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Marijuana and Our Ever-Evolving DNA

Discussion in 'Apprentice Marijuana Consumption' started by F. Fontaine, Aug 5, 2011.

  1. #1 F. Fontaine, Aug 5, 2011
    This is an interesting concept that I've thought of while high. Scientists have found a gene for alcohol tolerance. Why not one for weed tolerance? I wonder what would happen if you had a line of chronic smokers for thousands or millions of years... Would that child a certain "x" year in the millions be very resistant to the effects of cannabis?

    What about modern day tolerances? Are people from areas where there were more weed plants growing around their ancestors more genetically tolerant than some others? It's interesting to think about it.

    What do you think?
     
  2. #2 StickyIkyMarley, Aug 5, 2011
    Its been around for a couple thousand years, if it was going to happen it would've by now..
     
  3. #3 grimtoker, Aug 5, 2011
    Smoke weed err'day
     
  4. #4 MicrowavedBagel, Aug 5, 2011
    Well alcohol is a poison and I guess if you look at it so is THC. The cannabis plant has the THC to combat predators from consuming it much like he irritants on poison ivy. But unlike alcohol weed is alive. Alcohol isn't and can't change it's characteristics to make it more potent so humans can build a genetic tolerance. Weed however is alive so it can change the potency of it's THC so it can deter predators. That's why ( I think) weed is stronger and more potent now then a hundred years ago.
     
  5. #5 F. Fontaine, Aug 5, 2011
    Last edited by a moderator: Aug 5, 2011
    Yeah, but I'm sure weed is smoked by more people now than thousands of years ago. There were more people born in the past 40 or so years than that have ever existed on Earth at any point in time... Our evolution is not yet complete, nor will it be. We've still got a lot of potential to unlock.


    That might be one of its peripheral purposes but if I'm not mistaken, THC production is increased so that the plant may attract pollen from the male plant. That's why THC production is increased a lot during the last two weeks of the growth cycle as a last ditch effort to attract pollen from a male plant. That's why plants will less seeds has more THC because the plant is using more of its energy resources to create THC that attracts pollen rather than making seeds.
     
  6. #6 BoneThug, Aug 5, 2011

    I think it's because our brains have cannabis receptors.
     
  7. #7 kronman907, Aug 5, 2011
    Last edited by a moderator: Mar 15, 2016
    Um yeah this is all wrong. In no way is thc a poison, if it was you could overdose on it. Weed is alive yes but it isn't changing its self to become stronger to deter predators lol. Were changing it by selective breeding.
     
  8. #8 F. Fontaine, Aug 5, 2011
    THC in the wild won't be as strong as carefully controlled cannabis. In a controlled setting, even outdoors, you can remove the males as soon as they pollinate a female plant. The plant may produce one seed that will absorb the genetics of the male and female plant.

    In the wild, there is no opportunity to remove the male plant and they can pollinate the female plants' buds until all of them are nothing but seed filled husks.

    High content THC marijuana will be pretty much impossible to find in the wild because the seed pollination window will be so short that it doesn't need to produce much THC to attract pollen. Eventually, plants would have been genetically programmed to produce THC at lower levels because pollen comes fast. This is in the wild, of course.
     
  9. #9 OVRCninja, Aug 5, 2011
    wouldnt having a low tolerance have to kill you for natural selection to do its job?
     
  10. #10 ICGreen, Aug 5, 2011
    Impossible. I mean if we had chit like CNB1 & 2 receptors and a dna built-in tolerance, than the more often we smoked potent herb, there would become a need for a break. Maybe call it a T-Break. :eek: :smoke:
     
  11. #11 Skunky Monkey, Aug 5, 2011
    We have a part of our brain that is ONLY there ti recieve THC and pump it around the body, we have evolved to smoke weed, so i dunno :confused:
     
  12. #12 NutsLikeKngKong, Aug 5, 2011
    well alcohol does damage to your organs, so it makes sense that your body would try to prevent that

    weed is only harmful when you smoke it, so its hard to say what defenses came about because of weed smoke versus normal smoke
     
  13. #13 shamwowgal, Aug 6, 2011
    This was me last night .....so many questions :D
     
  14. #14 Sunn, Aug 6, 2011
    a couple thousand years in evolutionary terms is essentially nothing, though.
     
  15. #15 OscarZetaAcosta, Aug 6, 2011
    As weird as it may seem...If this were true, it would explain a lot for me.:cool:
     
  16. #16 jsplasha, Aug 6, 2011
    I see no reason why tolerance could not be passed down.
    Maybe if serious stoners only mated with other serious stoners and their kids did the same for a couple generations there could be some genetic predispositions.
     
  17. #17 budkid, Aug 6, 2011
    alcohol tolerance exist because thousands of years ago there was no clean water, so man made beer and wine which had less bacteria in it. he still needed to function in everyday life, so he developed an evolutionary tolerance to alcohol because it was necessary for survival.

    its the same thing which happened in the agricultural revolution, people who could not drink milk or eat grains, died. it was evolution sped up.

    since smoking weed isn't necessary for survival and the invention of modern medicine i can't see anything evolving for THC tolerance.

    (just my take on it, as a genetic student)
     
  18. #18 HelpDesk, Aug 6, 2011
    There are people who aren't effected by weed... maybe that's it.... there are also people who are extremely allergic to it.
     

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