A lot of plant

October 21, 2010 7:41 PM

This is what 121-1/2 tons of marijuana looks like.

Today, Tijuana law enforcement "celebrated over the destruction of the largest load of marijuana — 134 metric tons, or about 150 United States tons — ever seized in the country."

134 metric tons = 295,419.431 pounds. If distributed evenly among all 49,000 MeFites, we would each have about 6 pounds of weed.

posted by Taft (94 comments total)

I want to go to downwind of there.
posted by condour75 at 7:43 PM on October 21, 2010 [7 favorites]

.
posted by naju at 7:43 PM on October 21, 2010 [14 favorites]

I would say that's wasteful, but I guess truth is created by authority.
posted by nervousfritz at 7:44 PM on October 21, 2010 [4 favorites]

The Simpsons really will license itself to anything.
posted by Joe Beese at 7:45 PM on October 21, 2010 [14 favorites]

Way to blow the chance for the "world's biggest bong" record, Tijuana.

Also, I'm google translating what Homer is saying (on some of the bales) as "crappie and I go wey"....?
posted by Halloween Jack at 7:46 PM on October 21, 2010

But have you seen what 121-1/2 tons of marijuana looks like...on weed?
posted by MaryDellamorte at 7:47 PM on October 21, 2010 [16 favorites]

We're gonna need a bigger bowl...
posted by jonmc at 7:47 PM on October 21, 2010 [32 favorites]

Yeah, that looks nothing like prohibition.

Considering that 20,000 people have died for this ridiculous war against personal freedom, I'm not sure I would be celebrating anything to do with the drug war.
posted by notion at 7:48 PM on October 21, 2010 [7 favorites]

But even the most expanded mind would have trouble conceptualizing the sheer mass of 121.5 tons of marijuana.

No, the mass is quite easy to conceptualise. It's the volume that's interesting.
posted by pompomtom at 7:48 PM on October 21, 2010 [4 favorites]

Christ we're crazy, aren't we. 121.5 tons of a drug that has proven itself useful in treating a number of debilitating illnesses, and we fucking burn it to satisfy some misguided moral judgement!
posted by HuronBob at 7:50 PM on October 21, 2010 [13 favorites]

So for those of us too square to party what exactly would 6 pounds be in terms of an average casual user's consumption rate, are we talking days, weeks, months, years, decades?
posted by humanfont at 7:54 PM on October 21, 2010

So they burned it?
posted by cccorlew at 7:54 PM on October 21, 2010

Does Guinness recognize "largest stash"?
posted by Joe Beese at 7:54 PM on October 21, 2010

I remember the first time I saw a large quantity of seized weed being burned by the Federales on tv primarily because the entire situation was so utterly ridiculous. The camera crew and the lieutenant being interviewed were caught downwind by a sudden breeze and the interview went rapidly and delightfully downhill. His hat blew off into the smoke and the cameraman was audibly giggling and everyone was red-eyed and squinty.
posted by elizardbits at 7:54 PM on October 21, 2010 [2 favorites]

You know what I want to see?

The tax revenue on the legal sale of 121 tons of marijuana.
posted by T.D. Strange at 7:56 PM on October 21, 2010 [36 favorites]

that just makes me sad.
posted by Bonzai at 7:57 PM on October 21, 2010 [4 favorites]

What's with the Simpsons... ...you know what... nevermind.
posted by biochemist at 7:57 PM on October 21, 2010 [1 favorite]

Oh, I could have smoked that pot... and worn that hair.
posted by ND¢ at 7:58 PM on October 21, 2010 [3 favorites]

TEE HEE HEE HEE HUH HUH HUH HEE HEE HEE *whew*
posted by slogger at 7:59 PM on October 21, 2010 [2 favorites]

Pardon me for saying, but that Mexican ditch-weed oughta have nothing to do with direct smoking/inhalation. A bonfire is really the only appropriate delivery method.

humanfront: 6lbs of that would get about a thousand middle schoolers started down the wrong path.
posted by carsonb at 7:59 PM on October 21, 2010 [2 favorites]

The cynic in me is wondering what's really in all those packages.
posted by contessa at 7:59 PM on October 21, 2010 [1 favorite]

Does Guinness recognize "largest stash"?

yeah but it's not what you think
(still pretty awesome though..)
posted by mannequito at 8:00 PM on October 21, 2010 [5 favorites]

So for those of us too square to party what exactly would 6 pounds be in terms of an average casual user's consumption rate, are we talking days, weeks, months, years, decades?

