There was usually some growing in the woods behind my house when I was growing up. And you could probably find it in any wooded area if you looked hard enough (this was in rural Iowa).
I never paid much attention though.
Since pot was by far the biggest cash crop in the little eastern KY county that I grew up in*, it was not unusual to find some plants growing in the wild. Hell, it wasn’t at all uncommon to go out exploring in the woods and run across somebody’s patch. Happened to me two or three times, one of which got a shotgun aimed at me.
Also, we still own the farm where my dad grew up, and we used to rent out the house (while it was still in good enough shape). We had a big family reunion picnic there one year, and some of my cousins took a walk down to the river. There, in a big field of weeds, they found a blue pot with a distinctive looking plant growing up out of it. As they searched around, they found a bunch more of them scattered throughout the field. One of their fathers happened to be a state trooper, and another cousin had recently married our county sheriff, and both cops were munching away on fried chicken about 300 yards away. Forces were mobilized, arrests were made, and something on the order of 75-100 plants were found throughout the farm, all in pots. The local deputies loaded them onto a flatbed truck as we tried to go on with the reunion.
Good times…
- In fact, it was a center of the hemp industry back when it was legal. Woody Harrelson came to our little town of 1200 a few years ago to plant four hemp seeds and get arrested for it, in an effort to challenge the laws on the books. Not much success with it, unfortunately, but it was our moment in the sun.
Has no one ever hear of “Ditch Weed”? The problem here in Minnesota is that ditch weed is abundant (Due to the afore mentioned hemp rope farming). Makes it easy for nefarious salesmen to streeetch out there inventory, resulting in a lower quality product.
You’d die from smoke inhalation bfore you felt any effect from ditch weed. If some wise acre decided to hide his ‘good stuff’ in the middle of a field of ditch weed, the cross polinization would render the ‘good stuff’ worthless. (Some who don’t know better have argued that industrial hemp farms would be cover operations for pot cultivation, when the truth is that a hemp farm would be the worst possible place for cultivation)
The stuff grows like a weed. Hey! Maybe they should call it a weed, or maybe shorten it to just ‘weed’, since that’s what it is! Hmmm. I’m brilliant.
Nebraska=ditch weed. Big time.
NurseCarmen hits on the nose. Don’t burn it…yikes.
One of my friends found a little baby growing out the sidewalk in front of her office…was advised to call the police in to remove it so she didn’t get into trouble.
Yeesh.
While horseback riding near Negril, the guide took us to a rather large grove, about 10-12 acres. We were forbidden to dismount or sample. Didn’t need to.
Twice:
A beautiful 6’ plant growing in the middle of a traffic island in Tehran, Iran. It was being well tended by the street maintenance crew.
While hiking, I found 20-30 scattered plants near an experimental tree growing area in the Angeles National Forest, in So. California.
Exactly. You could probably go on just about any farm out here and find some ditch weed. But you definitely wouldn’t want to smoke it. Not that I’ve ever tried that or anything.
The site of the Minnesota Renaissance Festival is an ex-hemp farm, and it still grows wild along the edge of the treeline. I’ve been told by people that work the faire that there’s a newbie every year who finds some growing and tries to smoke it. The results are often hilarious, if you think semi-strangers getting vomitously sick is funny.
I ran into a few small plots in the hills around Santa Cruz, Calif while hiking. More than likely they were the secret stashes for some college students from the Univ Of Ca campus there.
