Thursday, July 10, 2003

DNA Profiles Link Dope to Its Source 09 Jul 03 Forensic scientists in the U.S. 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, 07 Aug 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. [NewScientist.com] 12:43:00 AM  Google It!

Cheney Loses Ruling on Energy Panel Records by Henri E. Cauvin 09 Jul 03 A federal appeals court yesterday rejected Vice President Cheney's bid to keep secret all the workings of his energy task force, saying sufficient safeguards were already in place to prevent the disclosure of genuinely privileged information. The 2 to 1 ruling, by a panel of judges from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, does not in itself order the release of specific information, but it affirms a lower court judge's order seeking documents that would shed light on the membership of the group Cheney assembled more than two years ago to help develop U.S. energy policy. [Washington Post] 12:01:17 AM  Google It!