Has Monsanto really created a GMO weed?

Our social network feeds regularly feature news stories about Monsanto creating a GMO weed, or pushing for legalization to saturate the market with their seeds. These articles, often shared by people of good faith who believe they're doing the right thing, don't elaborate on the sources, and appeal more to conspiracy theories than to reality.

A recent post on Leaf Online has come to set the record straight and discredit these frivolous theories. And for the less courageous: no, Monsanto has not created GMO cannabis.

What is a GMO?

A genetically modified organism (GMO) is a genotype created by modifying the DNA of an organism, as opposed to seed selection or crosses between varieties, which are used by cannabis growers.

The first rumors of GMO cannabis circulated in 2010 around Proposition 19 in California, the state's first attempt at cannabis legalization. While California will propose a vote in November for another attempt at legalization., these same rumors are resurfacing, fast. debunked by High Times and Snopes Urban Legends.

Monsanto even devotes a page on their site to the subject: «Monsanto has not and is not working on GMO marijuana. This allegation is an Internet rumor». Which of course, for conspiracy theory fans, is proof in itself that Monsanto is working on GMO cannabis.

The articles we come across often point to the same source, truthout.org, which is nothing more than a conspiracy site.

And GMO cannabis?

As Snopes Urban Legends points out, the basic story started out as fake news (think LeGorafi) that eventually went viral.

Hoaxers claim that billionaire George Soros has been conspiring with Monsanto for years to destroy medical cannabis by directly writing proposed legislation for US states. The facts are largely otherwise. Soros actually funded Proposition 215 in California, which decriminalized the cultivation and consumption of medical cannabis in 1996. If he really wanted to curb the «free» use of medical cannabis, he certainly wouldn't have done so.

The rumor then turned to Soros secretly writing and funding Proposition 19 to turn the medical cannabis market over to Monsanto. As Leaf Online, which was present at the drafting of the legislation, recalls, the proposal was written and funded by Richard Lee, a long-time activist and creator of the’Oaksterdam University, a university that today trains industry professionals to conduct their business responsibly. The proposal failed to pass, in part due to a lack of funds, as Soros was a late and modest supporter of the bill.

The current draft law is financed by Sean Parker, Facebook co-founder, and Californian industrialists. Soros no longer directly finances legalization movements, feeling that pro-legalization movements should be able to finance themselves from now on. He still supports, to a lesser extent, the Drug Policy Alliance, the largest American association for the reform of drug laws. Numerous associations are involved in this project: NORML, the Marijuana Policy Project and non-cannabis groups such as the NAACP, the ACLU and the California Democratic Party.

«This is poppycock,» sums up NORML California director Dale Fieringer. «Neither Monsanto nor any other major international company will touch cannabis until it is legal at a federal level.».

Monsanto in Argentina

What if Monsanto was more interested in Argentina? When the President Pepe Mujica has legalized cannabis, a Monsanto consultant has discovered a natural genetic marker that distinguishes industrial hemp, with a low THC content, from medical or recreational cannabis. So it's not a GMO, simply a «DNA test» applied to plants.

In short, to sum up: we've never seen GMO cannabis, proposed legislation in the Americas (USA or Uruguay) has been drawn up in conjunction with industry players, and the only available sources on the subject point to conspiracy sites.

Monsanto is certainly one of the most hated companies in the world. So it's easy to attribute all sorts of nefarious intentions to it, and to play on people's fears. But for now, it's staying out of the cannabis business. To get to the heart of the matter, one of its herbicides has been authorized for use on cannabis in Canada. The investigation is ongoing, but we'll certainly come back to it soon. In the meantime, don't relay anything 😉