Know Your Herbs

Month: November 2020

Remembering Franco Loja and his lasting influence on modern cannabis

Herbs

If you’re a fan of — or have even heard about — famous cannabis strains like White Widow, Super Silver Haze, or Himalayan Gold, you have been privy to the work of renowned international cannabis seed bank and genetics creator, Green House Seed Company.

The influence of Green House Seed Company on cannabis breeding and access to quality flower shouldn’t be underestimated. Green House is widely considered one of the most successful cannabis businesses in the world. Based in Amsterdam — arguably the center of the cannabis universe — Green House claims a massive haul of cannabis cups, Greenhouse Coffee shops, a seed bank filled with exceptional genetics, world famous strains, and a bold vision to normalize cannabis for patients and casual consumers alike.

Strains from the firm have won 40 High Times Cannabis Cups, 17 Highlife Cups, and many others across the globe. Founded in 1985 by Arjan Roksam and Green House’s master cultivator and head breeder, Franco Loja, their search for rare and endangered cannabis seeds was chronicled in the series Strain Hunters, a Roksam-produced work that was picked up by Vice on HBO. 

But this search for the rare and unique also took the life of Loja, who died in 2017 at the much-too-young-age of 42. 

Why landrace strains were important to Loja

Roksam and Loja scoured the world for rare landrace cannabis, extremely unique plant finds in an industry teeming with hybridized strains. Landrace strains are prized in the current landscape because they are frequently used to inspire and crossbreed new strains. They’re the bread and butter of legal cannabis.

For example, landrace strains like Afghani and Thai are cultivars that have never been crossbred by humans with another plant. A defining characteristic of landrace cannabis is that it is unique to its particular geographic origin, and is adaptive to the land and environment where it grows. 

Over generations, these landrace cannabis plants become hyper-adapted to their environment, and create genes that protect its ability to survive and reproduce in its particular place. In turn, their genes create site-specific responses to drought, pests, ultraviolet light, and many other factors, they also play a key role in cannabinoid and terpene production. Even if pure Afghani, whose name indicates that it was found in the fields of Afghanistan, were grown in California, it would no longer be landrace since it was grown in a different environment. 

Loja’s passion for life and dedication to quality cannabis genetics

Loja, better known as Franco the Strain Hunter, is a cannabis industry legend who is  remembered fondly years after his passing for his enthusiasm, dedication, and energy. Renowned for more than a cannabis science and cultivation expert, he took cannabis knowledge and breeding to the next level. Loja was well-known for his humanitarian work advocating for the  protection of people across the globe from disease, starvation, and unjust treatment.

Green House Seed Company’s permanent tribute to Loja states, “Franco’s high-risk, fast-paced, full gas career was only just taking off. He had invested all of his time, money, and passion into building up a future for himself and his children, while helping people in places like DR Congo. His children were everything to him, and he was an amazing father.”

Just prior to his unexpected passing, Loja had been traveling with Roksam in the Democratic Republic of Congo, researching how the non-intoxicating cannabinoid CBD could treat those with cerebral malaria, a preventable disease that takes the lives of more than 405,000 people per year, mostly African children.

A 2015 mouse study published in Neuroscience investigated how CBD can impact cerebral malaria. Research showed that five days after being infected with malaria, the mice who received CBD instead of a common malaria medicine had no memory dysfunction, an increase in neuroprotectants, and a decrease of inflammation in the hippocampus and the prefrontal cortex when compared to the group that received the pharmaceutical. The CBD-treated group also lived longer than the other cohort.

It’s impossible to know if this study inspired his trip to the Congo, but Loja’s death was caused by the disease he was working so hard to cure. He passed after a short and severe case of cerebral malaria, leaving behind a deep and revered legacy of cannabis horticulture knowledge and cultural influence. 

Prior to his passing, it was abundantly evident that Italian-born Loja was passionate about the beauty of the cannabis plant and its endless medicinal possibilities. 

“Cannabis is my passion, my bread, my home,” he said on an episode of Strain Hunters. “I feel it is my duty to make sure this amazing plant is preserved and enjoyed. I am a smoker, a grower, a breeder, and a strain hunter.”

Featured image by Gina Coleman/Weedmaps

The post Remembering Franco Loja and his lasting influence on modern cannabis appeared first on Weedmaps News.

Source: wm

Mexican Senate passes bill to legalize marijuana nationwide

Herbs

Mexico’s Senate approved a bill to legalize marijuana nationally last Thursday.

Before it can become law it must also be passed by the other body of the country’s Congress, the Chamber of Deputies.

The legislation, which was circulated in draft form earlier this month, would establish a regulated cannabis market in Mexico, allowing adults 18 and older to purchase and possess up to 28 grams of marijuana and cultivate up to six plants for personal use.

Several changes included in a last-minute amendment added on the Senate floor are technical in nature. However, there were a number of notable revisions, such as an increase from the initial limit of four self-cultivated plants per person and to make it so people who grow cannabis for personal use will not be subject to a requirement to have regulators track plants.

