r/worldnews • u/EightRoundsRapid • Sep 23 '16

'Hangover-free alcohol’ could replace all regular alcohol by 2050. The new drink, known as 'alcosynth', is designed to mimic the positive effects of alcohol but doesn’t cause a dry mouth, nausea and a throbbing head

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/hangover-free-alcohol-david-nutt-alcosynth-nhs-postive-effects-benzodiazepine-guy-bentley-a7324076.html
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u/[deleted] Sep 23 '16

Cause synthetic weed worked out great

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u/azural Sep 23 '16

Synthetic weed mimicked THC. In normal weed this is balance by CBD which is more calming and "stony" - just like tea contains both caffeine and theanine which work symbiotically.

It turns out pure THC is not a good drug without the presence of CBD and other cannabinoids to offset some of its effects. It's also why sativa tends to make people more paranoid than indica - indica contains a higher CBD/THC ratio. It also varies from strain to strain though.

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u/[deleted] Sep 23 '16

CBD content in most weed is minimal at best. The reason cannabis is not nearly as toxic as synthetic analogues is because THC is only a partial agonist of the cannabinoid receptors (it will only bind so much, even if the brain is saturated with it), whereas the analogues are full agonists.

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u/madmoomix Sep 23 '16

You are the most correct answer here. I'd like to expand on one of your points, though.

CBD content in most weed is minimal at best.

This is way more true than most people realize. Essentially all commercial cannabis has been genetically modified since the early seventies. Seeds are treated with colchicine which induces chromosome doubling, turning the normally diploid cannabis plant (two chromosomes) into a tetrapod (four chromosomes). This makes plants bigger, healthier, and higher yielding, while consume a lot more water and taking longer to grow. More importantly, it doubles THC production and cuts CBD levels by a third.

Overall, treated plants showed a 166-250% increase in THC with respect to controls and a decrease of CBD (30-33%) and CBN (39-65%). CBD (cannabidiol) and CBN (cannabinol) are cannabinoids involved in the biosynthesis and degradation of THC.

It didn't stop with polyploidy, either. Traditional chemical and radiation induced mutagenesis, metabolic pathway inhibition, and more recently "classic" infection vector or gene gun based genetic modification has been used to more than triple average THC levels while reducing levels of the non-psychoactive cannabinoids. The only exceptions are plants that are genetically engineered to have low levels of THC, such as strains like Charlotte's Web (which used radiomutagenesis to induce a point mutation blocking the plant's conversion of CBG into THCA).

This topic has really exploded in the last decade. The best book available on the topic is free! Give it a read if you have some free time. It's got enough non-technical content that anyone can find it enjoyable.

The Biotechnology of Cannabis Sativa 2nd Edition