The best defense is a good offense. Was: Re: Silk Road gossip

[jim bell]

 On Tuesday, October 16, 2018, 1:08:02 AM PDT, Steven Schear <schear.steve at 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







  
  
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