Depends on the user. With a vaporizer, a mid or high grade 6 pounds may last me twenty years or more. I know some guys who can go through an ounce every few weeks, but they wake and bake. They're psychologically dependent.

I've heard of people who go through more than that, but it's just hearsay.
posted by notion at 8:00 PM on October 21, 2010 [2 favorites]

Christ we're crazy, aren't we. 121.5 tons of a drug that has proven itself useful in treating a number of debilitating illnesses, and we fucking burn it to satisfy some misguided moral judgment!

Not to mention the loss of tax revenue. And the cost of enforcement. And the fact that it's economically untenable anyway. By intercepting all of this weed, they've just driven up the cost of the rest of the supply and thus the drug lords' profits. By arresting a few people they've just created new job openings, which endemic poverty ensures will be promptly filled.
posted by jedicus at 8:00 PM on October 21, 2010 [4 favorites]

T.D. Strange: You know what I want to see?

The tax revenue on the legal sale of 121 tons of marijuana

At street values, wouldn't this stash run about $500M or so? At a 5% sales tax for example, that'd be $25M in tax revenue.
posted by hincandenza at 8:02 PM on October 21, 2010

You've heard of "fuck you money"?

6 pounds of decent product is a "fuck you stash".
posted by Joe Beese at 8:02 PM on October 21, 2010 [3 favorites]

They're playing drums!

I wonder how many people civilians (killed by either side) that tonnage represents.

Also: the masked soldiers have their names on their uniforms.
posted by mecran01 at 8:03 PM on October 21, 2010

I like how the soldiers look kind of devastated at the end.
posted by orange swan at 8:05 PM on October 21, 2010 [5 favorites]

Marijuana is usually sold by the gram. A gram can reasonably last several days if smoked daily. An ounce of marijuana is 28 grams, which is a very large amount. A pound is 16 ounces, and could last a moderate marijuana user a year, easily. 6 pounds is, well, yeah, 6 pounds.
posted by Taft at 8:06 PM on October 21, 2010

Speaking of Mexico's drug war: 20-year-old woman becomes top cop in violent Mexican municipality.
posted by kmz at 8:07 PM on October 21, 2010

"an ounce every few weeks"

Maybe I grew up in a different era... wait, I DID grow up in a different era...

when I was stationed in Korea, early '70's, we could walk along the Han river and pick the stuff... A grocery bag full was about $25 in those days.

Whoever bought it would leave it sitting on a table in the middle of the barracks, if there was an inspection it couldn't be tied to anyone specific. It might last a few days, unless we had a marathon card game going, in which case it was only good for about 12 hours. Euchre has never been that much fun....
posted by HuronBob at 8:08 PM on October 21, 2010 [7 favorites]

An ounce vapo'd will last ~3mo for two people using daily.

6lb x 16oz/lb x 3mo = 288mo = 24yrs.

Wow. I must be wrong.
posted by five fresh fish at 8:08 PM on October 21, 2010

It's a good thing they did this before I used it to throw my life away.
posted by triceryclops at 8:09 PM on October 21, 2010 [4 favorites]

Also: the masked soldiers have their names on their uniforms.

Oh, my, that's a real oversight. Be sure to let the cartel know if you ever run into N. RUIZ or J.R. GARCIA in the Mexican army!
posted by vorfeed at 8:10 PM on October 21, 2010 [10 favorites]

At street values, wouldn't this stash run about $500M or so? At a 5% sales tax for example, that'd be $25M in tax revenue.

