Biohackers Are Engineering Yeast To Make THC

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.

Comments

Holy grey area!

[Anonymous Coward]

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?

Re:Holy grey area!

[Anonymous Coward]

If it's legal it won't be for long. Two points:

1) Most likely the yeast bodies will have trace amounts of THC.
2) Look at what happened with Psilocybin, the spores of the mushrooms contain no Psilocybin however the mushrooms do. You used to be able to order the spores legally because there were no psychoactive chemicals however they are now also on the DEA schedule.

So .. no.

Re:Holy grey area!

[Alien7]

Provided you make a warning against doing just that it's okay. During alcohol prohibition breweries used to sell malt extract with a warning that went something like "don't add water and yeast and leave in a dark room for 3 weeks, it will make alcohol and that's illegal!"

Re:Holy grey area!

[newcastlejon]

So, in other words, what you're saying is that bread bakes you?

Re:Holy grey area!

[nurb432]

It may not be as grey as you think.

Example: Buying spores for psilocybin mushrooms could well be illegal, as it shows 'conspiracy to commit', which is illegal in its own right... The spores contain noting, but there is no other use for them but to create illegal substances so its really hard to make up an excuse.. This is no difference than your business proposal.

I also think in some US states ( and countries ) possession of the spores was declared illegal outright....

Re:Holy grey area!

[QRDeNameland]

Provided you don't know that _all_ poppies are opium poppies, then it's legal to buy the seeds and grow the flowers. Of course now that you know ...

GP might not "know" that because it's false.

Only Papaver somniferum are opium poppies. The common red 'Flanders' poppy aka the Veteran's Day/Remembrance Day poppy (Papaver rhoeas) is not an opium poppy, nor are a number of others like the California poppy that are not even of the genus Papaver.

Poppy

Re: Holy grey area!

[aidian]

Yes, actually.
(Link to paper.)

Re:Holy grey area!

[n3r0.m4dski11z]

Shroom spores are legal in canada. They sell kits at some herbal stores I know.

http://www.magicmushroomkit.ca...

Re:Holy grey area!

[garyebickford]

Taking this one step farther - engineering a gut bacterium. Stay high _all_ the time.

Re:Holy grey area!

[ormondotvos]

People already can have this problem, with alcohol produced in their gut.

Being high all the time isn't possible.

"Biohackers"

[dugancent]

In my lab, we call them scientists (or chemist, biologist, etc).

Law.

[leuk_he]

The law is not equipped to forsee such advances in drugs. However if this is commercially possible, and this becomes popular, THC enabled yeast will be added to lists of forbidden substances. (just like "bath salts")

420 Loko?

[jimduchek]

Just sayin...

Whoa

[SpankiMonki]

Dude, we are totally gonna get baked.

Need fast-acting yeast

[retroworks]

They better act fast if they want to skirt the law with yeast, while there's still a law to break. In USA, Pot will be legal nationwide by 2018

At least that's been my bet. According to the LA Times today, the DEA in Washington is showing "fatigue" at enforcing it and the White House is ready to give up on the "war on pot". http://www.latimes.com/nation/...

Re:Need fast-acting yeast

[bill_mcgonigle]

They better act fast if they want to skirt the law with yeast, while there's still a law to break.

It's still a good idea if you want pure chemicals - yeast can produce chemicals faster (to both grow and purify) than plants. Companies like the one Gov. Johnson is heading up would probably be very interested as a supply source for their refined products.

The trick is medicinal cannabis has something like 250 active compounds. A few years ago everybody assumed that it was only THC that did anything (marinol, for instance). Now they know that CBD is the most active medicinally and Johnson is now talking about CBG as well. There's still more unknown about the others than there is known, so focusing on just a couple pure chemicals might miss out on benefits. Human bodies do a lot of signalling with various cannabinoids and here's this one plant that happens to also grow most of them. It should be a biotech bonanza, except for the crapitalistic reasons politicians try to keep it off the market.

But, um, yeah, get high on THC beer if you want. It would actually probably be a net-benefit for society since people will be satisfied with being less drunk. As a user of the road monopoly, I'd strongly support THC beer on the market.

