Middlebury, VT: The interbreeding of cannabis plants has resulted in a dearth of pure ‘indica‘ or ‘sativa‘ strains, according to a review published in the journal Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research.
In most cases, these classifications are used arbitrarily, the author states. “Categorizing cannabis as either ‘sativa‘ and ‘indica‘ has become an exercise in futility,” he concludes. “Ubiquitous interbreeding and hybridization renders their distinction meaningless.”
A prior study published in the journal PLoS ONE in 2015 determined that strains of cannabis sativa and cannabis indica possess relatively few significant genetic differences and are often mislabeled by breeders.
For more information, contact Paul Armentano, NORML Deputy Director, at: paul@norml.org. Full text of the study, “Cannabis systematics at the levels of family, genus, and species,” appears in Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research.