Episode 73 -  Marijuana from Microbes: Genetically engineered cannabinoids are coming. Armageddon or the next medical miracle? 

This episode is brought to you by the great folks at Summit 420, the "Best of the Best" business event in the Young President's Organization. Learn more at www.ypo.org/Summit4202020

Ben Chiarelli is the founder and CEO of Cellibre, a cellular agriculture company that is engineering cells to manufacture cannabinoids at industrial scale. Soon they'll be as prevalent and as inexpensive as vitamins. But at what cost?

What if I were to tell you that in the next five years medicines and supplements made with cannabinoids will be 1/10th the price -- that $60 bottle of CBD will cost $6. They’ll be labeled “organic” or “natural” and they’ll deliver consistent measurable doses -- no more take a half a dropper and see what happens. And that all this will go a long way to diminishing the stigma currently associated with cannabis-based medicines—that that they’re for stoners or will lower IQ, permanently kill memory cells or drive you to harder drugs (all unfounded myths, btw).

Now, what if I told you that these inexpensive cannabinoids will not be coming from a plant grown in the ground and fed by water and sun. That they are being industrially developed in a lab and will be produced in vats by biologists who are engineering the genetic structure of microbes like algae, yeast or E. Coli so that they produce and excrete cannabinoids. (That’s right, algae poop. If what the algae is fed is organic, the FDA may deem its excrement “natural” or “organic” no matter what is done to modify its genetic code). That they will being fermented in huge, 10,000 liter steel containers the size of grain silos. Oh, and if this sounds unimaginable consider that most of the vitamins you take today are made exactly in the same way. (You don’t really think there is enough cod in the ocean to produce all of that DHA Omega 3 fish oil do you?) And that this method of product could save billions of dollars in energy costs since indoor grows will soon be going the way of the coal fired steel factory).

All of this is underway. There are at least 20 well-funded cellular agriculture companies currently bio-engineering cannabinoids, and this podcast features Ben Chiarelli, CEO and founder of Cellibre, based in San Diego, CA.

To me, the implications of industrially produced cannabinoids are in equal parts thrilling and terrifying. The idea of Monsanto getting its claws into cannabis and creating GMO crops – Armageddon or at the very least, Soylent Green to many aficionados – is not a calming thought. And this new approach using microbes to make these medicines may be even more off putting. At the same time affordable cannabinoid meds will be a blessing to people with chronic illnesses. Remember, a month’s supply of the CBD you’re using today costs more than your leased car. And if they create predictable, clean and measurable formulations, well, that’s a future that most health care providers and patients would welcome.

Please listen to this podcast and let me know what you think. Send comments to [email protected]. I’m going to be exploring this topic for a long time – it’s a big one -- and I’m just starting to get my mind around it.

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