An additional change mandates that the government clear criminal records of people with past cannabis convictions within six months.

Lawmakers also removed a prohibition on owning more than one type of marijuana license, allowing for vertical integration of cannabis businesses. A previous version of the bill would have only allowed people from vulnerable communities to hold more than one license type.

Another modification that advocates are not happy with says that nonprofit associations of consumers that collectively cultivate cannabis must be located at least 500 meters from schools, sports and recreation centers and anywhere that third parties who have not given their consent could be exposed to smoke.

The Senate vote was 82 to 18, with seven abstentions.

The legislation cleared a joint group of Senate committees on Thursday, with some amendments being made after members informally considered and debated the proposal during a virtual hearing last week.

Members of the Senate’s Justice, Health, and Legislative Studies Committees had approved a prior version of legal cannabis legislation in March, but the coronavirus pandemic delayed consideration of the issue.

While advocates have celebrated the advancement of cannabis reform through the legislature, they have fought hard for changes to better protect consumers’ rights and promote social equity in the legal market. Namely, they remain concerned about high penalties that can be imposed for violating the cannabis rules and feel the bill should do more to allow opportunities for small farmers.

Many of their requested changes did not make it into the version approved by the Senate, and it’s not clear if the Chamber of Deputies will act to change the legislation.

That said, Ricardo Monreal, the ruling MORENA party’s coordinator in the Senate, argued last week that the proposal is a significant improvement on current laws against possession, which have “only caused the detention centers to be full of people for possession of a few grams of cannabis, which is why they seek to reduce the penalties in carrying of this product.”

In a column published on the senator’s website on Sunday, he said the “intensity, duration and complexity of the discussion reflects the desire to achieve the pacification of a country that for years has been a victim of violence caused by drug trafficking, as well as the will to respect the right to free development of the personality, at the same time that favorable conditions are generated to expand national economic development,” according to a translation.

Lawmakers have “the historic opportunity to regulate the use of cannabis within the Mexican regulatory framework, to allow better control of the health of users, the emancipation of organized crime activities and the use of its wide benefits for society,” he said, adding “this is a momentous moment in the public life of the country.”

Senators have been working on the reform legislation for two years since the nation’s Supreme Court ruled in late 2018 that the prohibition on possessing and growing cannabis is unconstitutional. The court ordered Congress to amend the law accordingly, but the legislature has struggled to reach consensus on the issue and has been granted several deadline extensions to enact the policy change.

The current deadline to legalize marijuana is December 15.

Senate President Eduardo Ramírez said last week that there is a “consensus” to achieve the reform by the court-mandated date.

The legislation makes some attempts to mitigate the influence of large marijuana corporations. For example, it states that for the first five years after implementation, at least 40 percent of cannabis business licenses must be granted to those from indigenous, low-income or historically marginalized communities.

The Mexican Institute of Cannabis would be responsible for regulating the market and issuing licenses.

Public consumption of marijuana would be allowed, except in places where tobacco use is prohibited or at mass gatherings where people under 18 could be exposed.

Households where more than one adult lives would be limited to cultivating a maximum of eight plants. The legislation also says people “should not” consume cannabis in homes where there are underaged individuals. Possession of more than 28 grams but fewer than 200 grams would be considered an infraction punishable by a fine but no jail time.

Monreal originally said the chamber would vote on the legalization bill by the end of October, that timeline did not work out.

In his latest column, he remarked that the delay enabled the legislature to take into consideration marijuana reforms “in Uruguay, Canada and the United States,” which “serve as examples of the probable consequences that must be foresee and solve in the Mexican case, while observing the benefits that the regulated use of this plant and its derivatives has generated in those nations.”

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said in August that marijuana reform legislation will advance in the session that began in September.

Sen. Julio Ramón Menchaca Salazar, also of the MORENA party, said in April that legalizing cannabis could fill treasury coffers at a time when the economy is recovering from the pandemic.

As lawmakers work to advance the reform legislation, there’s been a more lighthearted push to focus attention on the issue by certain members and activists. That push has mostly involved planting and gifting marijuana.

In September, a top administration official was gifted a cannabis plant by senator on the Senate floor, and she said she’d be making it a part of her personal garden.

A different lawmaker gave the same official, Interior Ministry Secretary Olga Sánchez Cordero, a marijuana joint on the floor of the Chamber of Deputies last year.

Cannabis made another appearance in the legislature in August, when Sen. Jesusa Rodríguez of the MORENA party decorated her desk with a marijuana plant.

Drug policy reform advocates have also been cultivating hundreds of marijuana plants in front of the Senate, putting pressure on legislators to make good on their pledge to advance legalization.

See a summary of amendments made the Mexican marijuana legalization bill on the Senate floor below:

Mexican Senate Marijuana Legalization Amendments by Marijuana Moment on Scribd

Featured image by Gina Coleman/Weedmaps

This article has been republished from Marijuana Moment under a content-sharing agreement. Read the original article here.

The post Mexican Senate passes bill to legalize marijuana nationwide appeared first on Weedmaps News.

Source: wm