# Weed

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weed/2589>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [August 11, 1999, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weed/2589 "1999-08-11T07:48:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![cortjest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b9bd4f/32.png) [@cortjest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cortjest)\
**Post date:** [August 11, 1999, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weed/2589/1 "1999-08-11T07:48:00Z")

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ok, if genetic engenering is so “advanced” why would it not be possible to mix like an oak tree with weed?..  
…and about weed, why does it produce thc? what is the point of it?

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i hate stupid people

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**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\
**Post date:** [August 11, 1999, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weed/2589/2 "1999-08-11T14:54:00Z")

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They could and it just does. I think that answers the question. Thank you, Goodbye

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Formerly known as Nec3f on the AOL SDMB

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**Author:** ![torq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dfb087/32.png) [@torq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/torq)\
**Post date:** [August 12, 1999, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weed/2589/3 "1999-08-12T05:27:00Z")

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THC is probably part of the plant’s defense mechanism; there’s another thread around here somewhere about caffeine which explains this in more detail.

A stoned herbivore is basically easy meat for the first carnivore to come along, so a taste for THC is not a survival characteristic.

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**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\
**Post date:** [August 12, 1999, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weed/2589/4 "1999-08-12T00:57:00Z")

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I’ve speculated that it’s only a matter of time before some anarchist/libertarian with a PhD in bioengineering gives us THC-producing tomatoes and petunias. Or maybe a yeast culture that will produce your own heroin, cocaine, lsd, etc. as easily as making bathtub gin. Let’s see the DEA try to enforce the drug laws then.

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**Author:** ![poppyp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/87869e/32.png) [@poppyp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/poppyp)\
**Post date:** [August 12, 1999, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weed/2589/5 "1999-08-12T19:45:00Z")

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Hey Lumpy, I had a friend in college that spliced another plant onto a very healthy pot stalk. Instead of the usual leaves we see with pot, it had little round leaves. Similar to hops. Didn’t resemble pot at all. You could put it in a pipe and get stoneder than bejesus. The plant obviously accepted the THC as its own. For all I know he may have a whole plantation by now. Who would know?

```
     ~bb~
```

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**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\
**Post date:** [August 17, 1999, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/weed/2589/6 "1999-08-17T13:42:00Z")

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It probably wasn’t ‘similar’ to hops – it WAS hops. I read of this grafting technique a good 20 years ago, although I’ve never seen it actually done. It works primarily because the hops and cannabis plants are so closely related biologically, and also because the THC is produced in the roots of the plant, so the roots can be pot and the stalk can be hops.

Wonder what kinda beer that would make?