Home-brew heroin: scientists close to making opiate yeast

Governments told to take action now to prevent morphine-making yeast getting into wrong hands

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Scientists are said to be one step closer to creating opiate-producing yeast – theoretically enabling someone with the right ingredients to make morphine in their kitchen with a home-brewing kit.

Researchers at California have created a genetically engineered yeast that produces the main precursor of opiates and they now believe a low-yielding strain of morphine-making yeast could be made in less than three years.

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