Marijuana’s Immaculate Conception – Where Did Legal Grows Get Their First Seeds?
During our great interview with Dean Matt, the author of the new book "Gone to Pot", he brought up the idea of the cannabis version of the immaculate conception. In his new book, it is roughly described as, “if shipping marijuana and THC across a state-line is illegal, and you are the first licensed seed-to-sale, or cannabis grow in a state, where do you get your first seed or batch of seeds?”
It is a great question and goes down the road of the “chicken or the egg”.
For example, if Alabama legalized medical marijuana, so the first license gets approved for a medical marijuana grow, the building gets put up, the lights and HVAC systems are in, the soil is ready, where did the first plant or seed some from if cannabis cannot cross a state line? Dean explains it that in his experience in the cannabis, as CFO of a large cannabis company in Illinois, that the regulators and authorities “look the other way” and turn the security cameras on at the grow when the first plants are in the ground.
The obvious answer is that someone, somewhere, is breaking Federal law to get the clones or seeds into a newly legalized state, and well, there is just no other way around it. This is now referred to as the “immaculate conception” in reference to the Christian belief that Jesus Christ was born to the Virgin Mary, as a virgin, and that God put the seed in Mary’s belly, not her husband Joseph. Basically, Christianity believes that Mary was still a virgin when she gave birth to Jesus Christ, hence, it is referred to as the immaculate conception.
There is the possibility that some people could theorize that the newly minted licensed cannabis grow could have gotten it’s original seeds from an illegal (obviously) in-state supplier. That would be highly dubious considering the microscope that medical marijuana starts out under in newly legalized states. With seed-to-sale tracking required, cameras, security, testing, armed transport, it is highly unlikely the new licensee or the state want the applicant going to “the field out behind John’s farm” and start plucking random seeds. The need to know genetics, effects, and testing would say that black market seeds that are “within state lines” are not how you want to start a brand new, pristine, medical marijuana program.
The choices are to get seeds and clones from your other grows if you are an MSO and have other locations in different states, or do you order seeds or clones from another state or Europe. Europe is the hub of the cannabis seed trade and many strains trace genetic origins through the vast seed bank networks of Europe, and secondarily the Middle East if you are dealing in Landrace strains.
So did the first dispensary who is doing seed-to-sale in your state order the original seed from Europe, Amsterdam, perhaps Pakistan or India for heavy indicas? That is probably not what they want to say under any type of future audit by state or federal authorities, so it is most likely coming from a legal grow in another state, being driven or shipped to the newly minted medical marijuana state.
Either way, someone is breaking Federal law in order to get their state-legal marijuana operation open and running. State regulators have to be aware of the fact that in order to start their medical marijuana program they are giving state permission to someone or some company to knowingly break federal law. There is just no way around it. Has a state regulator or licensing commission ever asked an applicant, “How will you get your first batch of seeds or clones in order to start your cannabis grow?”
Don’t ask, don’t tell seems to be the prevailing answer in the industry after doing some informal surveys.
Turn the camera’s and security footage on to meet state guidelines once you see the baby plant stalks starting to come out of the soil and everyone just marks that as day #1 of the new licensee's medical marijuana grow being open for state business for things such as employees, payroll, and auditing.
In marijuana, there is no Hail Mary.
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