Re: Recreational pharmaceuticals by genetic engineering

[Ray Arachelian <sunder@brainlink.com>]

On Thu, 10 Jul 1997, Tim May wrote:

> Speaking of which, I recall that the origins of LSD were from some kind of
> fungus or "rust" found on some types of grain.

Yep - and it takes the blame (or so historians believe) of the witch
hunts.  Idea was you'd go to someone's house, they'd cook food made with
the grains that were contaminated, you'd have an acid trip and claim them
to be in league with the devil and get them killed. :)
 
> I expect Steve is right that someone will find a way to engineer a
> drug-producing common mold or yeast. The profit motive, per se, will not be
> much of an impediment, provided the costs of development are not huge. I
> can think of many who would participate, were any reasonable directions
> apparent.

While we're on the topic, let's not forget that we'll need some sort of
crypto as well -- we should have the little buggers only produce the drug
on demand when given a signed PGP message. :)  That way if the feds knock
down your door, they'll find no evidence.  Whenver you need your hit, you
ask the buggers to make you some, and you use it immediatly.

OTOH, there's something to be said about having fast acting yeast that
feeds on grass and other foliage (real grass, not canabis) and produces
tons of illegal substance. You could then simply fling this into the back
yards of LEA's everywhere, then call the cops on them.

Anyone know enough about DNA machine code to port PGP to yeast? <Grin>

=====================================Kaos=Keraunos=Kybernetos==============
.+.^.+.|  Ray Arachelian    | "If you wanna touch the sky, you must  |./|\.
..\|/..|sunder@sundernet.com| be prepared to die.  And I hate cough  |/\|/\
<--*-->| ------------------ | syrup, don't you?"                     |\/|\/
../|\..| "A toast to Odin,  | For with those which eternal lie, with |.\|/.
.+.v.+.|God of screwdrivers"| strange aeons, even death may die.     |.....
======================== http://www.sundernet.com =========================