the patent 6815184 goes with how to genetically engineer duckweed; duckweed doubles mass every 30 hours thus if you have a few Ozs of duckwed engineered to produce THC that leaf quality duckweed will replenish fully thirty hours later; this same effect can be achieved with coca pathways as well as opiate pathways;
now people prefer bud to leaf, to make hashish simply use duckweed leaf, oil n alcohol together; any of hundreds of k grad students can do this plant engineering work; this might be particularly compelling to them if they have negative opinions of organized crime as this is an opportunity to reduce the revenue of organized crime around 2/3.
That patent can be used to create opiod peptide duckweed right now; I don't know if cannabinoid receptor active peptides are published; with peptides its muchly one codon gives an amino acid just create a list to sequence
its like loaves n fishes at the fresh millenium, plus we get to nominate as Big J anyone that does the lab work-- beanangel, Feb 26 2008 genetically engineering duckweed http://www.freepate...ne.com/6815184.html [beanangel, Feb 26 2008] duckweed at 5:59 http://youtube.com/watch?v=vcWvCrPru18 [beanangel, Feb 26 2008] opioid peptides http://en.wikipedia...iki/Opioid_peptides [beanangel, Feb 26 2008] Duckweed http://www.answers.com/topic/duckweed [quantum_flux, Feb 26 2008] THC http://www.answers....nnabinol?cat=health [quantum_flux, Feb 26 2008] Lift Restrictions on Unprocessed Materials Lift Restrictions o...processed MaterialsHow to win "the war on drugs", using only the mysterious powers of global economics. [zen_tom, Feb 26 2008] "Biolex is going to turn this small aquatic plant that is considered a weed into the premier protein production system of the 21st century," http://biolex.com/ [beanangel, Feb 27 2008] I list a patent number to use duckweed to create peptides
opiod peptides are published as physiologically active
to create a peptide you make an a nucleic acid sequence where one codon creates one amino acid
this is about as magic as BT corn n much less lab effort to create; I worked as a plant genetic engineering student lab assistant at an agricultural university-- beanangel, Feb 26 2008 For one, I'd imagine that smoking a waxy leaf like duckweed would be almost as carcinogenic as smoking a wax candle.-- quantum_flux, Feb 26 2008 lemna species vary
I've tried duckweed; duckweed is edible; tuned versions are also patented as a human food
my original idea was to genetically engineer longevity producing peptides with duckweed so that people could have an automatically replenishing source of longevity drugs n food
I very much prefer the idea of engineering duckweed to make active THC; skip the heat-- beanangel, Feb 26 2008 here is a nifty reason to support this idea: music will change as the rich drug persona spoken word thing goes through social change-- beanangel, Feb 26 2008 doubling time is thirty hours, can be given away
grows at an aquarium
seeds the size of dust
game changing-- beanangel, Feb 26 2008 The buzz that straight THC provides wouldn't really sell your final product. Were talking about a cocktail of 17 different compounds here. Familiarity with drugs seems like a prerequisite for such a project.-- WcW, Feb 26 2008 If it's going to be used to generate peptides, they would have to be injected to work, which would bring the familiar problems with injected drug abuse. THC isn't a peptide, but maybe it could be synthesised this way. It would probably work if the genes for it are known, but it isn't necessarily just the THC that's doing the job.
Aside from that, there would be some metabolic cost to producing the THC and this might slow the proliferation.
Incidentally, horsetail frequently contains nicotine, but also silica, so smoking it would give you silicosis. I wonder if there's an analogous problem with duckweed.-- nineteenthly, Feb 26 2008 Or, or, or, or maybe you take some nanobots right? and get them to communicate with eachother with bluetooth right? and then they can go right into the heart of every living plant on earth and change it into THC!
There should be an mfd option for this kind of thing.
You offer no real idea here. Genetically engineer plant to make thc and grow really fast is not an idea. It would be an idea if you explained how to do that.
Some strange remarks as on how making more drugs is going to win the war on drugs and cause trouble for organised crime is not an idea. It would be an idea if you explained how to do that.
And drugs are bad nkay.-- zeno, Feb 26 2008 I think the idea is to use freely available drugs from a widely known invasive source in order to undermine the financial basis of the underground recreational drug movement (i.e. dealers and organised crime). I also think it might work, but there are easily available highs from other sources, so education about those might have the same effect. The recreational substances are already readily available from legal sources, if you think of them in that way, an example being horsetail, which produces nicotine under stress, and a vast array of other compounds in other weeds.-- nineteenthly, Feb 26 2008 Nobody ever made any real money dealing d'erb - if you want to win the "war on drugs" (by which I presume you mean eradicate the misery associated with the illegal drug trade, rather than sit at home and get high for free) I suggest you develop a way to flood the country with invasive cocaine bushes and trees that sprout heroin buds - which is where the cash is - or, just adopt my sensible regulatory approach [linked] which would (in one fell swoop) destroy the massive profit margins that drive the drugs trade, effectively castrating it, and in doing so, turning it from a glamorous dangerous, exploitative one, where those involved look like something out of Miami Vice, sporting Uzis and AKs, into a far more mundane, agricultural one, with those involved looking altogether more drab, and armed only with spades.
And growing lots of weed isn't going to have anything like the impact of Jesus in the 21st Century. Most of those teenagers who stepped into adulthood as draw smoking, brain addled hippies have grown up and got themselves jobs.
Or to put it another way; "The revolution is over, Mr. Lebowski. Condolences. The bums lost."
