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Biohackers Are Engineering Yeast To Make THC

Posted by timothy on from the really-great-bread-man dept.

meghan elizabeth writes How do you get weed without the weed? By genetically engineering yeast to produce THC, of course. Once theorized in a stoner magazine column more than a decade ago, a biotech startup working in Ireland is actively trying to transplant the genetic information that codes for both THC and another cannabinoid called CBD into yeast so that "marijuana" can be grown in a lab—no plants necessary.

4 of 159 comments (clear)

  1. Holy grey area! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    So let's say I start a company that uses GMO THC yeast to make bread dough. The dough does not contain any THC; just the yeast that can create it. I sell this bread dough in your supermarket's freezer section as unrisen, unbaked loaves.

    You purchase the bread dough, take it home, thaw it out, let it rise overnight. (Or, for an hour or two in a warm oven.) It happily produced CO2 and THC, the bread rises, you then bake it. You then can make some 'fun' sandwiches. Is my business legal?

    1. Re:Holy grey area! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      Maybe so, but it's perhaps another step in the direction of making the prohibition unenforceable. Such technological advances coupled with a changing public perception and political changes (California, Colorado, Portugal, the Netherlands and increasing de facto legality in more and more places) are increasing momentum against the "war on drugs". I hope to live to see the day when the current prohibition will be held in the same regard as the previous one. For now I take comfort in the realisation that puritanism is losing ground.

  2. Cookie dough by roman_mir · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Yeast with THC sounds like a perfect combination, get high while eating something baked and it could be any bread, a dope bagel, a funny muffin, a nostalgic croissant, the branding possibilities are endless!

    --
    You can't handle the truth.
  3. No wouldnt be fun at all by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    With only THC and none of the other cannabinoids all you are just going to get is very anxious and very paranoid and I doubt anybody wants that. We discover something new about the endocannabinoid system almost every day. If you expose yourselves to chronic high levels of THC alone you are going to find some of those receptors downregulated retarding the action of GABA. Cannabidiol (CBD) is essential, it is a weak cannabinoid receptor antagonist/agonist the role depends on dose concentration and is highly anxiolytic. Trust me you want it.