A Canadian scientist wanted to demonstrate how he could use DNA barcoding to distinguish between different strains of cannabis; a pretty valuable thing to be able to do during the weed marketing gold rush.

To prove it, he just took a graph of U.S. arrest data, changed the title, and said 'here, here's my evidence.'

He did a lot more than that. And it might have all gone unnoticed, if not for some meddlesome researchers. Senior producer Sarah Lawrynuik gets into it.

Featured in this episode: Charles Piller, investigative journalist for Science Magazine; Ken Thompson, post-doctoral fellow at Stanford University; Paul Hebert, director of the University of Guelph's Centre for Biodiversity Genomics

Further reading:

• Failing the test, Charles Piller, Science
• Controversial supplements researcher not guilty of misconduct, Canadian university concludes, Charles Piller, Science

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