just stumbled on this, an interview with hemp legend Robert Connell Clarke from Kiwi NORML magazine
QUOTE
You've done a bit of research on the origins of cannabis. Is the difference between indica and sativa as simple as thin and fat leaves?
RCC - There is some new genetic based work by Karl Hillig at Indiana University, trying to work out the taxonomy of Cannabis. The main thing, is that all that Cannabis Sativa really should represent, is the narrow leaf hemp varieties from Western Europe which spread to a few other places like Chile and possibly New Mexico, and everything else should be called Cannabis Indica. I’m now using this new system - until some taxonomist changes it again!
What changed the system?
RCC - Looking at the direct gene products of cannabis. The gene technology as well as looking at cannabinoid data, THC, terpene data and other plants.
So are we smoking any Sativa at all these days?
RCC - Actually we don’t smoke sativas, it is all indicas. All the rest of the world’s hemp, drug, medical, seed and other varieties should most likely be called the indica variety. There are four different subgroups of indica that are now recognised. Cannabis Indica Biotype Afghanica is what we call Indica now. Cannabis Indica Biotype Chinensis is broad-leafed hemp from China, Japan & Korea. Cannabis Indica Spontania is from North India, Nepali, Burma. These were called the drug sativas but are now better called Cannabis Indica Indica. Cannabis Indica Caferus Anacus may represent the wild “feral” types that the other domesticated subgroups came from.
To make it easier we should just go back to what they look like. Let’s forget about where they come from. We should call what we think of as hemp from Europe, as Narrow leafed hemp. The other hemp is Chinese, Korean, Japanese and Northern Vietnam. These are broad-leafed hemp. They are not as low in THC or as high in CBD (cannabidiol) as the European ones but they are not drugs. And then you have the two drug cannabis gene pools which would be narrow leafed drug high THC varieties - Indian , Nepali, Thai, Indonesian, African, Mexican and Columbian, with narrow leafs and high THC . Afghan varieties which are now called Indica, erroneously, should be called Broad leafed drug varieties . Now of course we have hybrids of narrow and brood leafed but no hybrids of Sativa, the narrow leafed hemp. So actually the only true Indica-Sativa hybrids are hemp, and what people smoke are all Indicas.
RCC - There is some new genetic based work by Karl Hillig at Indiana University, trying to work out the taxonomy of Cannabis. The main thing, is that all that Cannabis Sativa really should represent, is the narrow leaf hemp varieties from Western Europe which spread to a few other places like Chile and possibly New Mexico, and everything else should be called Cannabis Indica. I’m now using this new system - until some taxonomist changes it again!
What changed the system?
RCC - Looking at the direct gene products of cannabis. The gene technology as well as looking at cannabinoid data, THC, terpene data and other plants.
So are we smoking any Sativa at all these days?
RCC - Actually we don’t smoke sativas, it is all indicas. All the rest of the world’s hemp, drug, medical, seed and other varieties should most likely be called the indica variety. There are four different subgroups of indica that are now recognised. Cannabis Indica Biotype Afghanica is what we call Indica now. Cannabis Indica Biotype Chinensis is broad-leafed hemp from China, Japan & Korea. Cannabis Indica Spontania is from North India, Nepali, Burma. These were called the drug sativas but are now better called Cannabis Indica Indica. Cannabis Indica Caferus Anacus may represent the wild “feral” types that the other domesticated subgroups came from.
To make it easier we should just go back to what they look like. Let’s forget about where they come from. We should call what we think of as hemp from Europe, as Narrow leafed hemp. The other hemp is Chinese, Korean, Japanese and Northern Vietnam. These are broad-leafed hemp. They are not as low in THC or as high in CBD (cannabidiol) as the European ones but they are not drugs. And then you have the two drug cannabis gene pools which would be narrow leafed drug high THC varieties - Indian , Nepali, Thai, Indonesian, African, Mexican and Columbian, with narrow leafs and high THC . Afghan varieties which are now called Indica, erroneously, should be called Broad leafed drug varieties . Now of course we have hybrids of narrow and brood leafed but no hybrids of Sativa, the narrow leafed hemp. So actually the only true Indica-Sativa hybrids are hemp, and what people smoke are all Indicas.
sores
thoughts?
