If we can farm nicotine with modified tomato plants... Can we grow cocaine tomatoes, which are easy as hell to grow? Asking for a friend.
this post was submitted on 06 Dec 2024
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I'll settle for good tomatoes year-round, minus the coke. I mean, sure, coke tomatoes would totally supercharge everyone's summer. But then the Big Dark of winter would suck so much more.
Do you have any concept of manic winter cleaning? Have some ceviche or tacos with salsa and get productive, clean the house with a toothbrush or write your novel and accompanying screen play during those long winter months.
S.A.D. no more, geek on tomatoes and get shit done.
Tomacco was a fictional product on the Simpsons, unless I missed something.
Which, if i I did, hey, neat.
I never got round to it, but when researching I think tobacco is about the same difficulty to grow as tomatoes
Tobacco takes about 90-120 days, tomato is 70-90 days.
Tomatoes also produce a large amount of seeds/fruit and are substantially easier to grow densely in a canopy with under hanging fruit.
Eric Clapton has entered the chat
Or the entire music industry in the 80s and 90s. I heard some seriously weird stories as an intern.
The whole entertainment industry really, Blues Brothers famously had a cocaine budget.
Oh man, you've gotta share some of those!
I’m making some popcorn…
or JJ Cale
She don't lie
Dude just likes that its white.
New way to treat my ADHD just dropped.
This sounds like a coca plant with extra steps.
It sounds like a coca plant that can grow in more than one region.
Talk to me when cocaine silk goat milk hits the Boston mahket
Tabacaine would be a good commodity in a space game
Tobaccoke
As always, it would be simpler to use yeast... It's going to get wild when these yeast strains get into the illicit market and people are literally brewing up coke or morphine in their bathtub.
https://www.discovermagazine.com/the-sciences/scientists-have-made-cocaine-from-a-tobacco-plant
I have actually wondered why this isn't a thing. You can order a yeast 2.0 sample from a supplier and the relevant DNA strand from a DNA printing company, multiply the DNA and introduce it to the yeast and you're game.
I think it's the "introduce it to the yeast" part that's the hard part. But I can't imagine the types of precautions the people who already have a morphine producing yeast strain (yes some people already invented it) must take. The illicit value of that is like priceless.
As I understand the process is fairly straightforward - yeast picks up dna from the environment, so the process involves creating a dna strain which includes both the intended change and a marker change, like resistance to something that would normally kill the yeast. Then introduce the dna to the yeast and introduce the poison which will kill the yeast that didn't pick up the dna.
Anyway, that's what I seem to remember from synth bio course from years ago, I might have misunderstood tho.
The hard part for someone trying to do it in a bathtub would probably be making sure it picks up the dna you're wanting and not something else randomly from the environment
That's why you introduce the marker (like resistance to a common antibiotic ) in the same strand, then put antibiotic in the bathtub to kill the rest. Of course its a good idea to wash the tank first...
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I'm uh...pretty sure we already have a plant that grows cocaine?
Yeah but that's illegal.
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I like how OP thought they were in 196 so they added 'rule' to the title haha
Wait until she learns about coca.
Well that's the thing - we import tons of tobacco. We don't import tons of coca, without knowing exactly where it's going.
Coca Cola is permitted to import coca via an agreement with the DEA and produces an estimated $3 billion worth of actual cocaine per year.
Must be nice to be a mega corp.
From what I read awhile back, that cocaine goes to pharmaceutical needs.
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Yep. That's where all the imports go. But if we suddenly have this genetically modified stuff on the market, it's free game baby!
Cross pollination.
Tomaccocaine
$3b in real money, or cop math?
Good question.
One source (2023) says
That quantity is estimated to produce about two million grams of cocaine, the publication reported. Today, according to pharmaceutical listings online, that’s worth about US$2 billion
??? That's .. Not right
Bulk value 50 million for 2 million g (2000kg). Going by my (likely now outdated) last known value for a key at around 25k.
They're saying it's 1000$/g?!?
Am I tired or are these numbers just completely bonkers?
I don't care if it's the purest shit, that is insane.
two million grams of cocaine
What a weird way of describing 2000 kg.
2Mg
Parliaments gonna stop having the recessed filter because the cocaine is just gonna be in the cigarette.
Someone finally made a reason to live in Virginia
~~upper~~ ~~downer~~ I'll have the -er
I volunteer to be part of the first human testing of this.
Turns out there’s already a plant that produces cocaine in its leaves
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Interesting. I can legally grow and process enough tobacco for my own needs.
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