Throughout the United States, several states have legalized recreational or medicinal marijuana in the election this November, a development that was overshadowed by Donald Trump’s election, so many weren’t paying attention to it. These results show that the legalization of marijuana is something that nobody can ignore anymore. It is becoming more and more common and widespread, and everyone will be affected by it.
One big argument of those opposing the legalization of marijuana is that this isn’t the same weed people’s hippie grandfathers were smoking in the 1960’s; it’s much stronger. Caleb Hellerman stated in an article he wrote for CNN that in 1972 the average THC was 1%, 3%-4% in the 1990’s, and is 13% today.
So why exactly is weed becoming stronger as time goes on?
This occurs through selective breeding of positive traits in cannabis plants, with the goal in mind to create offspring that would get you more high. The principle behind cross breeding different strains of cannabis to try and optimize the best dominant and recessive traits from the parent strains to create a new strain comes from Gregor Mendel’s cross breeding of pea plants.
So what exactly is the process that Mendel used to make his findings with the pea plants that led to him becoming the father of modern genetics? Well, it’s very similar to what scientists use today.
Focusing on the science behind Mendel, his experiment was to test the ability to cross breed and mix traits from different pea plants. His null hypothesis would have been that the plants could not be cross bred or would not offer any new traits, and his alternative hypothesis would have been that certain characteristics from each parent plant would be given to the offspring.
Photo Cited
Works Cited
http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/09/health/weed-potency-levels/