I get more like $1.2 billion using a $250/oz street price, assuming this was somewhere between low and medium quality. The average sales tax in the US is more like 8%, especially weighted by population. Using those figures you get $96 million.

Of course, if marijuana were taxed at $50/ounce, as some have proposed, that'd be $236 million. For comparison, that's roughly the same as the city of Tijuana's entire budget. What a profound waste.
posted by jedicus at 8:15 PM on October 21, 2010 [1 favorite]

Marijuana goes bad, at some point, doesn't it? I mean you can't just buy six pounds of weed at once (well, for several reasons, probably) and then slowly smoke it over several years, right?
posted by graventy at 8:17 PM on October 21, 2010

It will grow back.
posted by llc at 8:18 PM on October 21, 2010 [15 favorites]

They might as well be burning $236 million cash dollars: this bust will be unnoticed by users.
posted by five fresh fish at 8:23 PM on October 21, 2010 [1 favorite]

It'd last a while if it was dried right and vacuum packed. I wouldn't smoke 6 year old weed myself but it'd make good brownies.
posted by glip at 8:24 PM on October 21, 2010

Weed is pretty potent these days, HuronBob. I've smoked schwag when I went on a surfing trip to Costa Rica and didn't really get high. Here, the premo bud that my friend gets me only requires one joint to get your face numb for the evening. Vaporizing, it's even less.

And I highly recommend the vaporizer. No cancer (I hope?), no bong, no papers, no lingering smoke odors. I don't smoke every day or even every week, because it does seem to affect intelligence in the long term with people I know.

I remember being told it made the gap between your brain hemispheres bigger with a lot of abuse. Anyone know if this was just D.A.R.E. propaganda? I just looked and couldn't find anything on it.
posted by notion at 8:24 PM on October 21, 2010

And to put this "bust" in perspective, on the low end of estimates Americans smoke 18 million pounds a year, so this will reduce that by 1.6%. Go team!
posted by notion at 8:29 PM on October 21, 2010

For Mexican weed? In Mexico? Here in the States, it'd be more like $50-$60/oz, and that's after the cost of bringing it across the border. The stuff we see burning in those pics was probably worth $30-$40/oz street, US, max.

I figured most Mexican weed was of lower quality, but I didn't know how much to discount it by. Evidently I was being overly generous.
posted by jedicus at 8:34 PM on October 21, 2010

So if 6 lbs of weed is all a person would theoretically need how is this taxation thing going to work again? I mean it seems like prices would fall fairly rapidly if production was allowed to resume. 4.2 tons / acre is a typical yeild for corn, so I'll assume something similar for weed once agribusiness gets going. That seems to indicate that the average person could get a lifetime supply of weed with a single season of giving up 40sq ft of garden space. That can't possibly be right, if that was true this stuff would be growing every where, especially at the prices your citing. heck people would probably be growing that stuff like hothouse tomatoes in their basement using expensive hydroponic setups....oh wait.
posted by humanfont at 8:36 PM on October 21, 2010

Here in the States, it'd be more like $50-$60/oz, and that's after the cost of bringing it across the border. The stuff we see burning in those pics was probably worth $30-$40/oz street, US, max.

Dear Item,

I have a business proposition for you...
posted by Jon_Evil at 8:36 PM on October 21, 2010

Yeesh. The things people get sad about.

Look, guys, it's a plant. Not rare. Not hard to grow. The only thing that makes it valuable is its illegality. We are basically mourning it because of the money it represents, which means we're essentially just mourning wealth. If pounds of the stuff didn't seem so unobtainable, it wouldn't be a big deal.

If it were legal, it would probably be about as cheap as any other produce. That means you can forget about the millions of dollars in taxes that it would be worth at 8%. In order to make that kind of money, you'd have to levy a truly oppressive tax, and if you did that, smuggling could spring up and bring back a lot of the old problems, because the monetary reward for crime would still be there.

