The Cannabis Seed Paradox: Breaking The Law To Grow

You’ve seen our physicians at Green Health Docs. You have your certification. You’ve registered with the state and gotten proper authorization to grow medical cannabis at home. But then comes the cannabis seed paradox! 

Find out what the cannabis seed paradox is below. And how cultivators get around it. (Hint: they break the law)

The Cannabis Seed Paradox

Once you have your home cultivation authorization, it’s time to start growing medical cannabis. But there’s one small hitch. Where the hell does one get seeds? 

Well, here’s the rub. Seeds are illegal. That is, it is illegal under federal law to move cannabis across state lines. This includes full grown plants, clones, seedlings or even seeds themselves. Yup, you read that right. Home cultivators will need to do something illegal in order to grow legal medical cannabis.

Some clinics and cultivation businesses may offer seeds for free, a quick and easy way for patients to bypass this hurdle. But literally thousands of Missouri medical marijuana patients will be stuck searching for places to buy seeds. And regardless of legality, many patients will try to buy or order seeds online in order to get a specific strain that caters to their medical needs. 

Selling Seeds is Illegal, Online or in Missouri

Even retailers are walking a thin line when it comes to selling cannabis seeds in Missouri. Proper state authorization is required in order to sell cannabis products, like dry flower, edibles or oils. Products can only be sold to state medical marijuana patients. Seeds will likely not be sold in medical marijuana dispensaries, though that’s a possibility at some point. 

Anyone selling seeds outside the medical marijuana arena is likely doing so without legal authorization. This puts their business at risk for penalty or punishment if caught.

Seeds sold online are typically sold in states or countries where cannabis is legal. However, shipping seeds in the mail is a federal crime. If you’ve ever been burned by purchasing seeds online, chances are your seeds were simply confiscated by authorities before making their way to your door.

Seeds online are also a crap-shoot. You may get that award-winning strain, or you may get some messed up hybrid that gives you the jitters. And worse, you won’t know until harvest. Buying online isn’t the best way to get seeds, but sometimes it’s the only option from some cultivators.

Bypassing the Law?

Even large scale cultivators will face the cannabis seed paradox. In order to begin their grows, they must either bring in seeds or clones from another state or country. As cannabis is still illegal under federal law, crossing the border or state lines constitutes of federal felony. Getting caught could result in severe legal punishment, possibly even jail time.

And yet, cultivators grow cannabis in every state with an active marijuana program. That means the law was broken with no real consequence. Seeds, after all, are fairly innocuous and difficult to detect. A pack of seeds could fit into a wallet, or even a small envelope with no trouble whatsoever. Seeds give off little to no smell, and are largely indistinguishable from hemp seeds. It is a crime to move seeds across state lines, but it’s an undetectable crime that doesn’t harm anyone. This is likely why it goes unpunished.

Clones, on the other hand, are far easier to detect. Cannabis has a smell beginning around the first few leaves. The smell is surprisingly dank by this stage. Moving clones across state lines is a much riskier endeavor. Many cultivators will risk it, however, as it greatly speeds up the time to harvest. This means that patients get medical cannabis in their dispensaries much faster.

Legalizing Cannabis Seeds

Even if the federal government decides not to reschedule cannabis, removing it from the list of the most restricted drugs in the country, something must be done about the cannabis seed paradox. This issue affects every single state with a medical marijuana or recreational marijuana program. 

Ohio faced this issue when their program launched in 2016. Maryland also faced this paradox a year earlier with their program. And this same paradox struck Michigan, Pennsylvania and Illinois. The list goes on…

Legalizing cannabis seeds and clones for authorized businesses and medical marijuana patients makes sense. It allows the federal government to properly track each sale of cannabis seeds and clones. This gives them a better sense of what is moving where, and when. This could also lead to better tracking of black market cannabis. 

And let’s be real. Legalizing cannabis seeds and clones allows safe passage for those seeds and clones, and the employees entrusted with the task of moving them. There are a lot of noble botanists trying their best to bring good quality cannabis to medical marijuana patients. But those heroes are putting a lot on the line when moving seeds across state lines or borders. Legalization would protect them and allow these employees to do their job more efficiently.

Legal Seeds for Patients

Patients with proper home cultivation authorization should also be allowed to purchase and transport seeds or clones across state lines from authorized retailers. Full stop.

Seed and clone tracking, if necessary, could be done through the same database established for tracking medical marijuana purchased in the state at dispensaries. The state could even regulate high potency strains, if such a thing were cause for alarm. 

Regardless, a medical marijuana patient deserves the freedom to legally grow their cannabis, and one of those stages is buying the actual plant itself. If a patient is allowed to grow cannabis, they should be allowed to buy cannabis seeds. The whole process should be legal, from seed to medication.

Getting Your Certification

In order to grow cannabis at home, a qualifying patient must first get a certificate to use medical cannabis. You can do so by seeing one of our licensed medical marijuana physicians at Green Health Docs in Missouri. They can help you get certified, and our support team can walk you through the home cultivation application process. To get started, simply call 1-877-242-0362 today! Patients can obtain a card either in-person at our Missouri clinics, or through online.