# Ever run into a pot (marijuana) plant in the wild?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-run-into-a-pot-marijuana-plant-in-the-wild/251342
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [June 20, 2004, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-run-into-a-pot-marijuana-plant-in-the-wild/251342 "2004-06-20T20:25:41Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2004, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-run-into-a-pot-marijuana-plant-in-the-wild/251342/1 "2004-06-20T20:25:41Z")
Just wondering if anyone was ever hiking or just cutting across a dirt lot and stumbled upon a pot plant. I really don’t know a pot plant from a hole in the wall, so I would not notice, but am curious just how many are there in nature (or from discarded pieces before smoking)???
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### Author:  [@Thirty-Nine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thirty-Nine)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2004, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-run-into-a-pot-marijuana-plant-in-the-wild/251342/2 "2004-06-20T20:43:05Z")
Once I found a whole field behind my house… that was shortly before I woke up. 😉
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### Author:  [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2004, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-run-into-a-pot-marijuana-plant-in-the-wild/251342/3 "2004-06-20T21:08:05Z")
A couple of times. Once was many years ago on the corner in front of a liquor store on the road between Pittsburg and Bethel Island, CA. We watched it for quite a while, and it got pretty big (3ft) before somebody yanked it. Wasn’t much in the way of bud on it yet. Must have been a cop, or some other idiot. 😉
Peace,
mangeorge
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### Author:  [@Garfield226](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Garfield226)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2004, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-run-into-a-pot-marijuana-plant-in-the-wild/251342/4 "2004-06-20T21:11:50Z")
There’s a place nearby which used to grow hemp for rope during WW2 (or so I’ve been told), and the land borders on woods which is now owned by the town I live it. I was a bit…amused…the first time I happened on it. There is a LOT there. (Yes, I know it’s not exactly the same. Close though.)
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### Author:  [@Burrido](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Burrido)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2004, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-run-into-a-pot-marijuana-plant-in-the-wild/251342/5 "2004-06-20T21:27:15Z")
Back of my buddys farm. Huge 7 - 8 leaf hybrids. His father found out about them and went back and chopped them all down.
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### Author:  [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2004, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-run-into-a-pot-marijuana-plant-in-the-wild/251342/6 "2004-06-20T21:35:12Z")
> [@Burrido](#):
>
> Back of my buddys farm. Huge 7 - 8 leaf hybrids. His father found out about them and went back and chopped them all down.
Hey, Minnesota! I was going to ask **Garfield226** if that’s where he/she is. My ex-son-in-law worked there for a while and he said there was some “volunteer” hemp growing around there, but that it was just about worthless.
Pretty much any marijuana, if left to revert, will eventually yield low potency. Or so I’ve been told.
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### Author:  [@Garfield226](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Garfield226)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2004, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-run-into-a-pot-marijuana-plant-in-the-wild/251342/7 "2004-06-20T21:39:27Z")
> [@mangeorge](#):
>
> Hey, Minnesota! I was going to ask **Garfield226** if that’s where he/she is. My ex-son-in-law worked there for a while and he said there was some “volunteer” hemp growing around there, but that it was just about worthless.
Nope, Central Illinois here. And I’m a guy, for future reference. And I never tried to smoke it or anything, I just thought it was amusing.
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### Author:  [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2004, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-run-into-a-pot-marijuana-plant-in-the-wild/251342/8 "2004-06-20T21:45:14Z")
On the Anapurna trail in Nepal, probably started from seeds discarded by hikers over the years.
Haj
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### Author:  [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2004, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-run-into-a-pot-marijuana-plant-in-the-wild/251342/9 "2004-06-20T21:53:25Z")
We used to build a fire to and throw green wild hemp leaves on it to make an anti-mosquito smudge while fishing at night on the Little Sioux River in Iowa.
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### Author:  [@jacksen9](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jacksen9)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2004, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-run-into-a-pot-marijuana-plant-in-the-wild/251342/10 "2004-06-20T22:01:27Z")
I know someone who claimed to have just stumbled across a big pot field. I think he may have been tipped off. He got a few friends and stole them. Somehow the planters found out and death threats were made. I was scared for him.
