Isn't Life Curious?

CAC feature episodes are back after a 2 year hiatus! In our 11th feature production – we dive into the science of the Cannabis lifecycle. We start with looking at the evolutionary history of Cannabis before we switch gears and look at how Cannabis is cultivated, dried and cured. We dive into the science involved in many of the changes Cannabis undergoes in its journey to a consumer’s grinder.

I hope you enjoy our return to feature episodes – I have many more planned!

If you’re curious about Cannabis, visit www.cacpodcast.com and check out more podcast episodes and educational content including courses, books, and more!

Stay curious and take it easy!

Show Notes / Transcription:

“It’s a plant that goes by many names. Some call it hemp. Some call it marijuana. Call it what you will, it’s cannabis. And it’s got a lot of people curious.

But what do you really know about the Cannabis plant and how it makes its way to your grinder? In this episode we will be taking things back to their roots, as we explore the science of the Cannabis plant’s lifecycle.

So get ready to get dirty as we meet the Cannabis plant!

[INTRO]

These days Cannabis is big business. It wasn’t that long ago that Cannabis was almost an entirely underground industry. Very few people were willing to talk openly about it, and those that did often had to disguise their identities to do so. Today Cannabis is legal in some form or another in most states in the United States as well as Canada, Mexico and many other countries around the world.

More people are using Cannabis than ever before. Chances are, if you are listening to this podcast, there is a strong possibility you are one of these people. But what do you really know about how that little Cannabis bud in your child-resistant pop top container got there. Every Cannabis flower has a story to tell.

In this episode we are going to follow the lifecycle of a Cannabis plant from early evolution, to seed all the way to consumption and chart out many of the fascinating bits of science that are involved along the way.

And to guide our curious quest, we will focus on a few key questions:

One, what is Cannabis and how did it get here? Where does it fit in the big kingdom of plants?

Two, How does a harvested Cannabis plant turn into the perfectly manicured, aromatic, resinous buds that you might find at a dispensary?

Three, How does the chemistry of Cannabis change over time from the moment it is harvested to the moment it reaches the hands of a consumer?

And now, without further ado, let’s get started!

So, what is Cannabis?

Cannabis is a genus – which is one rank above species – and it belongs to the Cannabaceae family, which includes up to 9 or 10 other genera, like Humulus, which you are already familiar with if you are a beer drinker, because Humulus lupus, or hops, is commonly used to flavor beer.[1]

Recent research examining fossilized pollen from around the world has indicated that Cannabis and Humulus split from the same ancient ancestor approximately 30 million years ago.[2]

The Cannabis plant is thought to have really started is evolutionary journey somewhere around the Tibetan Plateau in Asia.[3] From there it moved around, following humans wherever we went, traveling from Western Asia up into Eastern Europe[4], back down into Asia, West into Africa and Western Europe. Then on to South America, Atlantic and Pacific Islands and finally North America.

Cannabis is thought to be one of the earliest ethnobotanical plants that humans have relied on for food, materials, and medicines. The seeds have been eaten for their nutritional value for thousands of years. There are reports of Cannabis being used for religious and recreational purposes going back at least five thousand years ago.[5] [6] Because of its value as a multi-functional botanical, humans throughout history have stewarded the Cannabis plant.

In each of the places where Cannabis has travelled, it has naturalized. It doesn’t actually take very long for Cannabis to adapt to a new environment. Reportedly this can happen in as few as 50 generations.[7] Given that Cannabis is generally an annual plant, that’s just 50 years or so. In the context of evolutionary history, this is a flash. These different varieties of Cannabis that have naturalized to unique geographical areas are called “landrace” varieties. Forgive the unfortunate terminology – it is what it is.

[ANGUS]

This is Angus of The Real Seed Company. He has traveled all over the world studying landrace Cannabis varieties.

[ANGUS]

So...

In this behind-the-scenes episode we are joined with pharmacist Dr. Codi Peterson to talk about how modern insights into the endocannabinoid system and endocannabinoidome are affecting how pharmacists think about modern medicine.

Dr. Codi Peterson is a clinical pediatric pharmacist with diverse experiences across the pharmaceutical landscape. A Duquesne University graduate, Codi was trained in an academic teaching hospital where he learned alongside a team of healthcare professionals. Building upon general pediatric hospital experience, Codi advanced to emergency and critical care pharmacy where he found a passion for improving the pharmaceutical care of complex and dynamic patients.

Leveraging his hospital experience, Codi has had the opportunity to pursue his passion for educating others. As a staff lecturer at Orange County Emergency Medical Training, Codi teaches paramedics and firefighters the knowledge and skills they need to employ safe drug therapy in the prehospital setting. Codi has an innate ability to translate complex pharmacological information into digestible concepts that are applicable in the field. Codi also lectures to respiratory therapists and pharmacy students in the SoCal area, sharing his knowledge at every possible occasion.

