Many of us are familiar by now with the word CBD otherwise known as cannabidiol, but how did we discover this compound to be marketable and beneficial for our health?
We can thank the introduction of analytical testing of cannabis in California for that. Before analytical companies began testing cannabis it was believed that we had bred cannabidiol out of cannabis because it had no psychoactive effect and even went as far as negating the psychoactive effect of THC. But in 2008 with the opening up of an analytics lab in Berkeley California by the name of Steep Hill a strain by the name of stinky pearl was discovered to contain 5% CBD. With the introduction of testing, we began to find breeders with strains that contained CBD. In the same year a man by the name of Wade Lauder was breeding a strain he named harlequin that tested as a 1:1 ratio.
Meanwhile, another man by the name of Lawrence Ringo was perfecting a strain called sour tsunami. This is a mix of NYC diesel, sour diesel, and fieri. When this was tested by a cannabis analytics lab in Northern California by the name of Pure Analytics, it was found to have 11% CBD concentration. However, it wasn't just in California CBD strains were being discovered. A breeder from Spain had brought his seeds and a male clone to Northern California, and it was discovered to contain 5% CBD in its profile. THis strain was later named catatonic
This was attractive to some as CBD could be used as a loophole in cannabis production and sold as a hemp product. If the levels could be brought low enough it would pass federal regulation and could be sold as hemp. So a breeder in California took on the task of breeding different phenotypes to create just that. This breeder was successful and a phenotype with the ratio of 18:1 was discovered and named ACDC. A famous CBD strain that was made famous by the relief it gave to epilepsy is called Charlotte's web, which is most likely a derivative of ACDC.
At this time there was no selling of CBD pounds, nobody wanted to buy it if it couldn’t get you high. However, a group of people believed that once patients got ahold of it they would begin to understand the medicinal value. At this time, a clone was put in the hands of a gentleman working at the Humboldt Patient Resource Center by the name of Kevin Jordey and he began putting ACDC clones in the hands of patients. While Jordey was working at expanding the breeding of ACDC, Lawrence Ringo with the help of the laboratory Pure Analytics stabilized a line called sour tsunami.
In the next few years using Pure Analytics invention of predictive leaf analysis, we went from having two varieties of 15%-16% CBD to 80 varieties. The development of CBD strains you could say was a mix between a mishap and the technological advancements of analytical techniques. We can thank the pioneers willing to risk their freedom to develop a product that they inherently knew made them feel better.
Sources: Shaping Fire,Pure Relief
