Found growing wild: is this a pot plant? Or...?

I am referencing our system (US) which employs rappelling rangers and 'Special Agent' Duffs": "So every plant we take out is dope that would otherwise end up right here on your street, in your school, in your kid's pocket."

"evil weed" seriously? If that's the worst thing in a kids pocket it's not so bad.

"With the precision of a soaring hawk homing in on a field mouse," lol i felt dopey just reading that tripe.

 

Michael Pollan wrote a cover article for the New York Times Magazine about this, a few years back. The cover showed a close-up photo of a state-of-the-art marijuana hybrid. You could barely see the leaves for the buds, which were sticky with resin. I did a double-take -- it wasn't what you ordinarily expect to see in the Sunday paper.



Within 48 hours, an old friend of mine had found some bargain tickets and flown to Amsterdam.

 

Excellent link Kaspian thanks again.

 

And, yet more...

"Dutch Police Slash Hemp Instead Of Pot"---(AP)September 3, 2009

The Hague, Netherlands:

Dutch police who mowed down what they thought were illicit marijuana plants were red-faced Thursday when it emerged they'd ruined a research group's giant, officially sanctioned field of harmless hemp.

Police proudly announced Wednesday that they'd found more than 47,000 cannabis plants, with an estimated street value of nearly $6.45 million, concealed in a corn field in the Flevoland province east of Amsterdam.

They mowed down half the plants only to be informed that they were the property of Wageningen University and Research Center, a respected agricultural school.

The field contained a new strain of hemp that researchers hope can be a sustainable source of fiber, Simon Vink, a spokesman for the executive board of Wageningen University and Research Center said Thursday.

Hemp plants are related to marijuana but have only trace elements of THC, the mind-altering chemical that cannabis contains.

"The street value from a drug point of view is less than zero," Vink said.

Oops!

 

Oops indeed. That's really depressing.

 

One can but hope that the public humiliation compensated somewhat for the dunderheaded behavior.--- Also, one can hope that the public's awareness of hemp has been raised: perhaps some folks will learn that there IS a difference between spp. of Cannabis, and that there even ARE multiple spp.! Maybe, just maybe, someone will be intrigued enough to learn more, and that would be a good thing.

Gotta feel sorry for whomever's project this was! Ooh, that musta been a piece of bad news and no mistake. "Uh, well, the cops just mowed down half your senior thesis..." Yikes.

 

Only one species of Cannabis; two subspecies, and numerous selected cultivar groups of course
http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/splist.pl?2034

 

My bad. Thanks for the clarification, Michael!
I was laboring under the misapprehension that Cannabis was the genus and sativa, indica, ruderalis were spp. Oh, well. When you get old, the mind just goes. (What there is left of it.)

OK, I will amend:
"... perhaps some folks will learn that there ARE differences between subsp. of Cannabis, and that there even ARE multiple subspp. and cuiltivar groups!"

I do appreciate an observant editor. Precision and accuracy help one learn.

 

As far as I know, a lot of Cannabis enthusiasts do regard them as separate species, they just don't get any support for their ideas from professional botanists who have examined the plant in its natural (rather than cultivated) context ;-)

 

Uh...yeah. Natural.

 

Indeed. I would like to see financial compensation as well. I hope the owner of that legal crop will sue for damages.

 

Me, too. Will be interesting to see what course of action the University chooses to pursue.

 

In many European countries (but not in France), growing cannabis for your own personal enjoyment (whatever that means for you: leaf shape, leaf color, leaf taste, etc.) is perfectly within the bounds of the respective national law. Growing it for commercial purposes is more restricted.

Gomero

 

You'd think it would have been apparent the property was part of an experiment station, or that they would have looked up ownership of the land in public records before the raid.

 

You'd think!

 

I've been thinking about this, and am inclined to agree with you. Now what I'm wondering is this:

- how long will these plants live? Will they die down in the winter? At what point will they be of no more use to the grower this season?

- when is the grower likely to harvest the buds? How will he know when they're ready? Will he leave the plants standing and just cut off the buds?

-Will the plants re-grow next year on their own, or will they self-seed? Or will the grower have to start all over again?