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Forensic scientists in the US are applying DNA fingerprinting methods
to the cannabis plant. They say the technique, which is being used to
create a database of DNA profiles of different marijuana plants, will help
them to trace the source of any sample.
"It links everybody together: the user, the distributor, the grower,"
says the database's creator, Heather Miller Coyle of the Connecticut State
Forensic Science Laboratory in Meriden. "That's the real intent of it, to
show it's not just one guy with a little bag of marijuana, but it's a
group of people."
A method for spotting the tiniest traces of marijuana, based on
detecting DNA unique to cannabis chloroplasts, has already been developed
in the UK (New Scientist print edition, 7 August 1999). But the
profiling method, based on the same principles as DNA fingerprinting of
people, can distinguish between closely related cannabis plants
(Croatian Medical Journal, vol 44, p 315).
In a case awaiting trial in Connecticut, prosecutors plan to use
cannabis DNA profiles to show that two apparently separate cannabis
growing operations were actually linked. The two operations, in different
parts of the state appeared separate until analysis of the plants revealed
that some had identical DNA fingerprints, showing that the growers were
sharing material. "From the investigative point of view that was
phenomenal," says Timothy Palmbach, director of scientific services at the
laboratory.
Potent plants
The big difference between human and plant DNA fingerprinting is that
in people, each fingerprint is almost certainly unique to one person. So
if a crime scene sample matches a person's profile, there is little doubt
that it came from that individual.
In plants, by contrast, identical clones are easily created by taking
cuttings, a method growers often use to perpetuate potent strains of dope.
So showing two samples have matching DNA profiles does not by itself prove
they come from the same grower, let alone the same plant. But Palmbach
says that growers tend not to give away cuttings of their best plants, so
linking samples in this way is an important lead for investigators and
will still be useful in tracing samples.
"What growers have done to get more potent plants has played right into
our hands," says Palmbach. And if several matching profiles are found in
separate samples, the chances are high that they are somehow linked.
Terrorist ties
Coyle is establishing a database of DNA profiles from hundreds of
marijuana samples seized in Connecticut. "We want to track how many
varieties are out there, what the trends in distribution are, the
probability that a plant can be related to another," says Palmbach. The
database is being extended to include samples from all over the US and the
rest of the world. "We invite anyone to send us samples," says Coyle.
Exactly how law enforcement agencies will apply the method remains to
be seen. If a link can be established between a user and a grower or
dealer, casual users might find themselves in deeper trouble than they
bargained for. "If you're buying marijuana from somebody with terrorist
ties, it could be traced back to that person," warns Gary Shutler of the
Washington State Patrol's crime laboratory division.
On the other hand, he says, where medical uses of marijuana are legal,
the technology could help characterise strains with the desired medicinal
properties. Several US states have voted to legalise the medical use of
cannabis, though these efforts are being fought by federal
authorities.
The technology will not help police investigating the production or
sale of highly processed or synthetic drugs such as cocaine and ecstasy.
Nor does the team think it would work with hashish, which is made from
resin exuded by cannabis plants, as not enough cellular material can be
recovered. If the cannabis profiling technique does prove to be an
effective tool in investigations and in the courtroom, dealers may switch
to selling hashish. | 