I'm as pro-legalization as the next guy, but I mean come on. It's a plant.
posted by Xezlec at 8:40 PM on October 21, 2010 [7 favorites]

Guess it's time for this!
posted by HuronBob at 8:40 PM on October 21, 2010

For me the issue of the legalization of pot is perplexing. How did we get to the point that we've legalized morphine and...heck, I could list a thousand addictive, sometimes dangerous drugs here, yet we've demonized pot...? Is it merely because the therapeutic effects of it were discovered after it was deemed a recreational drug? If that's the case, why can't we say, "oops, we made a wrong call here!".

If we discovered that Heroin cured cancer and AIDS, would we continue to make it illegal?
posted by HuronBob at 8:47 PM on October 21, 2010 [3 favorites]

I hope to one day grow my own pot. I will name it, "Old Toby, the finest weed in the South Farthing."
posted by SPrintF at 8:54 PM on October 21, 2010 [5 favorites]

It's just another bullshit display of "dope on the table" in a pointless effort to stop people from smoking a harmless plant.

"See, we're winning the drug war! Look at all the stuff we seized!"

What an amazing coincidence that the news of this "find" comes out right before California voters opt to legalize cannabis by passing Proposition 19. I would be very surprised if this whole exercise WASN'T linked to pressure stemming from the US government in some way.
posted by Despondent_Monkey at 8:54 PM on October 21, 2010

If we discovered that Heroin cured cancer and AIDS, would we continue to make it illegal?

Yes, unless a large pharma company could get a patent on it.

Interesting anecdotal story: I worked for years in the insurance industry (life and health--but Canadian health insurance--supplemental--not US). Anyways, I asked an underwriter why we charged smoker rates for recreational pot users and declined "chronic" pot users. His answer was that marijuana is 4x more carcinogenic than cigarettes, and said that was the pure stuff; the cheap stuff adulterated with chemicals or laced with other drugs were worse. I don't know if that's true, but it did give me pause.
posted by 1000monkeys at 8:56 PM on October 21, 2010

I signed up for MetaFilter just to get my six pounds.
posted by jessssse at 9:00 PM on October 21, 2010 [4 favorites]

Looks good. Wait...$250 AN OUNCE???!!! WHAT HAPPENED TO $5 A LID, MAN!?!?
posted by carping demon at 9:00 PM on October 21, 2010

I hope to one day grow my own pot. I will name it, "Old Toby, the finest weed in the South Farthing."

Every grower I have ever met has said that. I am not kidding.
posted by norm at 9:02 PM on October 21, 2010

If we discovered that Heroin cured cancer and AIDS, would we continue to make it illegal?

Yes, unless a large pharma company could get a patent on it.

Funny story: "Heroin," a long-abandoned trademark of Bayer AG, was originally marketed as a non-addictive morphine substitute.
posted by Sys Rq at 9:10 PM on October 21, 2010 [3 favorites]

Oh, please. It's SHOW BUSINESS , folks! That low-rent ditch-weed wasn't worth the gasoline to combust it.

But as if to remind the public of the drug war never far away, two decapitated bodies were found hanging from a bridge, and four young men were killed, both discoveries several miles from the conference.

They are beheading armed government employees who ask questions about their business. That is your take-away from the "war on drugs" .
posted by PareidoliaticBoy at 9:12 PM on October 21, 2010

Is Proposition 19 Going Up in Smoke?

Proposition 19, a ballot initiative in California that would give local authorities the ability to legalize and tax marijuana for personal consumption, appears to have lost ground in the polls.

Calculating a trendline from all surveys on the initiative suggests that about 46 percent of Californians plan to vote in favor of Proposition 19 — a yes vote would legalize marijuana in the state — but 47 percent plan to vote no. This reflects a reversal from before, as the ballot measure had led in most surveys prior to this month.