Plus I'm uncomfortable with the idea of an invasive species being genetically engineered into a poisonous variety, and then let loose among the more valuable food crops to invade and infect everything with a chemical that makes everyone turn into forgetful, idiot, paranoid shadows of their former selves.-- zen_tom, Feb 26 2008 Ah yes, just what we need: more sources of hallucinogens!-- DrCurry, Feb 26 2008 THC is just an easliy detected canibanoid. It is not a stand alone drug of any merit (widely accepted drug fact).-- WcW, Feb 26 2008 // Plus I'm uncomfortable with the idea of an invasive species being genetically engineered into a poisonous variety, and then let loose .... \\
Copper Sulfate (algeacide) mixed with Citric Acid (for keeping a low pH in the lake) is duckweed's biggest nemesis.-- quantum_flux, Feb 26 2008 [zeno] It would be an idea if you
referenced a patent of the particular gene technique plus had a little actual lab knowledge of the process
its an Idea
[zen tom]invasive species being genetically engineered I've thought on this as well; my cover reply is that it only goes where duckweed grows naturally which does suggest the same risk as hemp plants gowing near water n their THC activated leaves affecting the surrounding fauna
if the big J is willing to make more effort then a pH activated variety is certainly possible; this protects fauna but creates a human opportunity to have a thing like orange juice with their duckweed as an activator
[nineteenthly] generate peptides IV to function
actually vasopressin is a brain active memory peptide that people use nasally; my thought is that a wad of duckweed diffusing peptide orally could achieve the same or higher mucous membrane with time peptide usability
think how ridiculously prosocial a form of duckweed that released oxytocin the nurturant linking hormone would be orally; itd be a couples quality time recreational drug
also: countries with the highest measured oxytocin amounts had the highest standard of living; New scientist may have wondered: does the high standard of living then produce more trust hormone or do they trust each other thus building the economy from oxytocin
oxytocin is a peptide just a few amino acids different from vasopressin-- beanangel, Feb 27 2008 [zen_tom], i don't have huge issues with what you said, but i don't think i agree with you about "valuable". Valuable directly to us is not the same as valuable generally, because species can be valuable to other species, and perhaps the whole ecosystem, whose sustainability to us is worthwhile in both utilitarian and aesthetic terms to humans and for its own sake. This is a bit of a petty quibble though, because i agree that it doesn't serve much of a purpose or function to do what [treon] suggests from an ecological point of view. I think that the production of a compound useless to the plant itself is likely to lead to a selective disadvantage compared to other duckweed, so it wouldn't actually spread unless cultivated. It only takes a small deviation from optimal fitness for that to happen.
Sorry, [treon], i missed your points addressed to me. Peptides can be delivered through the respiratory mucosae, for example insulin, but this is a risky route as well, as various people with no nasal septa left would testify. THC isn't a peptide.
Are you suggesting using opioid or other psychoactive peptides as a substitute for alkaloids such as cocaine or morphine (or heroine), or are you suggesting gene-splicing to synthesise THC? I'm not aware of a neuropeptide which has an affinity for THC receptors. It would also have to get through the blood-brain barrier, which means it would have to be quite small. I suppose it might get there through the olfactory nerve.
Heat would destroy peptides. If another method is used, i would expect it to add considerable value to the duckweed, which would make it worth money, so there would be dealers again. If it has to be taken nasally, the lowest-tech method i can imagine is a syrup which is then dehydrated and put in a blender. Then you have a white powder all over again, probably quite an abrasive one which can be mixed with more abrasive white powders as is familiar in drug abuse now. Then you're in the territory of physical trauma to the septum again.-- nineteenthly, Feb 27 2008 //When are you going to start writing ideas in English, [Treon]?//
That would ruin the effect, [UnaBubba]; you just have to inhale [Treon]'s prose, and go with the flow, man. ;)-- pertinax, Feb 27 2008 I wish there were categories for [THC:produced by x], [THC:added to X], [THC:distributed by X], and [THC:given to X]. Then I could filter the lot of them and be done with it.
[Treon], as I've said before, the ability to read and misunderstand someone else's technical writing, and then add a very minor twist, does not create an original idea. I'm not going to [mfd] it, but you really should try coming up with an idea of your own someday.-- lurch, Feb 27 2008 Drugs are for children.-- gabrielsnew, Mar 04 2008 Can I have mine now, Dad?-- BunsenHoneydew, Mar 04 2008 "Now, don't boggart that joint, son. Let your little brother have a turn, there's a good boy."-- gabrielsnew, Mar 04 2008 less: IM GONNA GO TO UR HOUSE 2NITE AND KICK UR PUPPY IN THE FACE
more: well you think of it-- beanangel, Mar 07 2008 [Treon], that last annotation makes absolutely no sense to me - there are too many possible interpretations.
May I ask why you persist in visiting a public website, posting ideas for the world to read, but insist on doing it in such a style that no sense can be made of it? The primary message you are conveying is not "let's use x to do y", but rather "I'm incapable of communicating clearly".
If you want people to read, understand and contribute to your ideas, then while you may adopt an individual style without jeopardising this goal, you need to convey enough of the sense of your thoughts to get the concept across.
Now, coming back to my earlier point, are you requesting that people stop kicking your puppy in the face? Are you saying that if you get less positive votes you're going to go vigilante? Are you saying that the wildly stoned masses will be so chilled that puppies the world over will get fewer black eyes? In the cold light of day, can you even remember what you meant?-- david_scothern, Mar 07 2008 I'm going to bone this because it's a simple 'GM this into that' idea.
As for [Treon]'s writing - I like it.-- wagster, Mar 07 2008 As you are entitled to. However, my point is not specifically that I don't like it, but rather that it is indeterminate and incomprehensible.-- david_scothern, Mar 07 2008 Well, _I_ don't like it.
\\think how ridiculously prosocial yah da yah da nurble yumbum scoot ferry nurturant linking hormone would be\\ Consider how ridiculously trollish a sentence that is.-- moomintroll, Mar 07 2008 random, halfbakery