David Sinclair, Harvard Medical SchoolYeast cells.

We use yeast to make the staples of life: bread, beer, and wine.

Now, researchers from the Technical University of Dortmund in Germany have engineered yeast to generate some notable chemicals in marijuana, including THC, which is mostly responsible for the marijuana's high, and cannabidiol.

And that's just the start. The work could unlock the true potential for medical marijuana — or for actually deriving medicine from the more than 80 cannabinoids (and more than 500 other chemical compounds!) found in the plant.

How this works

Yeast has been engineered to produce the main psychoactive compound in marijuana - tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). Responsible for the majority of marijuana's psychological effects - including the high - THC can also be use to treat symptoms of HIV infection and chemotherapy and researchers are hoping their yeast will be able to pump it out more efficiently than producing synthetic versions.

New survey results from Gartner Inc. show a widening gap forming between organizations already undertaking digital business initiatives and those only in the planning stage, demonstrating a clear need to invest in digital business.

Findings from the 2015 Digital Business Survey, released last week, reflect input received by Gartner, which fielded 304 surveys in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany and Australia this past May and June, notes a statement from the information technology research and advisory company.

Juvenile Judge Andreas Müller reiterates his call for regulation of cannabis

Müller received support from a total of 120 German criminal law experts 

Australian medical marijuana company MMJ PhytoTech has generated its first revenues from sales of its cannabis pill.

The CBD (Cannabidiol) capsules, registered as a dietary supplement in Germany, started retailing in Europe in August for about 3 euros each ($4.70).

The company intends to produce a total 1 million of the Swiss-made capsules in 2015. The pills, only available in Europe, are sold online.

The Cambodian police showed off their latest haul earlier this week as they paraded around 1.5 tonnes of marijuana that had an estimated street value of nearly $7m.

Rightly pleased with themselves, this was another victory for the police force who are currently ploughing resources into an ongoing operation to crackdown and eradicate the drugs trade in the country.

General Khieu Samon, the head of the interior ministry’s anti-drug office, said that the haul had been seized in Cambodia’s capital city Phnom Penh and that a number of Cambodian nations had been arrested.

Dusseldorf. More and more German cities are requiring to legalize the sale of cannabis. But a new study from the US comes to the conclusion that the dangers of cannabis have not been adequately researched.

Possession of cannabis is illegal. Nevertheless, the drug currently enjoys a wave of understanding, if not sympathy. Also in Germany we give way to the opposition to the ban slowly. Berlin, Hamburg, Bremen and Dusseldorf want to allow creative ideas for sale under a test phase. Cannabis shops or pharmacies to pick up as a German version of the coffee shops to trade from the criminal twilight zone. Four US states have already taken this step. In Washington, Colorado, Alaska and Oregon Kiffer can officially buy cannabis for "recreational purposes".

July 22^nd 2015 marked the anniversary of the great Cologne cannabis judgement, but not a single cannabis plant has yet been grown. That’s a reason to look into matters.

The normalisation and legalisation of cannabis has certainly seen a lot of changes worldwide over the past 12 months, but what is happening in Germany? In Germany, grow shop offensives, driving bans as an alternative penalty for cannabis users and zero tolerance directives are hitting the headlines. It is anything but easy, even for cannabis patients in Germany. Medicinal hemp from pharmacies is expensive, and supply problems are a constant source of complaint.

City councillors in Düsseldorf, capital of Germany's most populous state, are following Berlin in planning a pilot project in which cannabis could be sold legally to adults.

The move is the result of a joint push by the three parties which form the city's governing coalition, the Social Democratic Party (SPD), Greens and Free Democratic Party (FDP), the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports.

The "traffic-light coalition" (red, green and yellow are the parties' respective colours) in the North Rhine-Westphalian capital came together on Wednesday to pass a plan providing for a strictly-regulated cannabis trade that would provide the drug to adults.

Clusters of men - most of them migrants from western and northern Africa, many of them in Germany illegally - congregate in small groups around many of the benches in Berlin's Görlitzer Park, and the meaningful glances they exchange with passing locals or in-the-know tourists all say the same thing: Want some pot? Come talk to me.

The park, known as "Görli" to locals, is a 14-hectare (35-acre) green rectangle in Berlin's Kreuzberg district on the site of a former railyard and coal depot. It was transformed into an urban oasis in the early 1990s. Gaggles of picnicking locals crowd its lawns on sunny days. There's a cafe in a converted railway outbuilding, sports enclosures and even a petting zoo for kids.