The trend is fairly robust across different polling companies. Although SurveyUSA still has the yes vote favored, 48 to 44, their previous polls had shown the measure leading by a larger margin. The Public Policy Institute of California meanwhile, has the measure trailing by 5 points now after having led by 9 points before. And Ipsos, which had the “yes” side trailing by 2 points in its June survey, now has the initiative trailing by 10.

posted by Rhaomi at 9:18 PM on October 21, 2010

I just feels spiteful when the armed forces of any powerful government create perfect ambiance for the greatest jam band festival ever, whether intentional or not.
posted by pedmands at 9:21 PM on October 21, 2010 [1 favorite]

"Also, I'm google translating what Homer is saying (on some of the bales) as "crappie and I go wey"...."

"Voy de Mojarra y que wey" would actually translate to something more in the lines of "I'm traveling as a wetback and what's it to you" Mojarras are a common prey and bait fish but in this case they are using it as another way to say "mojado" or wetback.
posted by maortiz at 9:23 PM on October 21, 2010 [1 favorite]

Dear Tijuana,

Get ready for one hell of a nice harvest.

Yours,
Zeus
posted by DaDaDaDave at 9:42 PM on October 21, 2010 [7 favorites]

humanfont's is the same objection I have to the "fund the state by taxing weed" argument— if it's legalized under any sort of sane system, its price will plummet, and so will any tax revenue.

OTOH, the state will presumably save a mint in not having to imprison a squazillion people convicted of pot crimes. I think the stronger arguments for legalization are basically humanitarian (medical and recreational use) and libertarian (if there's no compelling reason for something to be illegal, it should be legal).

> How did we get to the point that we've legalized morphine and...heck, I could list a thousand addictive, sometimes dangerous drugs here, yet we've demonized pot...?

The story that places the blame on Hearst has always made sense to me. He owned a whole lot of newspapers and a whole lot of wood-pulp paper mills, and used the former to eliminate some of the latter's competitors. As FOX has shown us in modern times, a media empire can readily reshape the commonly-accepted-truth if it wants to. Hearst was not known for his scruples.
posted by hattifattener at 9:47 PM on October 21, 2010 [1 favorite]

Is the six pounds per user taking into account the number of users that never completed the sign up? Or the users that have left? If no one shows up to claim their six pounds, is it because they left, or because they're the rat?
posted by Ghidorah at 9:48 PM on October 21, 2010

I have also read that Dupont - as a manufacturer of plastics - was quite influential in lobbying the govt to introduce legislation that first taxed hemp farming, and then effectively banned it altogether. Hysteria over marijuana, especially with racists undertones was part of their PR push to stop a competing product in the market.

I read that from a reasonably reliable, non-pot-barrow-pushing source (it was actually an aside about lobbying by multinationals and how it affected farming practice in the first half of the twentieth century).
posted by smoke at 10:06 PM on October 21, 2010

if it's legalized under any sort of sane system, its price will plummet, and so will any tax revenue.

Seemed to work OK in Amsterdam. Technically it was decriminalized there rather than legalized, but anyhow everyone seemed content with the arrangement; it was affordable for customers and there was enough profit in selling it to support a pretty busy trade, going by the number of 'coffeeshops'.

Of course if it were legalized in California prices would fall, but they would stabilize soon enough. I gather it's not too hard to grow, but think the impact of that is overestimated. After all, it's not very hard to brew beer or make wine, but most people prefer to just buy it, just as most people prefer their cigarettes in a box instead of hand-rolled. I read that RAND study published recently but it seemed like a lot of wild guesses to me. The only good data-based paper I've read about the economics of pot is this one, though I'm sure there are more to be found if you can read Dutch.
posted by anigbrowl at 10:14 PM on October 21, 2010

The thing that really gets me about this story is the fact that the impact of this bust on the consumption of marijuana will be basically nothing. I'm sure tiny waves of it will be felt in the supply and price in some markets, briefly. If by some herculean effort this spectacle was repeated again and again and again, in the weeks to come, then what? The degree to which the price and availability of weed could be nudged up is just the degree to which some local entrepreneur would be encouraged to open shop, and a determined indoor grower can turn around a harvest in just a few months.

