Nomenclatural instability and society

[John McNeill]

The case best known to me is that of those strains of cannabis with
psychomimetic properties (i.e. "drug strains").  U.S. law prohibits
possession and trade in _Cannabis sativa_; a widespread defenc(s)e was
to clsim that the accused was in possession of _Cannabis indica_, not
the proscribed species.  Thanks to the efforts of expert witnesses like
the late Art Cronquist (NY) and Ernie Small (Ottawa), who testified that
all cannabis (fibre, oilseed or drug) fell into the one species, I do
not think this defence was ever successful, at least upon appeal.  There
were, however, other botanists testifying as expert witnesses that
_Cannabis sativa_ applied only to the fibre (hemp) and oilseed strains
and the drug strains were a different species, _Cannabis indica_, not
referred to in the legislation.   Ernie Small has a couple of books and
goodness knows how many papers on ths subject -- his and his colleagues'
bibliography of Canadian botanists is (or was) on the web.  John
McNeill.
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      John McNeill, Director Emeritus, Royal Ontario Museum,
      100 Queen's Park, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 2C6, Canada.
      Telephone and fax number:  416-586-5744
      e-mail: johnm at rom.on.ca
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______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: Nomenclatural instability and society
Author:  Nicolas Bailly <bailly at CIMRS1.MNHN.FR> at Internet
Date:    11/03/99 12:58 PM


Dear Taxacomers,

Have you got some references about the impact of nomenclatural instability
on the users from the whole society (lawyers, customs, etc.) ?

=46or example, in a recent issue of Fisheries, there is a plea to work on
mollusk phylogeny to improve the management.

But I have not found a real example with data on the impact for laws or
else of a scientific name change.

Thanks a lot for help.


-------------------------------------------------------
Nicolas BAILLY              MNHN-IGA     bailly at mnhn.fr
Museum national d'histoire naturelle
    Laboratoire d'Ichtyologie g=E9n=E9rale et appliqu=E9e
            43 rue Cuvier, 75231 Paris Cedex 05, France
T: 33 1 40 79 37 63  / 49 (Secr.) ; F: 33 1 40 79 37 71
-------------------------------------------------------
Systematics collections: look at the PARSYST Programme:
             http://www.mnhn.fr/progsc/