If the technique can scale, it could pave the way for making marijuana's therapeutic components more quickly and efficiently, for a fraction of the cost of traditional methods.

Using an increasingly popular approach known as synthetic biology, the researchers genetically engineered yeast to churn out a key component of marijuana that's a precursor to two of the best-known compounds in the plant: THC and CBD.

Using those precursors, they made the compounds themselves – no farm or field required.

While THC is the part of marijuana that causes a high, CBD has an emerging reputation as a therapeutic and is the active ingredient in the first federally approved marijuana-based medication.

Thanks to the health and wellness uses that CBD is tied to, the market for the compound could reach US$16 billion by 2025, up from perhaps US$1 billion or so now.

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https://bamidale..com/2019/02/scientists-can-now-make-cannabis.html