Tales from the Marijuana Fields
This just is: there’s a lot of weed out there.
To wit:
Via the BBC: Peru burns record 50-tonne marijuana haul
Police in Peru say they have destroyed more than 50 tonnes of marijuana.
In an operation lasting five days, the police say they located a record 207,000 marijuana plants in two central regions of the country.
According to a report released this week by the US Office of National Drug Control Policy, Peru is the top cocaine producer in the world, followed by Bolivia and Colombia.
Analysts say that little is known about Peru’s marijuana production.
Peru’s Interior Minister Wilfredo Pedraza said the police operation had led to the burning of 17 times more marijuana than had been destroyed in the whole of 2011.
Well, if they found and burned that much, I bet that means they have made a huge dent in supply. Right? I mean, it’s a record!
Meanwhile, in the land of potatoes (which, coincidentally, is actually the Andes): 1,100 marijuana plants found in Idaho corn field
Jerome County Sheriff Doug McFall says deputies and Idaho State Police investigators uprooted about 1,100 marijuana plants with an estimated street value of $2.2 million on Wednesday. The grow operations were within about a two-mile radius of each other.
Detective Rick Cowen says none of the land owners were aware the marijuana plants were growing on their property.
Cowen says growers plant marijuana in the corn fields because they’ll be irrigated along with the corn.
McFall says his office decided to do some flights searching for marijuana grows after about 6,500 plants were found in a corn field in Gooding County last week. He says they plan more flights.
What a waste.
“Also reported was a severe outbreak of the munchies in communities downwind of the operations.”
Marijuana will most likely be widely legalized or at least decriminalized within 20 years. Discuss .
Yeah, that’s believable!
So, a single MJ plant is valued at $1000? I don’t grok how much pot can be taken from a single plant; is that a reasonable valuation?
@legion: Really it depends on the species and how good the growing conditions are. The biggest marijuana trees can grow up to around 30 feet tall and produce many pounds worth of product. More then likely they were small plants with several ounces worth of potential. Since they probably didn’t bother separating out the male plants the resulting quality of the product wouldn’t be very high. So the end results would be roughly a couple ounces to maybe 3/4 of a pound of commercial grade pot that retails up there for around 100ish bucks an ounce. I’m actually surprised they attached such a relatively conservative value to the plants they destroyed.
@stonetools: Way back in the 60’s (that would be over 40 years ago) large groups of College students called Hippies were so convinced that weed would soon be legalized they formed communes to grow the stuff. Now they grow corn in Idaho.
@matt: When I started buying dope about 1968 or so a lid was a 1 oz. baggie for $20. Some was better than other but nothing like the weed of today.
Here in Sleepytown where there is a sizable State University a 1/8th ounce bag gets $50.
Where are you gettin’ yours?
@Ernieyeball: Good commercial with few seeds runs about 20-25 for a half bag here according to the kids around here. 😉
Prices up north tends to run about 2x what it does here.