I've been around these arguments a long time, now I'm a staid old married father for whom the discussion is academic, and if I had a magic button that would make it so recreational marijuana use would never ever be legal but that guaranteed that any sick person who might conceivably be helped even a teensy bit by it could have safe, legal, affordable access to it, I would push that button without hesitation, with apologies to all the harmless recreational smokers still out there. But the fact that keeps me most on the legalization side of the discussion is the blatant, undeniable, categorical failure of prohibition. It is all money, and effort, and lives, down a rathole. However questionable the benefits of actually stamping out weed might be, the costly, dangerous, criminal-empowering and -enriching failure of the effort brooks no rational argument that I've ever heard.
posted by nanojath at 10:43 PM on October 21, 2010 [1 favorite]

1000monkeys: "If we discovered that Heroin cured cancer and AIDS, would we continue to make it illegal?

Yes, unless a large pharma company could get a patent on it.

Interesting anecdotal story: I worked for years in the insurance industry (life and health--but Canadian health insurance--supplemental--not US). Anyways, I asked an underwriter why we charged smoker rates for recreational pot users and declined "chronic" pot users. His answer was that marijuana is 4x more carcinogenic than cigarettes, and said that was the pure stuff; the cheap stuff adulterated with chemicals or laced with other drugs were worse. I don't know if that's true, but it did give me pause"

Dr. Donald Tashkin of UCLA, who studied the issue, and in fact, was initially of the belief that Marijuana was carcinogenic In Vivo found that such was not the case...

"What we found instead was no association and even a suggestion of some protective effect," says Tashkin, whose research was the largest case-control study ever conducted. The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health.

Tobacco smokers in the study had as much as a 21-fold increase in lung cancer risk. Cigarette smokers, too, developed COPD more often in the study, and researchers found that marijuana did not impair lung function. Tashkin, supported by other research, concluded that the active ingredient tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, has an "anti- tumoral effect" in which "cells die earlier before they age enough to develop mutations that might lead to lung cancer."

However, the smoke from marijuana did swell the airways and lead to a greater risk of chronic bronchitis.

"Early on, when our research appeared as if there would be a negative impact on lung health, I was opposed to legalization because I thought it would lead to increased use and that would lead to increased health effects," Tashkin says.

"But at this point, I'd be in favor of legalization. I wouldn't encourage anybody to smoke any substances, because of the potential for harm. But I don't think it should be stigmatized as an illegal substance.

"Tobacco smoking causes far more harm. And in terms of an intoxicant, alcohol causes far more harm."

posted by symbioid at 10:45 PM on October 21, 2010 [3 favorites]

The degree to which the price and availability of weed could be nudged up

The totally not high pedantic in me insists that this should read "The degree to which the price and availability of weed could be nudged up and down respectively."
posted by nanojath at 10:55 PM on October 21, 2010

I get more like $1.2 billion using a $250/oz street price

Haha no, that's Mexican brickweed. Nobody would pay $250 an ounce for that, that's real weed prices. I'm pretty sure street prices for that would be more like $250 per pound.
posted by drinkyclown at 11:19 PM on October 21, 2010

I thought this was supposed to be a puff piece.
posted by Xere at 11:39 PM on October 21, 2010 [3 favorites]

Are they holding this guy up because he was standing downwind?
posted by chillmost at 12:02 AM on October 22, 2010

At least they picked the right Homer Simpson image, where he's saying: Woo-hoo!
posted by bwg at 12:44 AM on October 22, 2010

If decriminalization/legalization takes off, BC's economy will be shattered. Marijuana is huge business, handily beating out our forest industry. It might well be the province's #1 money-maker.
posted by five fresh fish at 1:10 AM on October 22, 2010 [1 favorite]

Law enforcement is also big business. Legalization is a serious economic blow.
posted by llc at 1:15 AM on October 22, 2010 [1 favorite]

orange swan: I like how the soldiers look kind of devastated at the end.

