Escalating skunk grown by the same company that had the cannabis Americana brand, park Davis and company became another huge company still around to this day , I’ve never been able to find anything to document this but have been told something very similar, I’ve also heard the term haze from the the same period. I honestly don’t believe it because giving cannabis names like that was not in the pharmacopeia standards but If somebody can find a document containing some proof of this it would realy be a neat thing.
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I appreciate this comment and the one you’re replying to very much. There seems to be a rich history about this plant in the Americas that is not often talked about, I’m just learning about it now!
I’ve always wondered about those stories on the forums about these old varieties having links to what turns out to be places in or close to the blue ridge mountains, which just so happens to be one of the places Parke Davis supposedly undertook their research along with somewhere in Mexico if I’m not mistaken. This is information I gleaned from posts on Icmag and it lead me to the world wide web, low and behold there are research records at the Smithsonian from Parke Davis although I haven’t figured out how to access them to view yet.
There is, however, a book that I found while researching all of this titled Marijuana: Medical Papers 1839-1972 by Mikuriya, M.D. that I believe has some of them published. After reading the reviews on Amazon it definitely seems like a cool book to add to the collection.
It seems more than likely to me if imported varieties were introduced to the Americas, that the good ones would eventually grow legs and find there way in far off lands. California maybe even? Sharing is caring, that’s nothing new. I’d imagine the viewpoint towards sharing and trading seeds back then was still pretty important too.
This is all incredibly fascinating. I love the conversations here. Y’all are awesome. Much love
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There was a pharmaceutical company or chemical company that grew cannabis from Columbia up into Mexico to compare what area would have the most desirable expression of the plants they were working with, if I’m not mistaken some of seeds they used were from Borneo and India, but the strain from India was described as a indica not a sativa type plant. Those South American/Mexican strains are most likely Indian , Nepalese, and African strains mixed and acclimated over time by the workers who were left with the beans when the USA pulled out and made weed illegal. Some suspect the red hairs come from Angola red , would be nice to see some department of agriculture records that describe the areas the seeds originated from…
Park Davis and the department of agriculture grew the first dank weed in the americas 
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I’m going to order that book I mentioned earlier, hoping there’s mention of the research by the pharmaceutical companies detailing which geographic areas they imported seed from.
“Lamarck in 1785 coined C. indica for plants of Indian provenance and their descendants in Southeast Asia and South Africa.”
If this was happening in the early 1900’s I believe that would have been the most current nomenclature for them to draw from. Kind of want to see if I can find some old Parke Davis cannabis collectables now. I’d love to see how they advertised and marketed it. Much love
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The small glass bottles are rather valuable and I’d love to have one but there are 1000 fakes for every real one out there.
They have known cannabis was not dangerous sense day one.
A statement from the military study conducted on cannabis in Panama
(While soldiers smoking marijuana is not a great threat to military discipline and operations, its use should be kept to a minimum by keeping the current military regulations in force. No restrictions need to be placed on marijuana outside the military bases is necessary, however.”)
And something From a Interesting times article on some of the original gold strains, btw on the topic of skunk people should be crossing old afghans with gold Mexican sativas and hunting beans not buying peoples supposed skunk beans.
Magazine “Time” of January 27, 1979 Artichoke, Turmeric and More Strange Flavored Water Products | TIME … -2,00.html
A Colombian who produces marijuana receives approximately one percent of the real value of his crop (that is, about six dollars per pound), but this is five or six times better than harvesting coffee, corn or cotton. Even though the government has begun to take steps of control (it has burned more than 2,000 tons of marijuana since last fall), it is not inclined to be too rigid with the farmers José Miguel Garavito, the head of operations of the anti-drug unit. -Droga of the Procurator General, explains: "It is difficult to blame a farmer who sows corn and earns a few pesos and then goes to the marijuana when he sees that his neighbors, who cultivate it, work the same as him and earn much more. The traffickers come, they give him the seeds and then they return to receive the harvest. "
There are many varieties. The “tasters” report that although the “Santa Marta Gold” is still the most famous of the Colombian production, the Arhuaco natives are producing in higher areas an even more powerful variety: “la Mona”, whose leaf is so pale looking bleached. The Blue Sky hills produce another golden bush known as “The Blue Sky Bream”, which is the hybrid product of a derivation achieved with seeds crossed two years before with Thailanders. To the low and arid lands of La Guajira, which are irrigated and are cultivated with tractors, produce a good quality grass. In six months the intense sun makes the plants rise 45 centimeters and allows them to develop a powerful resin. The new crop area that is emerging is the Eastern Plains, on the edge of the Amazon rainforest, where pruning has improved the original green cannabis.
