A WNY-based biotech company has successfully grown a strain of marijuana that contains zero THC, a feat the company says will transform the medical marijuana industry.
22nd Century, a biotech company based in Clarence, along with its Canadian research partners Anandia Labs, have grown marijuana "which looks, smells and tastes like ordinary weed" but contains no THC. THC is the active ingredient that contributes to marijuana's "sometimes hallucinatory" high.
Researchers with the company say it will be a huge help to the growing industrial hemp industry, providing farmers with a strain that shouldn't go over the legal limit for THC.
They say they're using the same technology that helped eliminate THC to isolate other cannabinoids in marijuana to better understand potential medical benefits.
"This is going to be a major new industry," Dr. Paul Rushton, VP of Plant Biotechnology, said. "There's no doubt about this. We're fortunate in many ways to be at the forefront of it. We are looking to have new varieties and intellectual property. We're looking to be major movers in the industry as it takes hold. And I'm very proud that a lot of these advances are actually happening in downtown Buffalo."
