Hello my fellow Hemp nuts! Are you ready for the cannabis bonanza?! With Greer Barnes out of studio and performing in Las Vegas this week, the show is anchored by Unapologetic Farmer Randy Cameron, Jr, Jan Roberts, LCSW,DSW, and Jahan Marcu, Ph.D. 


Word of the day: Virapattra Sanskrit word meaning leaf of heroes


High Science Topic: 

The science behind patents: Who Owns Cannabis Genetics? 

Article: https://bigbudsmag.com/what-happens-if-corporations-patent-cannabis-genetics/

Summary/high notes:

It wasn’t until 1981 that the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) began to issue patents for natural plan. General Electric (GE), developed bacteria that was capable of breaking down crude oil, and so GE and Chakrabarty sought a patent. Today, the USPTO’s guidelines on patenting living things are even broader, allowing anyone who “invents or discovers and asexually reproduces any distinct and new variety of plant … may obtain a patent therefor.” Patents are expensive, but valuable. It works like this: First, an inventor files an application, in which they must provide details on four sets of criteria:

1. Whether or not the invention can be patented under law

2. Proof that the invention is truly new

3. The invention is useful

4. The invention is non-obvious


Cannabis is in danger of going the way the rest of agriculture has gone: toward monoculture, centralization, and restrictive patenting. The Open Cannabis Project (OCP) was established by industry leaders to resist these forces and to protect genetic diversity of the Cannabis plant as well as the economic diversity of the cannabis industry. “Without documentation, how can any of these farmers prove they had things before they were patented? We have yet to see how this will play out,” Schechter says.


The effects of these patents on the cannabis industry still remain to be seen. How can you enforce federal patents on something federally illegal? 


Links to other articles discussed:


Cannabots: Are the robots coming for your weed?

https://www.cannalawblog.com/cannabots-are-the-robots-coming-for-your-weed/


Cannabis delivery company (Eaze's) website crashed on 4/20

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-04-20/marijuana-delivery-app-crashes-on-pot-industry-s-black-friday


Ben & Jerry's is making sure weed legalization doesn't leave POC behind

https://mjtodaymedia.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=0543f0e8e0f2124691d18ca68&id=ba65d26511&e=87a9448f47


Keen, L., Abbate, A., Blanden, G., Priddie, C., Moeller, F. G., & Rathore, M. (2019). Confirmed marijuana use and lymphocyte count in black people living with HIV. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 198, 112–115. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2018.11.018


'Cannabis Is A World Of Mystery,' Says A Nobel Prize Winner Working In Weed(with weed company in Israel -- Aaron Ciechanover

https://www.forbes.com/sites/javierhasse/2019/04/22/cannabis-is-a-world-of-mystery-says-a-nobel-prize-winner-working-in-weed/#618d889a5837


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