Weeds

July 22, 2008 - 3:56 PM by Jessica

Well, the TV scenarios of Weeds and the fictional land of Agrestic have arrived in Beit Shemesh, Israel, as three men were recently busted for growing thousands of saplings of a marijuana-like plant in a warehouse under hydroponic conditions. The police also found 155 kilograms of drugs, as well as a watering system, heating machine and blowers used to keep the temperatures at greenhouse levels for better growing conditions.

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The police reckoned that this may be their biggest bust, given that the laboratory-like conditions of the warehouse — which included specialized lighting and high quality plants — created plants that grew faster and better marijuana than regular ‘grass.’ And unlike previous busts, which were usually in private homes, this warehouse setup included sections for growing the seeds, another for the developing plants, a third for drying the plants and a fourth section for weighing and packing the dried drug. Wonder where they got the idea for that setup, huh, Nancy?

According to an inside source at the Beit Shemesh police, the drug found is extremely expensive, worth 10-40 times as much as hashish. But what’s particularly amusing is that this isn’t the first time that hashish has been found in the area. An archaeological dig in Beit Shemesh a few years back uncovered organic remains of a substance containing hashish on the abdominal area of a teenage female’s skeleton dating back to the fourth century.

According to the Israel Antiquities Authority, cannabis was probably used as a healing ointment, particularly for women in labor and after childbirth. Hey, not necessarily such a bad idea.

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