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Yeah so the us government started a pharmaceutical breeding program around 1830. It spanned the Appalachian as well as a few parts of eastern mexico (im wondering if thats modern mexico, or the parts of America that used to be mexico before we annexed it).
This project used the best of the genetics from around the world and bred them to make better pharmaceuticals. Eventually they were what the OSS used in interogations.
When the government criminalized cannabis, this program stopped (at least officially) and got handed off to other elements. I hear Skunk, Haze, Bubblegum all came from this.
As far as not finding any documentation - they did a damned good job at covering up mk ultra. The only papers that were found were extras in an overflow annex.
Funny enough, many of ted bundy’s missions were to infiltrate hospitals and destroy their records of their participation in mk ultra.
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Well, it makes sense to not use var.indica and such if they were patenting the strains.
Just look at bayer and heroine. Used to be called milk of the poppy. Then they put a catchy name to it.
As one army guy said, its really interesting how its hard to find continuitous info before 1910.
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Funny you mention that. Have you heard of Grandpappy Skunk? It was released earlier this year by Jade Nectar, named that way because they were reproduced from a stash of seeds out of some old hippies freezer. Supposedly those seeds were original “flying skunk” which sam the skunkman sold in the 70’s before he got raided, and before he bred skunk #1. Here’s an article about it: Skunk Magazine - The Seeds of a Revolution
I picked up a couple packs in santa cruz when I was on a beach trip last month, I’m looking forward to trying them out next season
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When you have seeds from old it can be exciting. I myself want to start a Skunk hunt. I’ve got 4 strains from trades, but are probably politically correct skunk. But I will give them a run soon as I get space. Good luck your old seeds they have more hope than all four strains of my traded seeds.
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You have my attention lol
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By 1978 Sam already had spent 10 years selecting for sweet skunk.
Many people heckled him to re-release some of his oldest skunks. He released ancestral skunk, an open pollination done before he left for Holland. No rks. Sweet skunks through and through.
A strange case this sam skunkman skunk lol
Early packs were listed as 100% Afghan, and supposedly “rks as fuck bro” but Noone can confirm this. Mr I made selection out of 20 000 plants each year, forgot one of his partners wrote a piece saying they worked hard and selected from 100 beans…
Idk too much bs and double speak coming from this line lol
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I’ve read it on this site “It’s time to cross an Indica with a Sativa and rediscover Skunk”
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You mean Afghani cookie landrace x mexican cookie landrance
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Mith loves cookies!
I knew it…
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Interesting bit about the lineage discrepancy. Shades of haze in that regard. Sam has been contradictory before in listing the lineage of haze, so it’s not necessarily an anomaly or anything to think the same couldn’t have happened with Skunk too. Afghan only? That sounds pretty nice actually.
I’ve read some people suggest crossing some of the MNS skunk lines together and searching the resulting progeny for RKS, but haven’t seen it attempted. If I recall, it was suggested to cross Nordle with Devil or something like that. Does that seem like a likely route if enough progeny are searched? Much love
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Here’s a link to the gene trader’s events, including the fabulous Skunk-Con
I read that the first haze was pure colombian and each year the breeder would cross it with a different landrace and test those out.
Sam could very well have many old hazes lines with different thais, mex, limbo etc
My take on his skunk is that skunk existed prior to him breeding. He started with 100% Afghan skunk that he got from somewhere/someone then he added different nld on top to make it sweet…
The devil x nordle suggestion allegedly came from a fake (nevil or Shanti?) account. I highly doubt anything rks would come out of those…
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Appreciate the feedback. I think you’re right about the lines sort of changing over time, as most things do in life, not just cannabis. While at the same time, the name takes on slightly different meanings along the way too.
I didn’t know about there being fake accounts, and hate the idea of spreading false information so I try my best to be as mindful with my words as possible. Words are powerful!
Your comment definitely got me thinking of all the lines Sam might still have, because I believe I have read a comment of him mentioning or at least alluding to having a lot of prior work and all being able to go back to his lines in various stages of development. Now I’m daydreaming of an RKS Afghan type crossed to an incense sandalwood long flowering type. That would be a fun progeny to peek into and explore, enjoy. Much love
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