Elon Musk is sending marijuana to astronauts on the International Space Station!

He could create new “mutant” weed.

HAWTHORNE, Kalifornia (PNN) - December 12, 2019 - Elon Musk's Space X will be sending cannabis to the astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS).

The space dwellers can expect their delivery to be on a Space X Dragon capsule, which is scheduled to make its next trip in March 2020.

Musk himself may be the man behind Space X but he's not the brains behind these weed plans.

It's actually agri-tech company Front Range Biosciences.

The firm recently announced its intentions to send plant cultures of hemp, the legal cannabis strain with low levels of the THC compound, to outer space.

Once there, the cultures are intended to remain in an ISS incubator for 30 days.

During the 30-day period, the hemp will be monitored remotely from the University of Colorado, Boulder, by BioServe Space Technologies.

The cannabis cultures will then be sent home to Earth.

Once home, Front Range Biosciences will be observing what effect, if any, space radiation and micro-gravity has had on the gene expression of hemp.

Front Range CEO Jonathan Vaught said, "There is science to support the theory that plants in space experience mutations. This is an opportunity to see whether those mutations hold up once brought back to Earth and if there are new commercial applications."

Hemp is a strain of cannabis that is grown for industrial uses.

It can be refined and turned into a number of items including paper, clothing, biodegradable plastics, and even animal feed.

It's low concentrations of THC and higher concentrations of cannabidiol (CBD) mean it has little to no psychoactive effect.

Musk has been connected to cannabis before.

The eccentric billionaire was famously captured smoking a marijuana roll up on the Los Angeles-based Joe Rogan experience podcast because the drug is legal in the state of Kalifornia.

He came under fire for this because weed is prohibited for people with government security clearance, which Musk was given in 2015 when SpaceX began launching satellites for The Pentagon.

Shortly after smoking, Musk, dressed in a black T-shirt that said "Occupy Mars", told comedian Rogan, “I'm not a regular smoker of weed.”

He added, "I don't find that it is very good for productivity.”