Tech Startups Bring Science to America's Burgeoning Marijuana Industry Chris Weller - Newsweek
go to original August 1, 2014

Volunteer Charlie Kirchheimer, 25, displays jars of dried cannabis buds at the La Brea Collective medical marijuana dispensary in Los Angeles, California. (Lucy Nicholson/Reuters)

Despite the mixed legal and social history of cannabis in the United States, all signs point to a 21st century in which the plant takes its place on the pharmacy shelf. In 1996, California voters passed Proposition 215, making their state the first to legalize the sale and consumption of medical marijuana. Since then, 22 other states and the District of Columbia have all voted to allow medicinal use; three more have legislation pending. Many public health professionals and advocates have stated their support of medical marijuana, including former U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Joycelen Elders, CNN’s chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta, deputy director of the Duke Cancer Institute Dr. Steven R. Patierno and many more.

Nevertheless, marijuana still doesn’t feel medicinal. In part, that’s because it’s still commonly used and perceived as a recreational drug, but also because it’s a plant. Unlike pills or liquids that are constructed to exact specifications in a lab, the marijuana plant is a natural admixture of organic and chemical components - of which we understand very little.

...As a result, good science on the drug is nearly impossible to find. And, if you go to a marijuana dispensary today with prescription in hand, you’ll be given options of strains like Sour Diesel and White Widow - fun, novelty names that tell you absolutely nothing about how a toke of it might help your chronic pain, insomnia or anxiety.

Change is coming, though, thanks to a tech industry that sees huge potential market value perfecting marijuana strain specification. Silicon Valley is now stepping in to solve a problem the scientific establishment cannot: how to prescribe the right strain of marijuana.

Read the rest at Newsweek

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