"All marijuana is Indica" New Taxonomy system

Interview with Robert Connell Clarke: Original Hempster
Date: Saturday, January 01 2005
Topic: Hemp

Renowned cannabis author, scientist and breeder Robert Connell Clarke visited New Zealand earlier this year to meet the cannabis community and get in some serious fishing. Breeder of famous strains such as Silver Pearl and Haze, author of classic cannabis books such as Hashish! and Marijuana Botany, and one of the founders of the Amsterdam Cannabis Cup, Rob discussed hemp with Chris Fowlie in Part 2 of this interview.

Chris: Rob, you were right there at the beginning.

Rob: I’ve been involved with hemp growing for about a decade - that’s as old as it is, basically. I co-founded the International Hemp Association.

What got you into that?

We had a textile mill that we were involved with in China. That was my initiation into industrial hemp.

We’ve had hemp grown here for three years now in small amounts, and it doesn’t seem to have taken off like it has in Canada. Why do you think that is?

First of all, we’re basically talking about hemp seed production. You can make fibre from the same varieties, but seed can be used more easily than fibre - and you have a small domestic market. Canada immediately overproduced in its first couple of years based on the fact that it has the north American market.

The seed has been a really good food for thousands of years. There’s no THC in them, and they’re really good for you. They’re full of essential fatty acids, they’re full of easily digestible protein. Everybody already knows this - they’re not dangerous. Because of some linked laws you have with Australia, somehow this evaded your neighbours when they were establishing the rules, and you need to make an exception to this as quickly as possible. The oil can be consumed here without the seeds, so obviously there’s no logic to it. Farmers could use the seeds they’re growing here, which are really good quality.

I visited several hemp farmers, and they grow really good seeds. It’s a great climate for it - there’s not a problem there. The fibre could certainly be used on the cottage industry level, and so can the seed. People are making soap and using the oil for other things.

There seems to be two camps in the hemp industry. On the one hand cottage farmer type hempsters and on the other hand some big companies.

The big companies are kind of stuck, and in New Zealand it’s going to be even worse because you’re small. Without a domestic or foreign market you can shift it to in semi-processed form, hemp is hard to do. It’s been difficult everywhere. Where it works is in east Asia, China, where people grow hemp on the cottage level, which is a model that’s been proposed for New Zealand. Mac McIntosh, former head of the NZ Hemp Industry Association, has a model for this that he wants to push forward. For small holders, the problem is not getting a license. You had more than 20 people this year from all walks of life, all forms of property, who showed an honest interest in growing industrial hemp for whatever purpose, complying with the laws and having it tested and inspected.

What are the hopes of seeing some New Zealand hemp in shops?

There are a couple of hang ups, we have to have cheaper licences and allow some more experimentation. Some people grow for a year and then they don’t try it again. You have a lot of different climates here, the South Island is probably the best place for a lot of hemp growing as long as you have the right land, the mid North Island would be good for doing seed crops as well.

It seems that there is a lot of interest in Maori communities in using hemp particularly for more traditional areas such as weaving. Do you think there is an opportunity there?

Certainly, and that is exactly the kind of use you want: cottage industry that allows them to make exactly what they want and get a high end price for it . For example, some authentic Maori capes are in the tens of thousands of dollars. They are very bold pieces.

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?

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?

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?

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.

So what are the possibilities of mixing old hemp varieties and drug varieties?

Mixing hemp and drug varieties so far has been a disaster! It happened accidentally in Switzerland, where people ended up with hemp that is too high in THC to be legally hemp and lousy recreational/medicinal product.

People have in the past have made hybrids between European sativa narrow-leafed hemp varieties and Chinese broad leafed hemp varieties and of the indica gene pool. Some of the best hybrid vigour in hemp crops has been reported from doing this, such as American Kentucky hemp in the early 20th century.

We find it really hard to get your books here....can people read your stuff on the internet?

I can’t do anything about people putting my stuff on the internet and imitation is the highest form of flattery! If they don’t have the money for the info they can have it - the whole idea is education, I think that the only reason that cannabis is not legal is because it has been vilified and education could change peoples minds.

Notes:
Karl Hillig (2004) recently published a chemotaxonomic analysis of cannabis: American Journal of Botany, 91(6): 966-975.
For a further discussion on Taxonomy, see this thread on www.overgrow.com(RIP!)

Click to expand...

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.

Click to expand...

We find it really hard to get your books here....can people read your stuff on the internet?

I can’t do anything about people putting my stuff on the internet and imitation is the highest form of flattery! If they don’t have the money for the info they can have it - the whole idea is education, I think that the only reason that cannabis is not legal is because it has been vilified and education could change peoples minds.

Click to expand...