Warning: The dope you are smoking can now be identified by its DNA. Warning: The dope you are smoking can now be identified by its DNA.

Heather Coyle’s new marijuana DNA database at the University of New Haven can tell if a particular fragment of pot is the “White Widow” strain, “Skunk Number One,” “Super Silver Haze” or another of the more than 25 types of marijuana that she’s genetically mapped.

The DNA analysis can let cops and federal agents trace the marijuana from a single bud or seed found in Connecticut back to its source, as long as they can get ahold of samples to match.

They can find out whether it was grown in Mexico and formed part of a drug cartel’s shipment. Or maybe the dope was part of a crop from northern California’s “Emerald Triangle” and sold at a freewheeling Los Angeles medical marijuana dispensary.

Coyle says this system of genetic fingerprinting could also be used to offer states a foolproof way to control and regulate medical pot programs.

And it just so happens that Connecticut officials are right now wondering about exactly that sort of issue as they consider passing a medical marijuana law here.

Coyle is a 46-year-old “forensic botanist” and an associate professor at UNH since 2005. Before arriving at the university, she spent seven years working at the Connecticut state forensics lab in Meriden.

A forensic botanist helps cops solve cases by identifying and analyzing samples of plants taken from crime scenes. If this sounds like the cool shit that happens in TV crime dramas, you’re exactly right. It’s not much of a surprise to learn that Coyle is a fan of those shows.