Re:Need fast-acting yeast

[Trepidity]

I doubt it will be fully legal by 2018. At the state level, I think it's likely more states will decriminalize or even fully legalize, but not all of them. I'll put a guess at: by 2018, it will be fully legal in 15 states, decriminalized in 15, and still criminal to possess in 20 states.

At the federal level, the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs would complicate legalization efforts, since the Treaty requires signatories to ban marijuana. And the U.S. doesn't want to undermine this treaty, because it uses the treaty to strongarm other countries over things like coca and poppy growing. It's possible the DEA will lower enforcement priority, though, and maybe possible (though imo this is less likely) that Congress will revise the law to reduce sentences from their current levels.

Re:Need fast-acting yeast

[GNious]

They better act fast if they want to skirt the law with yeast, while there's still a law to break. In USA, Pot will be legal nationwide by 2018

At least that's been my bet. According to the LA Times today, the DEA in Washington is showing "fatigue" at enforcing it and the White House is ready to give up on the "war on pot". http://www.latimes.com/nation/...

It took 148 years for the states to agree slavery was bad, you think they'll agree on pot being good in less than a decade?

Re:Need fast-acting yeast

[garyebickford]

Minor point - IIRC weed was targeted by William Randolph Hearst back in the 20s. Hearst owned the largest newspaper chain in the US, and had bought the global rights to the new method for making paper out of wood. His goal was to eliminate hemp as a fiber source for paper. He set up a huge tree plantation in Guyana (or thereabouts) and began a major attack on weed. He began a publicity campaign in his papers about the evils of weed, funded the making of "Reefer Madness", and lobbied and bribed congresscritters to include weed in the Volstead Act as a dangerous drug.

At that time hemp, which is a slightly different variety of cannabis, was a major source of quality fiber for rope as well as paper (and still better than any other vegetable fiber AFAIK). The hemp growing industry was destroyed. But even today, cannabis is a major 'weed' throughout the midwest, and is a primary source of seeds for birds.

Once when motorcycling around the wilds of Illinois we came upon a large tract - probably 40 acres - of hemp, complete with a set of beehives. I have no idea if this was just fallow land or being grown on purpose. We came back with a car and collected one 14 foot plant for a Christmas tree in the dorm. The branches were two feet apart. Smoking was tried, it was pretty much smoking a rope.

Re:this + vaping

[TitusGroan8856]

here in the UK oil used to be a class-A drug like heroin whilst the resin or plant matter was a class-B. The main reason for this, I believe, was the method of extracting oil with isopropanol can be a bit of a fire/explosion risk. When they reclassified weed/resin as class-C they also lowered oil's classification. Then they moved plant/resin backup to class-B which is where oil remains now; because governments are fickle like that.

I've been calling for this for 20+ years...

[jeffb (2.718)]

Actually, I've been calling for someone to graft the THC-production complex into kudzu. That way, either we get government help to wipe it out, or the government finally gives up; either way, kudzu becomes useful for something.

Of course, I don't have much deep knowledge about GM or plant biology, so coming up with this idea was about on a par with saying "somebody ought to build a flying car". Here's hoping that the task these folks are tackling turns out more tractable than that one.

Re:I've been calling for this for 20+ years...

[garyebickford]

Actually cannabis is the second most common weed in Nebraska - or was a couple of decades ago, and there's no reason why that has changed. The midwest has 'volunteer' hemp growing everywhere. Attempts to eradicate it were stopped after a suit by the Audubon society, as the seeds are a major food source for birds - and hemp has very little THC. Some friends and I personally found a large (40 acres at least) field of hemp in northern Illinois back in the day, complete with beehives. I don't know if this was 'fallow' or being grown on purpose. We nabbed a 14 foot plant for a Christmas tree in the dorm.

Grass in "Grass"

[BoRegardless]

For over 20 years it has been discussed that it might be possible to get the genes into your lawn's Bermuda grass.

Then your gardener could really rake in the grass for real dough.

No wouldnt be fun at all

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

BAN YEAST!

[bussdriver]

Industrial hemp is banned because of the drug ban despite the fact it is not the smoking kind of hemp. Under that logic, they have ban all yeast because 1 species can make you high.