I thought they looked a bit toasted. "Bros, mis amigos, if I may, we did it. We smoked the ... biggest ... what was that, pile? Yeah, Pile of mary jane."

And I heard the story this morning on NPR, and I could have sworn there was some line about the burn being watched by officials, police and something like "four college students" or "a few college students." My efforts to verify that I heard anything of the sort are failing.
posted by filthy light thief at 2:35 AM on October 22, 2010

Wow. It takes a criminal to sell drugs, but it takes a nihilistic super villain to burn all those drugs.
posted by dgaicun at 2:50 AM on October 22, 2010

Marijuana goes bad, at some point, doesn't it? I mean you can't just buy six pounds of weed at once (well, for several reasons, probably) and then slowly smoke it over several years, right?

Yes we can! Years-old weed still works.


Also:
Funny story: "Heroin," a long-abandoned trademark of Bayer AG, was originally marketed as a non-addictive morphine substitute.

As was cocaine. In fact, I believe morphine was originally claimed to be non-addictive.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 3:39 AM on October 22, 2010

contact high for the surrounding 20 miles.

Haha no, that's Mexican brickweed. Nobody would pay $250 an ounce for that, that's real weed prices. I'm pretty sure street prices for that would be more like $250 per pound.

Weed prices, and quality very wildly.
posted by delmoi at 4:17 AM on October 22, 2010

But what does Linda think?
posted by Obscure Reference at 4:27 AM on October 22, 2010 [2 favorites]

if it's legalized under any sort of sane system, its price will plummet, and so will any tax revenue.

"... the Dutch government is raking in 400 million euros (a little more than $600 million) a year in taxes from the country's 730 marijuana-selling coffee shops. Reporter estimated total sales at the coffee shops at 265,000 kilos of hashish and marijuana annually, with an annual gross revenue of about $3.2 billion."
posted by Houstonian at 4:29 AM on October 22, 2010

Are they holding this guy up because he was standing downwind?

I dunno, but I worry about the guy on the left, since he's pictured without his mask.
posted by limeonaire at 5:45 AM on October 22, 2010

Hearst was not known for his scruples.

True, and let's not forget that roseBUD was tossed into the fire. I think Welles was sending us a message.
posted by mecran01 at 5:59 AM on October 22, 2010

It also makes men grow boobs and ruin your chances of being elected POTUS.

Can't speak to the man-boobs, but as long as you don't inhale, you should still be in the running for POTUS. For two terms, even.
posted by orange swan at 6:15 AM on October 22, 2010

Was I the only one who thought we'd get to see a mountainous pile of green that forced you to imagine what it would smell like to be sprayed in the face by a skunk? I know it's just a plant, but even being around a few raw, wet branches of bud is incredibly decadent-feeling.

Or, so I've heard.
posted by gorgor_balabala at 6:17 AM on October 22, 2010

notion wrote: "I've heard of people who go through more than that, but it's just hearsay."

I have personally known people who go through around a quarter pound a day (of low grade stuff). That makes about 10-12 blunts. Tolerance is a bitch.

At the prices those folks were getting it for (buying in bulk is cheap), it would be worth about $192 million. Retail, it would be more like $378 million. And it's cheaper in New Mexico. That's still $20 million in taxes. (in reality, it would be more like $567 million in tax, based on our present tobacco taxes)
posted by wierdo at 6:27 AM on October 22, 2010

Also: the masked soldiers have their names on their uniforms.

Sí, eso es lo que todos dicen. Todos dicen, "D'oh."
posted by kirkaracha at 7:24 AM on October 22, 2010 [1 favorite]

I could list a thousand addictive, sometimes dangerous drugs here, yet we've demonized pot...?

We use the same logic with Communism. China's a trade partner and we boycott Cuba.

Can't speak to the man-boobs, but as long as you don't inhale, you should still be in the running for POTUS. For two terms, even.

