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> European regulators, he said, are eager for a way to create a steady supply of THC and other cannabinoids without actually cultivating marijuana. “They are in

> European regulators, he said, are eager for a way to create a steady supply of THC and other cannabinoids without actually cultivating marijuana. “They are in fear that these plants will be grown and will support some illegal farming,” So the regulators are eager to flood the market with GMO THC, so they can stop people from growing their own organic THC? Sounds like they just want to commercialize & control it.

exelius 11y ago
Except that marijuana seeds are effectively legal throughout the EU as long as they're not cultivated (ha). If they really wanted to commercialize and control the sale of marijuana, they would legalize it.
yid 11y ago
> GMO THC Well that's a new one, because THC isn't an "organism", nor is it "genetically modified".
- ryanlol 11y ago
  Or even genetically modifiable.
- bduerst 11y ago
  I think what they meant was GMO-produced THC. GMO as an adjective is prone to RAS syndrome - e.g. GMO corn is "genetically modified organism corn".
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
i000 11y ago
They can't do it;), my friend (Anson Parker) owns a patent: http://www.google.com/patents/US20090042974 http://www.google.com/patents/US20090042974 "It is the ambition and intention of authors that tactical usage of this broad-sweeping technique may rapidly and at low cost satisfy a global demand in what may be termed a “grass-roots” bio-engineering project worthy of the 3rd Millennium; bringing to fruition micro-mass-productivity. " And he still makes the news: http://www.c-ville.com/ansons-crawl-city-council-candidate-details-arrest-record/ http://www.c-ville.com/ansons-crawl-city-council-candidate-d...
- unavoidable 11y ago
  Sorry, but I'm going to be "that guy", because someone is inevitably going to say "you can't patent that!", and there is generally a lot of misinformation about patents on HN. That particular document is a published patent application, and not a granted patent. You can tell on Google Patents in the field on the right that says: "Publication type: Application". Moreover, using USPTO Pair[0], you can check the status of such patents, and it turns out that this one has been abandoned since 2011 for failure to respond to the Patent Examiner. So no, there is no patent on this (at least, not the one you pointed to). [0] Publicly available database by USPTO: http://portal.uspto.gov/pair/PublicPair http://portal.uspto.gov/pair/PublicPair
  - i000 11y ago
    Thanks. Considering it was more of a prank from the beginning I am not surprised to see it abandoned ;)
    - sciguy77 11y ago
      How do you mean? Patents are generally reasonably expensive to pursue in time and money. I'm curious to hear more about the prank aspect of this patent application if you care to share.
  - gregpilling 11y ago
    If it has been abandoned, doesn't that mean that anybody can now use this idea? It is part of public domain knowledge now?
Sanddancer 11y ago
Yes, the regulators want to. The people actually doing the research want to be able to focus on the components that are in marijuana, because some of the chemicals that are produced in small quantities seem to have substantial effects in certain conditions. A simpler organism, like yeast, means they can minimize the variables, and provide better research and better quality.
andygates 11y ago
That's gloriously tinfoil paranoid and saturated with meaningless buzzwords. The conspiracy, if there is one, is the ordinary conservative conspiracy against fun. Yeast is a great vehicle for organic molecule production.
legulere 11y ago
They want to do what we do with all medication: Isolate the active agent and remove everything else. This has several advantages: It makes dosing possible, as natural products can have vastly varying amounts of the active agent. You don't have to consider the effects of other active ingredients which might also come in varying amounts (this is especially true for cannabis, which contains several different active cannabinoids). This is exactly what you want to do when you really want to use cannabis as a medicine instead of using the medical system as a trojan horse for full legalisation. It's similar to how you get pills with caffeine at the pharmacy and coffee at other places. If you let cannabis plants or genetically modified yeasts generate the THC before you extract it doesn't matter. It's only a question of cost. You will get exactly the same extract that is in no way distinguishable. Most arguments against GMO don't apply for modified bacteria and yeasts in biotech - they're not viable to live outside of the lab. Also it's pretty funny that you speak about organic and not commercial. Most cannabis is grown in hydroculture with chemical fertilizer and produced for a financial gain (other word for this is commercially).

