On Tuesday, October 16, 2018, 1:08:02 AM PDT, Steven Schear <schear.st...@gmail.com> wrote: >Jim,>A much better solution to the problem of secure sales of controlled >substances is to eliminate conventional distribution. (I think we may have >discussed this more than two decades ago): use genomics. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-05659-z
>No reason such yeasts couldn't be informally transferred between people any >different than sourdough starter nor express other psychotropics. Without the >money incentives and common illicit channels it could end the war on illicit >drugs. Well, yes, not too long after I moved to the Pacific Northwest in 1980, I joked that "somebody" should insert the gene for making THC into the blackberry plant (which grows virtually endemic here!) and spread the seeds by some kind of crop-dusting operation. However, I don't keep up with DNA technology, other than occasionally reading a public-media article. I have recently seen an ad for full-sequence DNA testing for humans, at about $500. I don't know if this would be automatically applicable to plants or other animals, including marijuana plants, but I certainly wouldn't know how to find the "THC gene". But, experts would know that, I think. I suspect both plants have been full-sequenced by now. How to transfer the DNA, I also don't know. Jim Bell
