Department of Who Knew: The wacky weed as military camouflage
Yes, there really is a CNN article called "Canada troops battle 10-foot Afghan marijuana plants." Wow, sounds like a pulp scifi movie, doesn't it? According to the article, the plants are so thick that they're an effective blockade to military vehicles, and they do a good job of camouflage, too.
I grew up in an area of rural Georgia where growing marijuana is a source of income to a number of people. My dad, as the Chief of Police of the small town where I grew up, had all kinds of bizarre stories to tell about it. Some years ago, a couple of large patches of marijuana went undetected for a long time because the plants had been trimmed to resemble Christmas trees. When law enforcement finally discovered the Mary Jane forest, they burned it to the ground, and I heard that people from miles around drove over there so they could be downwind.
Apparently, the Canadian soldiers had similar problems with destroying the huge plants they found in Afghanistan.
Posted: October 12th, 2006 under Miscellaneous.
Comments: 5
Comments
Comment from John
Time: October 12, 2006, 10:06 pm
“We tried burning them with white phosphorous — it didn’t work. We tried burning them with diesel — it didn’t work. The plants are so full of water right now … that we simply couldn’t burn them,” he said.
So now we’re resorting to defoliants, just to complete the Vietnam analogy. Grr.
Comment from Lynne
Time: October 12, 2006, 10:10 pm
Man, white phosphorous is seriously nasty, too.
Comment from Lynne
Time: October 13, 2006, 1:29 am
Wow. I just saw in the stats that someone searched on “marijuana forest” to get here. :-)
Comment from James
Time: October 14, 2006, 4:04 pm
Heh. No, hemp ain’t goin’ down easy. That’s why they use it to make rope.
Comment from Lynne
Time: October 15, 2006, 2:34 pm
It’s supposedly wonderful as a building material, too. Whenever we get our new house built, maybe we’ll have walls or floors made with hemp products. We have some sheets and towels made from it, and they’re very durable. The THC content is low to the point of being nonexistent, so there’s no risk either of us would test hot on a drug screening.
I’ve heard that hemp is very resistant to pests, and that makes it a much more eco-friendly crop than cotton. The cotton lobby must’ve been insanely strong, way back when, to so successfully demonize hemp.
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