Obama inhaled, and he's in for at least one term.
posted by kirkaracha at 7:28 AM on October 22, 2010 [1 favorite]

"Wow, what are all those white cubes? What's in there? No way, WEED? Seriously? Holy crap this is going to be a great party...OH SHIT NO WHAT ARE YOU DOING...OOOOOOHHHH THE HUMANITY!!!"
posted by Demogorgon at 8:14 AM on October 22, 2010

with apologies to all the harmless recreational smokers still out there

Is there such a thing as a harmful recreational smoker? What do you mean by "still out there?" Are the harmless ones going away, to be replaced by the bad kind?
posted by magnificent frigatebird at 8:20 AM on October 22, 2010 [1 favorite]

Awesome! look at all the pot we burned! We are SO winning the War On Drugs!

in related news, I killed three roaches in my kitchen, which means I am similarly winning my roach problem.
posted by Uther Bentrazor at 8:57 AM on October 22, 2010 [1 favorite]

Despondent_Monkey : What an amazing coincidence that the news of this "find" comes out right before California voters opt to legalize cannabis by passing Proposition 19.

I was thinking something similar, but I was hoping that Californians would look at this and realize what a huge waste of resources it was to stage this operation and vote to help put a stop to it.
posted by quin at 9:01 AM on October 22, 2010

in related news, I killed three roaches in my kitchen, which means I am similarly winning my roach problem.

I see what you did there.
posted by twirlip at 11:26 AM on October 22, 2010 [3 favorites]

> humanfont's is the same objection I have to the "fund the state by taxing weed" argument— if it's legalized under any sort of sane system, its price will plummet, and so will any tax revenue.


Prices will drop somewhat, but the problem with humanfont's argument is that people won't buy 6 lbs of weed at a time. They might buy an eighth, quarter, or whatever new marketing bundle/sizes are created by corporate marketing geeks and number crunchers. But marketing will also begin to push "Freshness" as an important aspect of the product. Consumers will be compelled to purchase newer packs even if their existing pack is still fine to smoke.

Ignoring personal stashes, people will still go out and smoke at bars and coffeeshops on the weekends and during the week. I can get a fifth of gin for fairly cheap, but the martini bar down the street from my apartment that has $7 martinis doesn't seem to be suffering. We'll see marijuana mixologists creating thousands of new blends and strains.

Celebrity marijuana "chefs" will create exciting new recipes centered around the drug. They'll have there own Food Network shows and branded products. Kraft will sell new products with weed in them. Bundling of marijuana with other products makes natural sense and will surely happen.

Somewhat related to loquacious' wonderful comment on Trader Joe's weed.
posted by formless at 9:30 PM on October 22, 2010

formless, pretty much everything you describe is already available to medical marijuana patients in California. They buy in eighths and quarter-ounces. The 'freshest bud' is touted by the collective's staff, and more expensive than the pre-weighed eighths from week previous, which is in turn more expensive than the 'shake' mixed left-overs from even older batches.

People smoke on the street pretty casually in this city on any given night. Not so much in establishments as outside the kitchens or around the corner from establishments. But there are already 'mixologists' who tout designer strains only available at certain dispensaries (and at a steep premium).

You can already get pretty much any snack food laced with THC, and THC butter is available. Tinctures are available for those who'd prefer to sip their medication.

Basically it's a fairly rudimentary but satisfactory supply chain at this point. loquacious-imagined market stratification could, and probably will happen someday, but I'm not sure I'm looking forward to it. I kind of like it the way it is; sort of an odd cross between a farmer's market and a boutique.
posted by carsonb at 9:42 PM on October 22, 2010

Marijuana - The Big Picture
posted by kliuless at 7:32 AM on October 23, 2010

134 metric tons = 295,419.431 pounds. If distributed evenly among all 49,000 MeFites, we would each have about 6 pounds of weed.

So, when can we expect the distributions to begin?
posted by krinklyfig at 7:57 PM on October 24, 2010