11 posted by FoM on August 21, 2007 at 13:19:46 PT
BGreen
It's good to see you.
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Comment #10 posted by BGreen on August 21, 2007 at 13:01:35 PT
Cannabis growers love to talk
That's why the jack-booted nazi drug warriors are able to catch so many of the growers that can't keep their mouths shut.I've said it many times and I'll say it again ... take the threat of prison out of the equation and you'll never get cannabis growers to shut up. You'll hear so much about every detail of a loving growers experience with this miraculous plant that you'll understand the cannabis plant better than any other plant that exists upon this earth.The Reverend Bud Green
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Comment #9 posted by dongenero on August 21, 2007 at 12:45:51 PT
well trained
The doctor has been well trained to fear that which he knows nothing about. No need to give it any critical thought, the government has trained you in what to believe.Our government has us well trained to fear all the bogey men that we need Big Gov to protect us from. Terrorists, cannabis, communism, foreigners, hippies, drug dealers, minorities.One thing that they don't teach us to fear but, for which we could all use a bit of self teaching.....fear of Government abuse of power.
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Comment #8 posted by BGreen on August 21, 2007 at 12:44:30 PT
Doctors?
When I studied journalism, we were taught to only refer to people as Dr. if they were doctors in the medical profession, and NOT if they just had a PhD.There is more use of Dr. in this article than in a medical journal, and not a single one of them provides comfort and care for the sick.I also realized that the so-called "doctor" I referred to in my previous post is not the "researcher" but the head liar in charge of subverting science and the truth for the ondcp.The Reverend Bud Green
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Comment #7 posted by BGreen on August 21, 2007 at 12:35:53 PT
What a blithering lying idiot!
“We can’t go out and find this information because it’s an illegal activity where they shoot you in the back alley if you try to find out,” Dr. Murray said.I guarantee you that the only people being shot are the growers themselves, murdered by the cowards that pay your salary and provide you with cannabis obtained from growers and partakers by terroristic force.If cannabis was relegalized and undemonized you would have a voluntary submission for testing of more cannabis than you've ever imagined.The Reverend Bud Green
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Comment #6 posted by Sam Adams on August 21, 2007 at 11:46:30 PT
black is white
Growers are charged with "manufacturing" cannabis in their hydroponic "labs". By that standard, Dr. West is using his lab to manufacture bullshit.Isn't it crazy. The growers are working hard to provide an eagerly-sought product, a process that creates value and capital for society through transactions that benefit the buyer and seller. The way that wealth is actually created in a capitalist society. And the police are trying to shut them down.Dr. West produces nothing that could possibly be conceived as adding value to the society. At the end of his day, there is no one in the free market willing to pay any money, or exchange wealth, for his output. But the government pays him, probably a hundred thousand a year. With money that they stole out of our net productivity.
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Comment #5 posted by Hope on August 21, 2007 at 09:36:51 PT
Hydro
They can't find where that soil is.Whose to say you can't haul some Colorado soil to New Mexico to grow in.It really is an outrageous waste of science and money. Outrageous.We have to stop these prohibitionist freaks. They're robbing people blind and being egregious wastrels with their booty, at that.They've got to be de "resourced" as quickly as possible. People should be raising hell at this sort of idiotic showboating and wastefulness. 
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Comment #4 posted by dongenero on August 21, 2007 at 07:28:29 PT
your tax dollars at work...................
By God, we've proved we can land on the moon, explore space.....now, we're going to figure out where your marijuana is grown.Maybe one of these days we'll work on cancer, poverty, health care. We have to cover the important stuff first though.It strikes me that all of this could be skewed with indoor growers using imported organic supplements and soil amendments. In the end, you just come back to it being a waste of time and money.....as far as cannabis is concerned.
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Comment #3 posted by FoM on August 21, 2007 at 06:41:55 PT
Just a Comment
I really don't understand why this is important. It seems like a big waste of money. Maybe if they just legalized cannabis people could put a label on it like Grown in the USA or Grown in Mexico. This just doesn't make any sense to me. I'm kidding about labels but with the laws on cannabis getting slowly better what's their point?
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Comment #2 posted by Hope on August 21, 2007 at 05:55:45 PT
"Resources"?
I resent that they bleed us for their "resources" for crap like this, then use it to "channel" more of those amazingly abundant "resources" so that they can imprison more of our non-violent citizens to keep the prison and prohibition business fat and happy. We're probably paying for research somewhere to study genetic testing to forecast who will use cannabis, and be imprisoned so as to forecast futures for investing in the growing prison industry and of course, foresee the probability and plan for the "channeling" of future increases in "resources" to be "provided" by fines and confiscation of property.Talk about "white washed sepulchers"! How long must we endure this kind of "governing"?
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Comment #1 posted by Hope on August 21, 2007 at 05:30:42 PT
Ahh...money, money, money for prohibition...
With financing from the Office of National Drug Control Policy, Dr. West, 34, is creating a model that can identify the geographic origin of cannabis plants based on certain chemical calling cards. The agency hopes to use the research to help decide where to concentrate its resources.
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