I have wondered for quite sometime now what the result would be if one were to put marijuana seeds in a birdfeeder, mixed in with birdfeed, of course. When the birds make their “deposits,” will they help to spread the growth of marijuana plants? Or will the seeds be altered during the digestion process? Any ideas?
Look closely next time you buy birdseed. A lot of mixtures actually do contain pot seeds. They are irradiated, and so, cannot germinate (supposedly).
Birdseed does contain marajuana seed. I remember back in the 50’s or 60’s, my uncle was paid a visit by the local police who noticed marajuana growing in the window. He was, of course, shocked at such a discovery, but the police, once seeing the birds (and birdseed) in the room, had a good laugh about it, made him pull up the errant plants and told him to be on the lookout for more “sprouts.”
Birdseed may be irradiated now, but it sure wasn’t back then 
Marajuana grows wild throughout the United States, possibly due to the importation of it from other continents. The plants probably never make it to maturity in urban and suburban areas, as people mow lawns and cut back foliage. State and local police authorities, however, routinely search out and destroy wild marajuana plants in wooded areas and along undeveloped river banks and such places, usually in late spring and again in mid-summer.
Irradiation and streilization of plants is sporadic at best, and depends on whether the supplier A) bothers to comply with the rules, B) is out of the jurisdiction of said rules, or C) has even heard of the rules.
I’m thinking of an article I read on poppies. The type of poppies from which opium is derived are illegal in the United States, on paper, at least. Reality is a much different story. Occasionally, you’ll see a story of a little old granmother being “busted” for growing said plants in her garden. (Rarely prosecuted, though. Mostly, the plants are just confinscated and destroyed.) The “Opium Poppy” is available in a lot of flower supplier catalogues, even ones based here in the U.S. The article claimed that such confusion exists over which poppies are legal, and which are not that suppliers often don’t bother following regulations, and the Feds rarely bother with crackdowns unless they’re having a very slow work week.
The “pot seeds” in your birdfeed are likely hemp seeds. Hemp is a cousin of marijuana, with only a tiny bit of THC. As one pro-hemp website puts it, “You’d have to smoke a joint of hemp the size of a Buick in order to get high.” The plants look so similar, however, that police can be easily confused as to which is which, and this is why hemp is not legally grown in the U.S.
Marijuana grows wild on almost every continent except the Arctic. It’s not due to importation; it was here all along. The Native Americans used it in ceremonies, in fact, for thousands of years.
Hemp and marijuana are exactly the same plant: cannabis sativa l. The difference in THC levels is due to the growing process. Seeds taken from plants grown for hemp will produce marijuana plants with high levels of THC when grown properly.
Really? I don’t think that this is the case. AFAIK, years and years of selective crossing of plants with higher THC levels gave us the plants that are used for marijuana. You can do a search and find places in Europe that sell pot seeds for many different varities of pot. I found one place that is selling the seeds a particular strain at a cost of $60 for 10 seeds. I suppose that if you have the botany knowledge and lots of time you could make hemp seeds worth that much.
Cannabis can be bred for high or low THC. The growing process does have much to do with it, but a lot of it is also genetics. In places like Holland, pot seeds from highly potent plants go for premium prices.
Regarding the birdseed: hempseed is a very important ingredient in the mixture. Important enough (at least back then - not sure about today) that when pot was effectively criminalized in 1937, of the few witnesses who testified before Congress that it should not be outlawed, several were in the birdseed industry. (The AMA was another group that opposed the law.)
The birdseed manufacturers won a partial victory and were allowed to use imported hempseed. Of course, this didn’t stop the DEA from [seizing 20 tons of birdseed](www.drugsense.org/mcwilliams/www.petertrial.com/ birdseed.htm) in 1999 when they abruptly decided that sterilized wasn’t good enough; it had to have no detectable THC. Your tax dollars hard at work. :rolleyes:
Hemp is a genetic variety of * cannibis * but not the exact same thing. Here’s a cite.
The two species can interbreed, but are not exactly the same. Pot growers are concerned that wide-spead hemp growing will ruin their pot plants.
This site says:
This thread just reminded me of something funny that happened to me several years ago. I was taking a long bus ride and had an hour layover in Washington D.C. Not being a native city dweller, I was intrigued by how close the pigeons came to me as they pecked away on disgarded pizza crusts. A local noticed me watching the birds and said something about my proximity to them.
“Yeah,” I replied, “they’ll come right up to you. It’s crazy.”
He said, “And they sure like that pizza crust, too.”
short pause as he looks me up and down
“And you know what else they like?” he continues. “WEED! Wanna buy some?”
I laughed and conceded that he had made a terrific effort, but declined his offer anyway.
funny story, Neutron Star…and thanks for all the info provided by QED and Neutron …i never realized that bird seed contained marijuana…and, i kinda figured that even if birds would eat it, that it probably wouldn’t result in more plants…oh, well;)
What is it with the D.C. bus station? I’ve been in it exactly twice and been offered weed both times. The first time, I was all of 11 years old!
It ain’t the bus station, manny. It just means you’ve always looked like a stoner.
Hemp seeds are the seeds of the plant cannabis sativa. There may be different subspecies, but they are all capable of interbreeding. The seeds of cannabis sativa are among the most nutritious of all seeds that birds can eat. This goes for the seeds of rope hemp or the seeds that yield the marijuana found in the highest grades of smoking reefer. If you buy hemp seeds from a bird feed distributor, they are supposedly irradiated and rendered non viable. If the seeds are fed to birds it won’t matter, because most seed-eating birds have gizzards and other digestive organs that turn the seeds into mush and finally bird crap. I have also compared pot seeds to hemp seeds and there is nothing that the human eye can see that differentiates the two, and birds relish eating either one. I don’t know if the seeds of high quality smoking marijuana contain enough THC to be psychoactive, but I am sure birds would eat them just as hungrily. Mike.
Actually, I’ve heard it said that marijuana seeds may have an effect on the apparently built-in “compass” sensory system that many migratory birds depend on.
Lissa:
Yeah, that’s why they are doing the research using the Arctic tern, the theory being that its a species not likely to have been substantially exposed to marijuana, so they can compare the test subjects with the behavior of the birds in the wild.
They have not yet deciphered everything there is to know about their navigational sensibilities, but until they do, scientists vow to leave no tern unstoned…
I am never mowing my lawn again…
I would like to take time out from this thread to commend you for going the distance to get this joke.
Turns out that the only way the terns will eat the seeds is if they`re mixed in with liver sausage. The only place you can get liver sausage in the Arctic is at the German Research Facility. Every so often the scientists doing the marijuana experiment take a tern for the wurst.
Plants which produce seeds do so for the explicit purpose of animals eating them and wandering off to deposit them elsewhere, in the faeces.
The seed gets take to a new area where it will not compete with the parent for light, nutrients, moisture etc and the animal also assists by providing manure, all in one fell swoop.
Shit transit, Gloria
So, the digestion process does not prevent the seeds from carrying out their primary function; germination for the continuation of the species.
Of course, this only applies to seeds which have not been exposed to external mutation agents such as irradiation
GROAN!