OTSEGO, Minn. — A new strain of marijuana plant could slash costs for medical cannabis users in Minnesota.
Minnesota Medical Solutions, one of two medical cannabis operators in the state, announced the creation of a new strain with a higher cannabidiol (CBD) content than any cannabis plant known.
The new strain, named the Katelyn Faith strain, was cultivated through months of germination research, MinnMed CEO Dr. Kyle Kingsley said at the companyâs Otsego greenhouse and laboratory.
This is likely the most CBD-rich strain in the world, though itâs difficult to know for sure because testing is not as rigorous and transparent as it should be.
The two primary medical components in a cannabis plant, CBD and tetrahyrdocannabinol (THC) are sometimes used to treat different ailments. THC is used in cancer treatment, while CBD helps patients with seizure conditions.
What makes Katelyn Faith special is its CBD to THC ratio. Most medical cannabis has a 1-to-1 ratio.
Katelyn Faith has a ratio of 34-to-1, according to third-party lab testing.
Such a high ratio is âhighly unusual,â Kingsley said. Americaâs most famous medical cannabis strain, called Charlotteâs Web, has only about a 20-to-1 ratio.
Katelyn Faith was named after Katelyn Faith Pauling, an 8-year-old girl from Montevideo, Minn., who died in March due to complications from Batten disease, which causes seizures. She often accompanied her parents, who are medical cannabis advocates who fought to bring the treatment to Minnesota.
âWe named this special plant after a special little girl,â Kingsley said. âIt would not have helped cure her disease, but it likely would have made a positive effect on her quality of life at the end.â
Users of Katelyn Faith will not experience an intoxicating high associated with illicit marijuana use, Kingsley said. THC is the chemical in cannabis that causes intoxication, and even 1-to-1 CBD ratio cannabis causes very little impairment.
âIf you brought Katelyn Faith to a Grateful Dead concert, you wonât make many friends,â Kingsley said. âCharlotteâs Web was commonly known as âHippiesâ Disappointmentâ before its medical use; Katelyn Faith would probably be âHippiesâ Despair.â
âThere wouldnât be enough THC in this entire plant to cause intoxication,â he said, gesturing to a  2œ-feet-tall Katelyn Faith plant that was a few weeks old.
Kingsley said MinnMed currently has a roughly 50-50 split of those using CBD and THC, although many have a combination of the two. He said those with conditions such as epilepsy and Batten disease stand to benefit the most from Katelyn Faith.
âThe big winner of all of this is the patients,â Kingsley said.
Availability
Charlotteâs Web caused an influx of patients to flock to Colorado in 2013 when it became available for medical use. Kingsley said Katelyn Faith could cause a similar âmedical refugeeâ rush to Minnesota like Colorado experienced, as federal law does not allow the transportation of cannabis across state lines, even in seed form.
âIt could happen,â Kingsley said of patients moving to Minnesota from out of state. âWe look forward to providing medicine to any patients who qualify.â
To be eligible for medical cannabis in Minnesota, patients must be a resident of the state and have one of the following qualifying conditions: cancer, glaucoma, HIV/AIDS, Tourette syndrome, ALS (Lou Gehrigâs disease), seizures, severe muscle spasms, Crohnâs disease or a terminal illness with a life expectancy of less than a year. Those experiencing intractable pain — or pain that has not responded to other treatments or has an indeterminate source — are eligible starting Aug. 1, 2016.
Development
The development of Katelyn Faith began about 10 months ago, as thousands of seeds were developed by MinnMed horticulturalists — through natural methods, not artificial genetic modification, Kingsley said.
Kingsley said the strain will help vastly improve MinnMedâs production efficiency, and he anticipates it to drive a drop in medical cannabis costs for patients. He said current patients can spend anywhere from $100 to $1,000 per month for medicine, but most fall between $200 and $400. Kingsley wasnât able to definitively say how much patients stand to save through the development and use of Katelyn Faith, saying it depended on enrollment numbers.
–WDay
Drew
Effective medicine that’s also inexpensive? Big pharma isn’t gonna like this.
EVAN
Ambary Gardens IN-house-only strain easily does 34:1 and more. We can send verified 3rd party testing. Also – keep an eye on Israel – their CBD strains are really ahead of the game.
Rhonda
Im thankful to those who work endlessly to help people who need this. I am also thankful to those who continue to push forward for our cause!