Now turning his focus and skills from western medicine to a more functional and holistic therapeutic approach, Codi is enrolled at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy where he is obtaining his MS in Medical Cannabis Science & Therapeutics. He is the President of the Medical Cannabis Student Association at UMB, an active member of the International Society of Cannabis Pharmacists, as well as the Association of Cannabinoid Specialists. With his extensive pediatric experience, Codi is poised to bring a new and needed perspective to the cannabis space. While a proponent of individual rights, home grow, and global cannabis reform, Codi also aims to defend the sanctity of medical cannabis. Codi believes cannabis IS medicine, that all patients deserve access to medicine, and that includes access to trained healthcare professionals who are able to manage complex medical patients.

You can learn more about Codi’s work in Cannabis by visiting: http://pharmdapproved.com/

Stay curious, and take it easy!

We are halfway to 100 behind-the-scenes episodes! In this episode we celebrate our 50th episode by sharing notes from an email exchange that I had with Dr. Raphael Mechoulam (The Godfather of Cannabis) from late 2020 along with a clip from our 3 Hour 50th Episode Celebration available at our Patreon at patreon.com/CuriousAboutCannabis

Thanks for supporting the podcast and helping us get to 50 episodes! We look forward to bringing you 50 more over the next year.

Stay curious, and take it easy!

LISTEN TO THE END FOR A SPECIAL OFFER WORTH $75!

Hey everybody, this is Jason with Curious About Cannabis. I wanted to let you know about some new developments here at Curious About Cannabis that I’m super excited about, and I think you will be too.

Our goal here at Curious About Cannabis has always been to develop educational materials and opportunities that accommodate all sorts of learning styles – whether you learn best through podcasts, videos, books, or otherwise. In keeping with this mission, Curious About Cannabis is about to enter its next phase of evolution as we roll out the Curious About Cannabis Learning Center hosted on The Natural Learning Academy at learn.naturaledu.com

To kick off this exciting development, we are launching our Curious About Cannabis Workshop Series, previously only available as an in-person classroom experience, now available in a virtual environment and accessible to anyone with an internet connection and a passion for learning. The workshop series is a twelve week series, broken up into two six week intensive workshops. And when I say intensive – I mean it. These workshops are no joke and are designed for people that are very serious about taking their education to the next level. These workshops give attendees the chance to study Cannabis and cannabinoid science with our lead instructors, which includes myself and the talented biochemist and molecular biologist Dr. Anthony Smith – who you may remember from one of my early episodes of the podcast. We will also be joined by a rotating group of guest educators including experience scientists, clinicians, industry professionals and subject matter experts.

These workshops are designed for small class sizes, often including around ten to twenty students, which allows for us to really dive deep into topics, with each student getting adequate opportunities to ask questions of the lead and guest instructors, gain one-on-one tutoring if needed, and work collaboratively with their peers. The workshops are also designed to engage each student’s unique interests and learning objectives – so no two workshops are exactly the same.

It is my hope that you will walk away from these workshops feeling empowered with the tools and resources you need to confidently continue you education on your own well after the workshop is over.

So with all of that said, go to our website at www.CACPodcast.com/Learn to find more information about our workshops, as well as other educational opportunities that will be coming soon to our learning platform, like our upcoming self-paced courses, resource libraries, and more.

I am so excited to see Curious About Cannabis evolve in this way and I hope that you will join me in spreading the word about our workshops and courses so that we can help spread high-quality Cannabis and cannabinoid science education opportunities to people all over the world. We are only just beginning, and already I am in the process of setting the stage for Curiosu About Cannabis to grow far beyond anything I had ever imagined – and it is only because of your continued support through listening and sharing about the Curious About Cannabis Podcast and the Curious About Cannabis book that this is possible – so THANK YOU. And a very special thanks to our patrons that have been supporting the Curious About Cannabis Podcast through recurring monthly donations to help the podcast remain available to the public for free without advertisers or sponsors. Collectively we have made over 60 hours of content freely available, and I know without a doubt that this would not be possible without your support.

So once again, visit www.CACPodcast.com/Learn to find out more about our workshops and other events that we will have coming soon.

That’s www.CACPodcast.com/Learn

And if you decide to sign up for our workshop, use coupon code “cacws75” for $75 off!

Stay curious, and take it easy!

There is no doubt that when it comes to aroma, the Cannabis plant is LOUD. Depending on the variety, a host of smells can be found in Cannabis ranging from the sweet and floral to the funky, gassy, savory, and beyond. Chemist Twinkle Paryani has been trying to understand the chemistry behind the spectrum of aromas found in Cannabis and recently unearthed some interesting findings.

Abstrax Tech: https://abstraxtech.com/

Twinkle’s publication “Nonterpenoid Chemical Diversity of Cannabis Phenotypes Predicts Differentiated Aroma Characteristics“: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acsomega.4c03225