Critique: Government runs nation’s only legal pot garden
bile recently pointed me to a CNN article called “Government runs nation’s only legal pot garden” which details a government run facility for growing marijuana, the security it uses and some of the controversy that surrounds the subject. What follows are my comments on the article.
Like a cask in a wine cellar, this barrel of marijuana is marked with the year of vintage. It is one of many in the room. ElSohly, the director of the lab, guesses that it holds 10 to 15 kilos, or about 22 to 33 pounds, of impeccably clean “product.”
If you look at the picture they have a wine barrel filled with ground cannabis bud. While the “impeccably clean” product certainly is devoid of stems and seeds I don’t see why they would store it this way. Cannabis continues to cure when stored with the bud intact. I can understand why they would grind it up to test it, but to store it that way doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. Ultimately the cannabinoids created during curing are going to be slightly different since there method of storage isn’t typical.
How much would this be worth on the street?
“A lot,” he answers.
He’s not being evasive. It’s just that the value of the marijuana, like the gold at Fort Knox, fluctuates wildly. And like the government gold, it is not for sale. So the question is academic and of little concern.
Eh, $25k? I imagine it would be hard to unload 33lbs so you’d take a knock for selling it in bulk. You’d expect a cannabis researcher to know something about the price, even if it does fluctuate. Also isn’t this guy technically an academic?
Of course, marijuana inside the fence has added value as a scientific tool. Researchers know the genetic makeup of the plants, and that is essential if you’re studying the impact of a drug that, with 14.8 million users, is the most widely used illicit drug in the country.
Preserving or hybridizing cannabis genotypes would be damn near impossible if the facility weren’t cordoned off. The best seed banks in the world are equally concerned with preserving the distinct makeup of their crosses.
Although street marijuana in the early 1980s had an average strength of 4 percent tetrahydrocannabinol — the drug’s primary psychoactive ingredient — the average was 10.1 percent last year, the government announced.
That’s because it’s illegal and if you’re going to transport something you want the most bang per pound. That’s also why people prefer to move hash over long distances. If cannabis were legal you’d see a huge amount of marketplace variety including low potency strains. Personally I prefer lower potency. Also, nothing says people use the same amounts of different types of cannabis. A more potent strain may be used more sparingly. To quote MC Chris (an excellent academic source) “I’ve got a one hitter named Margo Kidder and I only need to hit that shit once!”
…inexperienced or young marijuana users may be more prone to overdose, federal officials say. And users hoping to achieve a state of euphoria may experience dysphoria, a state of anxiety and irritability, and perhaps other ill effects.
I’m not surprised that “federal officials” like to use the term overdose when talking about cannabis. Overdose to most people means death, or possibly a hospital visit. These “federal officials” claim an overdose on cannabis is paranoia. It’s true, you may bug out and cannabis may not be for you or you may not want to smoke so much next time. It certainly isn’t going to kill you though. Also I suspect that part of the problem is that many new cannabis users aren’t “paranoid”, they’re “correct”. When you use cannabis people really are out to get you, they’re called the cops.
Other lab workers “manicure” the drug, removing seeds and stems, and put the clean drug in small beakers. A solution is added, and the liquid is gasified and analyzed by four machines.
Ultimately, a computer screen displays the chemical composition of the samples.
I bet you it’s a GC/MS (gas chromatography/mass spectrometer) setup. If growers had more access to facilities like this, there’d more more than just anecdotal evidence as to a strain’s cannabinoid content. Granted there are other methods, but GC/MS would be best.
“I want to ask what your Christmas parties are like,” he is told.
He deadpans: “No smoking.”
And we end on a corny joke. So the author of this article went to the government’s infamous Mississippi lab a didn’t even as about the G-13 myths? That kinda bums me out. All in all it was an interesting piece that leaned a little too heavily on people’s ignorance regarding cannabis. I kind of feel like the government got more good press out of this than any pro-cannabis cause did. If you’re looking to counteract some of the propaganda, here’s a full length movie on Hulu about the subject.
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