exelius 11y ago

Except that marijuana seeds are effectively legal throughout the EU as long as they're not cultivated (ha). If they really wanted to commercialize and control the sale of marijuana, they would legalize it.

yid 11y ago

> GMO THC Well that's a new one, because THC isn't an "organism", nor is it "genetically modified".

ryanlol 11y ago
Or even genetically modifiable.
bduerst 11y ago
I think what they meant was GMO-produced THC. GMO as an adjective is prone to RAS syndrome - e.g. GMO corn is "genetically modified organism corn".
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]

i000 11y ago

They can't do it;), my friend (Anson Parker) owns a patent: http://www.google.com/patents/US20090042974 http://www.google.com/patents/US20090042974 "It is the ambition and intention of authors that tactical usage of this broad-sweeping technique may rapidly and at low cost satisfy a global demand in what may be termed a “grass-roots” bio-engineering project worthy of the 3rd Millennium; bringing to fruition micro-mass-productivity. " And he still makes the news: http://www.c-ville.com/ansons-crawl-city-council-candidate-details-arrest-record/ http://www.c-ville.com/ansons-crawl-city-council-candidate-d...

unavoidable 11y ago
Sorry, but I'm going to be "that guy", because someone is inevitably going to say "you can't patent that!", and there is generally a lot of misinformation about patents on HN. That particular document is a published patent application, and not a granted patent. You can tell on Google Patents in the field on the right that says: "Publication type: Application". Moreover, using USPTO Pair[0], you can check the status of such patents, and it turns out that this one has been abandoned since 2011 for failure to respond to the Patent Examiner. So no, there is no patent on this (at least, not the one you pointed to). [0] Publicly available database by USPTO: http://portal.uspto.gov/pair/PublicPair http://portal.uspto.gov/pair/PublicPair
- i000 11y ago
  Thanks. Considering it was more of a prank from the beginning I am not surprised to see it abandoned ;)
  - sciguy77 11y ago
    How do you mean? Patents are generally reasonably expensive to pursue in time and money. I'm curious to hear more about the prank aspect of this patent application if you care to share.
- gregpilling 11y ago
  If it has been abandoned, doesn't that mean that anybody can now use this idea? It is part of public domain knowledge now?

Sanddancer 11y ago

Yes, the regulators want to. The people actually doing the research want to be able to focus on the components that are in marijuana, because some of the chemicals that are produced in small quantities seem to have substantial effects in certain conditions. A simpler organism, like yeast, means they can minimize the variables, and provide better research and better quality.

andygates 11y ago

That's gloriously tinfoil paranoid and saturated with meaningless buzzwords. The conspiracy, if there is one, is the ordinary conservative conspiracy against fun. Yeast is a great vehicle for organic molecule production.

legulere 11y ago

They want to do what we do with all medication: Isolate the active agent and remove everything else. This has several advantages: It makes dosing possible, as natural products can have vastly varying amounts of the active agent. You don't have to consider the effects of other active ingredients which might also come in varying amounts (this is especially true for cannabis, which contains several different active cannabinoids). This is exactly what you want to do when you really want to use cannabis as a medicine instead of using the medical system as a trojan horse for full legalisation. It's similar to how you get pills with caffeine at the pharmacy and coffee at other places. If you let cannabis plants or genetically modified yeasts generate the THC before you extract it doesn't matter. It's only a question of cost. You will get exactly the same extract that is in no way distinguishable. Most arguments against GMO don't apply for modified bacteria and yeasts in biotech - they're not viable to live outside of the lab. Also it's pretty funny that you speak about organic and not commercial. Most cannabis is grown in hydroculture with chemical fertilizer and produced for a financial gain (other word for this is commercially).