Growing cannabis in your home or closet in many parts of the world is illegal.
Reading about how to grow marijuana for educational purposes is not illegal in
many parts of the world. Please check your local laws.
We advocate for the lifting of legal restrictions against medical
marijuana use for humanitarian reasons and for the decriminalizing of
recreational and religious use of cannabis sativa for human rights reasons. We do
NOT advocate that children under the age of consent smoke pot. Please learn your
history; learn your legal rights, and vote often.
Definition of Cannabis
( Sativa, Indica, Ruderalis )
What is Cannabis and why is there a strong interest in
decriminalizing it?
Cannabis sativa is an annual plant in the Cannabaceae family. It is a herb that
has been used throughout recorded history by humans as a source of fiber, for its
seed oil, as food (hemp), as a drug, as medicine, and for spiritual purposes. Different parts of the plant
have different uses, and different varieties are cultivated in different ways
and harvested at different times, depending on the purpose for which it is
grown.
Species, subspecies, and varieties of marijuana( weed
cultivars ) include:
(The following taxonomic treatment of Cannabis was published
in 1976 by Ernest Small and Arthur Cronquist. Other taxonomic
treatments of Cannabis are equally valid, and utilized by some
botanists.)
Cannabis
Cannabis sativa L.
Cannabis sativa subspecies sativa
Cannabis sativa subspecies sativa variant sativa
Cannabis sativa subspecies sativa variant spontanea
Cannabis sativa subspecies indica
Cannabis sativa subspecies indica variant indica
Cannabis sativa subspecies indica variant kafiristanica
Cannabis sativa subspecies ruderalis
Cannabis sativa subspecies ruderalis variant kafiristanica
Cannabis sativa subspecies indica variant ruderalis in Afghanistan
(Correct name: Cannabis sativa L. subsp. indica (Lam.) Small & Cronq. var.
kafiristanica (Vavilov) Small & Cronq. Synonym: C. indica Lam. var. kafiristanica (Vavilov)
ruderalis var. (Thompson))
Cannabis Taxonomy:
This taxonomy includes wild or feral plants, mostly confined to the Indian
subcontinent and other regions where Cannabis is grown for drug use and has
escaped from cultivation. Individual plants may have low, similar, or high
levels of THC relative to CBD. Plants with relatively high levels of
Թ-tetrahydrocannabidivarin (THCV) and/or cannabidivarin (CBDV) are also common
in this group. Compared with wild or feral plants of var. spontanea, plants of
this taxonomy are often taller and more branched. The achenes are usually very
small. The inflorescences of pistillate plants are often elongated, and the
fruits (achenes) drop off the plants as they mature.
Its seed, chiefly used as caged-bird feed, is a valuable source of protein. The
flowers (and to a lesser extent the leaves, stems, and seeds) contain
psychoactive and physiologically active chemical compounds known as
cannabinoids that are consumed for recreational, medicinal, and spiritual
purposes. When so used, preparations of flowers (sensimilla marijuana) and
leaves and preparations derived from resinous extract (hashish) are consumed by
smoking, vaporizing and oral ingestion. Historically, tinctures, teas, and
ointments have also been common preparations.
Cannabis reproduces sexually. The flowers of the female plant are arranged in
racemes and can produce hundreds of seeds. Male plants shed their pollen and
die several weeks prior to seed ripening on the female plants. Although genetic
factors dispose a plant to become male or female, environmental factors
including the diurnal light cycle can alter sexual expression. Naturally
occurring monoecious plants, with both male and female parts, are either
sterile or fertile but artificially induced "hermaphrodites" (a commonly used
misnomer) can have fully functional reproductive organs. "Feminized" seed sold
by many commercial seed suppliers are derived from artificially
"hermaphroditic" females that lack the male gene, or by treating the seeds with
hormones or silver thiosulfate.
A Cannabis plant in the vegetative growth phase of its life requires more than
12-13 hours of light per day to stay vegetative. Flowering usually occurs when
darkness equals at least 12 hours per day. The flowering cycle can last
anywhere between five to ten weeks, depending on the strain and environmental
conditions.
In soil, the optimum pH for the plant is 6.5 to 7.2. In hydroponic growing, the
nutrient solution is best at 5.2 to 5.8, making Cannabis well-suited to
hydroponics because this pH range is hostile to most bacteria and fungi.
Cannabis Cultivars:
- Cultivars primarily cultivated for their fiber, characterized by long stems
and little branching.
- Cultivars grown for seed from which hemp oil is extracted.
- Cultivars grown for medicinal or recreational purposes.( A nominal if not
legal distinction is often made between industrial hemp, with concentrations of
psychoactive compounds far too low to be useful for that purpose, and
marijuana. )
Cannabis Pharmacology:
Թ-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is the most active ingredient in Cannabis and no
other known plant produces it.
Although the main psychoactive chemical compound in Cannabis is
Թ-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the plant is known to contain about sixty
cannabinoids; however, most of these "minor" cannabinoids are only produced in
trace amounts. Besides THC, another cannabinoid produced in high concentrations
by some plants is cannabidiol (CBD), which is not psychoactive but has recently
been shown to block the effect of THC in the nervous system. Differences in the
chemical composition of Cannabis varieties may produce different effects in
humans. Synthetic THC, called dronabinol, does not contain CBD, CBN, or other
cannabinoids, which is one reason why its pharmacological effects may differ
significantly from those of natural Cannabis preparations.
Chemical Constituents of Marijuana:
Cannabis chemical constituents including about 100 compounds responsible for
its characteristic aroma. These are mainly volatile terpenes and
sesquiterpenes.
* Tetrahydrocannabinol
* Pinene
* Myrcene
* Trans-ocimene
* Terpinolene
* Trans-caryophyllene
* Humulene, adds the characteristic aroma to Cannabis Sativa.
* Caryophyllene-oxide, some hashish detection dogs are trained to smell
this.
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