Uncle Sam’s Lone Pot Farmer
January 15th, 2009 by Alex
Not a lot of people can claim they grow marijuana for the federal government.
Actually, only one person can.
Mahmoud A. ElSohly, 62, is a researcher for the National Institute of Drug Abuse, and oversees the only federally-approved marijuana grow operation in the United States. ElSohly grows over 100 varieties of our favorite botanical at the University of Mississippi “garden.”
The Marijuana Project started in 1968, provides marijuana to federal patients (four remaining from a program that was closed in 1992) and those select few corporations with permits from NIDA and the DEA to use marijuana.
The NY Times article is an interesting Q&A that touches on one subject we covered earlier this week – lack of government-grown strain potency.
Check out what Mahmoud had to say about genetics:
Q. SO OUT THERE IN RURAL NORTHERN CALIFORNIA, HAVE THEY BEEN IMPROVING THEIR CROPS WITH MODERN GENETICS?
A. They have been doing genetic selection for years. You can see the potency keeps going up. In the 1970s, the seized marijuana had probably 1 percent or less of the active ingredient. Now, it’s about 8 percent, on the average.
We know for a fact that THC content can reach as high as 25% on some strains, that’s not including hash, oils or crystalized trichromes. Still, this seems like a pretty cool gig, let’s hope he has some colleagues in a few years time.
