Marijuana Market Incentives May Be Reducing Biodiversity In The Plant, Causing A ‘Bottlenecking Of Cannabis Genetics,’ New Study Says

New research on cannabis genetics suggests that incentives in the legal
marijuana market—such as the desire for plants to mature faster and produce
more cannabinoids for extraction—may be leading to a decline in
biodiversity of the plant worldwide.

A graduate thesis published this month combines observations about genetic
trends in cannabis with interviews with dozens of plant breeders to explain
the factors behind what author Caleb Y. Chen, at California State
Polytechnic University (Cal Poly) Humboldt, describes as “the bottlenecking
of *Cannabis* genetics.”

The review notes that while humans have been selectively breeding the
cannabis plant for thousands of years, breeders in what it refers to as the
“post-prohibition” era have optimized for a handful of traits, such as a
high proportion of flowers as opposed to stalks or leaves, maximum
cannabinoid content, a “desirable suite” of aromatic terpenes and a
reproducible chemical profile.

That hasn’t always aligned with connoisseur preferences, but it’s made
economic and regulatory sense sense. Citing interviews with growers in a
2021 paper, Chen writes that “their preference for High THC content in
cultivars ‘was due to state testing regulations and a misinformed consumer
base, rather than grower partialities.'”

So-called genetic bottlenecking isn’t unique to cannabis, the paper
acknowledges, but is a common occurrence among agricultural crops.
Nevertheless, research indicates that wild cannabis varieties are
effectively a thing of the past.

“Recent genetics studies of *Cannabis* collections continue to suggest that
wild specimens of *Cannabis* have gone extinct and existing ‘wild’
*cannabis* plants are feral escapees of domesticates,” the paper says,
noting that wind pollination and other factors have “eliminated wild
specimens from the genepool.”

Wind pollination also threatens to “wipe out landrace populations with
‘contamination’ from pollen via modern hybrids, therefore further
bottlenecking *Cannabis *genetic diversity on a global scale,” the research
found. “This has been reported from Morocco but also in Jamaica, Mexico,
Thailand…and even parts of India.”

“Even without the human aspect of added Prohibition, more so than other
crops, genetic bottlenecking is a real and present problem for *Cannabis*,”
it adds.

“In 2025,” Chen writes, “just a handful of *Cannabis* cultivars are grown
at all levels of the Post-Prohibition landscape. Most products are produced
from just a handful of Cannabis cultivars which the large part of the
market now considers to be generic agricultural commodities, perfectly
suitable with each other.”

“Craft *Cannabis*,” the thesis continues, “besides being a marketing term,”
is now “a counterculture within the industry.”

“These results may be meaningful in highlighting the role of government
action on declining genetic diversity in the worldwide Cannabis market—and
its impacts on the medicinal potential and therapeutic index of available
Cannabis products.”

The paper calls the future for cannabis genetics “an open question,” noting
that modern cannabis genetic bottlenecking is still “little explored.”

Based on interviews with growers, it reports that some feel popular metrics
for cannabis fail to capture everything about what’s responsible for a
marijuana high.

“As an example,” writes Chen, “Dr. Grinspoon is a particular cultivar that
multiple breeders felt was special and not properly studied due to its long
flowering time of up to 24 weeks.”

“It’s a perfect example of a plant that like…there’s something else in
there that we’re not testing for,” one grower said. “And there has to
be…because it’s just so incredibly different and pungent in that different
way that there must be something in there that is not being described in
the lab results at this point.”

To be sure, amid an upswing in marijuana research in the post-prohibition
era, researchers are still unlocking new secrets about the cannabis plant.
Researchers earlier this year, for example, announced that they successfully
identified a new cannabinoid—cannabielsoxa—produced by the marijuana plant
as well as a number of other compounds “reported for the first time from
the flowers of *C. sativa*.”

Other research in 2023, published by the American Chemical Society, identified
“previously undiscovered cannabis compounds” that challenged conventional
wisdom of what really gives cannabis varieties their unique olfactory
profiles.

The new paper notes that many breeders, in contrast to “ideotype breeding,
which focuses on lab-measured physiological traits,” also consume the
cannabis they grow to make final decisions on what’s best. “This evaluation
step is arguably unique to the *Cannabis *breeding process and cannot be
easily mechanized or automated,” it contends.

Other factors, like the rise of commercial marketing of cannabis strains,
further complicate efforts to correctly identify genetics by creating “an
incentive…for cultivators to misrepresent the linguistic labels used to
describe their Cannabis genetics especially at the stage after it has been
cultivated and as now being sold,” the thesis says.

“In my analysis,” Chen writes, “I’ve found that one of the effects of the
Post-Prohibition landscape is a link between *Cannabis* regulation, falling
*Cannabis* price, and falling *Cannabis *genetic diversity. As the
Post-Prohibition landscape develops, the risk premium drops as does
*Cannabis*‘s market value. All else equal, this leads *Cannabis*
cultivators to prefer plants which yield more – which provide more saleable
output.”

The 142-page master’s thesis concludes with some thoughts about the future
of cannabis genetics, including how policymakers might adopt regulations
“that understand the need of *Cannabis* breeding and consider the effects
of regulations on *Cannabis* genetic diversity.”

It also calls on academic researchers “to consider *Cannabis* breeder
insights into beneficial changes to *Cannabis* regulations.”

As for other recent cannabis research, scientists reported last month that
they’ve identified 33 “significant markers” in the cannabis genome that
“significantly influence cannabinoid production”—a finding they say
promises to drive the development of new plant varieties with specific
cannabinoid profiles.

The article says the results “offer valuable guidance for *Cannabis *breeding
programs, enabling the use of precise genetic markers to select and refine
promising *Cannabis* varieties.”

Among the findings were what the paper called a “massive” set of genes on
one plant chromosome that involved about 60 megabases (Mb) and was
associated specifically with THC-dominant cannabis strains.

Authors—from Université Laval in Québec, Canada—said the research
represented a shift away from years of cannabis prohibition that “have
impeded the establishment of genetic resource collections and the
development of advanced breeding practices, thus limiting both the genetic
improvement and the understanding of *Cannabis* traits.”

While research into marijuana has exploded in recent years as the result of
more jurisdictions legalizing the drug for medical and adult use, it’s
unclear how the Trump administration’s priorities will impact that trend.

For example, under the new administration, “marijuana” is also now one of
nearly two dozen “controversial or high-profile topics” that staff and
researchers at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) are required to clear
with higher-ups before writing about.

A recently leaked agency memo put marijuana and opioids on a list along
with vaccines, COVID-19, fluoride, measles, abortion, autism, diversity and
gender ideology and other issues that are believed to be personal
priorities of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and
President Trump.

NCI is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which itself is
part of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

Prior to publishing anything on the specified topics, NCI staff are
required to send the materials to an agency clearance team, the memo said..

“Depending on the nature of the information, additional review and
clearance by the NCI director, deputy directors, NIH, and HHS may be
required,” it advised staff. “In some cases, the material will not need
further review, but the NCI Clearance Team will share it with NCI
leadership, NIH, and/or HHS for their awareness.”

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The post Marijuana Market Incentives May Be Reducing Biodiversity In The
Plant, Causing A ‘Bottlenecking Of Cannabis Genetics,’ New Study Says
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