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### Author:  [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2004, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-run-into-a-pot-marijuana-plant-in-the-wild/251342/11 "2004-06-20T22:23:35Z")
I’ve seen wild marijauna growing in Wisconsin, Iowa, Nebraska, and Missouri. It’s widely distrubted throughout the midwest.
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### Author:  [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2004, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-run-into-a-pot-marijuana-plant-in-the-wild/251342/12 "2004-06-20T22:34:50Z")
**kanicbird**. While you’re gonna get some factual answers to your post, you were kinda vague in asking your question.
I think that many of the posts will be better suited to this forum.
**samclem** GQ moderator
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### Author:  [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2004, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-run-into-a-pot-marijuana-plant-in-the-wild/251342/13 "2004-06-20T22:35:25Z")
Oh yeah. My father had wild ones constanly sprouting up in his back yard.
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### Author:  [@BubbaDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BubbaDog)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2004, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-run-into-a-pot-marijuana-plant-in-the-wild/251342/14 "2004-06-20T22:43:38Z")
It grows wild all over Missouri. An ambitious pot head might get a little buzz if he smoked a bale or two. Its very low grade and rumor has it that it was once cultivated for rope.
Then there’s the stuff that “looks” wild but was probably planted…that’s the stuff that gets staked out by the local authorities.
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### Author:  [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2004, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-run-into-a-pot-marijuana-plant-in-the-wild/251342/15 "2004-06-20T23:11:29Z")
Thanks **samclem** for the forumn change, and giving me a reason for it :).
Please keep this up and not just the ‘Off to {whatever fourmn w/o a reason}’
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### Author:  [@imthjckaz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/imthjckaz)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2004, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-run-into-a-pot-marijuana-plant-in-the-wild/251342/16 "2004-06-20T23:14:01Z")
> [@Earl Snake-Hips Tucker](#):
>
> Oh yeah. My father had wild ones constanly sprouting up in his back yard.
When I was in high school so did I.
Right outside my bedroom window.
Seeds musta got blown into my backyard by some unseen wind.
Or something.
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### Author:  [@KarlGrenze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGrenze)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2004, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-run-into-a-pot-marijuana-plant-in-the-wild/251342/17 "2004-06-20T23:19:42Z")
Next to the road in Salem, Mass. I was with a group of students, one of them picked one of the leaves and put it in his necklace. Lasted a couple of hours before he was told by the adults to take it off.
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### Author:  [@bare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bare)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2004, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-run-into-a-pot-marijuana-plant-in-the-wild/251342/18 "2004-06-20T23:39:12Z")
I ran across several plots in my timber cruising days, all on National Forest land adjacent to private property.
One in particular, was on my traverse line and I hung plastic flagging straight through it (we had to mark our lines for possible re-inspection).
Later that evening sitting in the local bar I was accosted by an acquaintance, who happened to be the farmer in question, wondering what the meaning of the plastic flagging was.
I explained the reason for it and warned him that there was a 1% chance that the particular plot would be inspected further.
Would have really been fun had my actual plot fallen in directly in the patch, since along with tallying the trees we had to identify the entire shrub and forb component of the plot.
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### Author:  [@RindaRinda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RindaRinda)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2004, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-run-into-a-pot-marijuana-plant-in-the-wild/251342/19 "2004-06-20T23:46:24Z")
I saw both wild and cultivated marijuana plants while hiking in north Vietnam. Left them well alone, though - I just don’t believe in doing anything that might bring me into contact with Asian police.
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### Author:  [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)
#### Post date: [June 21, 2004, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-run-into-a-pot-marijuana-plant-in-the-wild/251342/20 "2004-06-21T01:50:01Z")
> [@hajario](#):
>
> On the Anapurna trail in Nepal, probably started from seeds discarded by hikers over the years.
>
> Haj
You mean you didn’t have loads of locals coming up to you saying “Hashish, marijauna”. There’s way too much of it near Pisang to be just castoffs from trekkers. It’s definately being cultivated in Nepal, if fairly large fields.
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