Home-brewing could soon take on a more dangerous twist: Scientists have engineered brewer's yeast to synthesize opioids such as codeine and morphine from a common sugar, an international team reported on Monday.

"It is going to be possible to 'home-brew' opiates in the near future," Christopher Voight of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who was not involved in the research, told reporters.

The process described in Nature Chemical Biology is inefficient, requiring 300 liters of genetically engineered yeast to produce a single 30 milligram dose of morphine.

But with improvements that are well within reach, that dose could be obtained from "a glass of yeast culture grown with sugar on a windowsill," Voight said.

For the president of a food and animal testing lab, the marijuana industry is starting to look like a good investment.

Seth Wong and JJ Slatkin are putting $1.7 million into a new marijuana testing lab called TEQ Analytical Labs.

Wong, 34, is the president of Industrial Laboratories, where he’s worked since 2003. His family owns a majority of the 70-year-old Denver-based food and drug testing lab.

“We’re sitting here, watching the industry, and we realize that we’ve got these competitive advantages,” Wong said. “We have experience testing drugs, and we understand how to test raw materials like plants.”

Will marijuana soon be on your menu? Steve Fox, director of VS Strategies, counsel at Vicente Sederberg LLC, and panelist for the 2015 National Restaurant Association Show's "Marijuana on the Menu" session thinks so. Since 2002, Fox has been a leading figure lobbying for legal, regulated marijuana. His efforts have included educating the public on the benefits of marijuana and de-stigmatizing its use.

When Fox and his team wrote Amendment 64 for Colorado to legalize recreational marijuana, the group had a goal: insert a measure for the restaurant industry that would allow patrons to use cannabis inside privately owned establishments.

Neutra Corp. (OTCBB: NTRR) will complete market testing this week on a new suite of products that could help cannabis growers avoid Colorado’s crackdown on pesticides.

Deep within a cedar forest in British Columbia, Dan Sutton is building what he hopes will be the most energy-efficient, high-technology greenhouse for growing cannabis. Spurred by the booming market for medical marijuana, he and a group of biologists and engineers have experimented for almost three years with digital sensors, lighting arrays, software programs and ventilators to design a greenhouse system with the lowest energy costs and highest crop yields.

“We said, ‘Let’s assume everything that’s ever been done in cannabis cultivation is wrong, and we have to build from the ground up,’” said Sutton, the 28-year-old managing director of Tantalus Labs in Vancouver.  “We have this broad realm of science that no one has been able to previously explore.”

The marijuana industry is growing at a rapid pace, and the tech sector of the marijuana industry presents a lot of business opportunities for people looking to cash in on the next great American industry. According to David Goldstein, co-founder of Potbotics Inc., the top five tech trends in the marijuana industry are:

Internet based technology
Smart machines
Analytics
Software-defined application and infrastructure
Security

GW Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ: GWPH  ) has the richest pipeline of marijuana-derived medicines in development, and that has investors flocking to pick up shares in hopes of benefiting from the rising adoption of such drugs. But a flurry of research trials is also costing the company big bucks, so investors should pay close attention to how quickly it burns through its cash stockpile.

Marijuana users looking for someone to smoke with have a new app that lets them find like-minded people around the world.

The creator of the 'Who is Happy' app is a Brazilian epilepsy sufferer who is campaigning to get the drug decriminalised.

He describes his software as a  'Foursquare for stoners', comparing it to the app that allows users to rate restaurants and other places they visit.

Marijuana users looking for someone to smoke with have a new app that lets them find like-minded people around the world. Users who anonymously log their location will see a green cloud appear on the app's map, covering a half mile radium (1km). They can then check to see if others are partaking anywhere nearby

Far North Side Ald. Debra Silverstein (50th) doesn’t want a medical marijuana dispensary approved by the state to open near a large West Ridge neighborhood park.

“I do support medical marijuana — I want to make that clear — but I’m concerned about the location,” the alderman said.

Her vocal opposition comes as 420 Capital Management, the company with a state license to open to the dispensary at 6501 N. Western Ave., needs to win a crucial city zoning permit allowing the medical marijuana shop to open.

Silverstein said the store on Western would be too close to Warren Park, located less than a block north.

LONDON - Cannabis users looking for someone to share a joint with have a new app that lets them find like-minded smokers around the world.

The creator of the Who is Happy app, a Brazilian epilepsy sufferer who wants the drug decriminalized, says his software is a kind of "Foursquare for stoners," comparing it to the app that allows users to rate restaurants and other places they visit.

"The app is the first global platform of its kind allowing cannabis consumers to connect and unite to promote happiness while de-stigmatizing and hopefully decriminalizing cannabis use around the world," Paulo Costa said.