Scientists Have Discovered How To Make Genetically Modified Yeast Painkillers
This day in age, scientists are always striving for the next best advancement in their field. They are constantly looking for ways to produce the next best thing. Scientists have now found a way to make genetically modified yeast painkillers. What exactly does that mean and why did they do it? Well it means a few different things.
One of the main reason researchers looked into this process was the hope of producing a more effective painkiller, that was less addictive than the other forms we have now. As of right now, the main forms of opiate painkillers are very addictive and can cause more damage than help in the long run of things. Right now the poppy plant is what they use to make most opiate painkillers, which is very addictive. They would use a mixture of plant, bacteria, and rodent genes, to turn sugar into thebaine. Thebaine is the key opiate substance in morphine.
If this formula is correct and is less addictive, people will be able to take their medications without the worry of becoming addicted to them. This will also bring down the death toll in abusing drugs and dying from an overdose. Painkiller overdoses are at the top of the list when it come to hospital visit, addiction, and death. These genetically modified yeast painkillers seem like a great idea, but there is always an opposing side and they bring up a lot of validate points.
One of the major problems with releasing this formulation is that people would figure out this yeast drug strain and literally would be able to brew heroin in their house, just as easy as brewing your own beer. This is a very dangerous aspect to these genetically modified yeast painkillers. In no time at all people will be brewing up this formula and selling it on the streets. An even worse aspect is that they will be brewing up their own concoctions and could potentially kill a lot of people that do not know exactly what they are putting into their bodies. Some scientists argued that they could easily be doing that now with poppy plants, but poppy plants are not as available as this yeast would be. Poppy plants need more room and more of an environment to grow, but this yeast can be grown and concealed easily.
Another problem some people brought up was the mixture they used to obtain this strain. Would you put a mixture of plants, bacteria, and rodent genes into your body without wondering what was going to happen to you or if it was even safe to do that? The testing on the results of these genetically modified yeast painkillers is just beginning, but will this formulation have a horrible side effect in the long term picture? Is it safer to stick with a natural ingredient like the poppy plant, instead of formulating something with rodent genes?
