Word: oregon
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Equally adept at agronomy and foiling the police, Oregon's pot farmers turned home-grown weed into a profitable racket by developing their unique sinsemillas hybrid. The robust, waste-free strain attracts buyers willing to pay $1,600 a pound, the yield from just one well-cultivated plant. Studies show that sinsemillas weed contains five times more tetrahydrocannabinol (pot's narcotic ingredient) than the common Mexican variety. Even federal drug experts are impressed. "A good deal of expertise goes into producing that kind of plant," notes Dr. Carlton Turner, director of marijuana research for the National Institute of Drug Abuse...
After the October harvest, reports TIME'S Doug Brew, elite growers are invited to the annual Doper's Fair in Oregon's Josephine County. They bring along prime crop samples and judge each other, by secret ballot, for taste, fragrance and strength...
Completing the harvest is no easy task. Windfall loot has spawned violent crime. Crop thefts and armed robberies now loom as more ominous threats than police busts. "The paranoia gets so thick around here in October that you could cut it with a knife," says an Oregon grower...
That day may not be too far off. Both California and Oregon have considered legislation to allow cultivation of two or three marijuana plants for personal use, and some observers think the bills might be approved next year. If so, backyard gardeners might replace big-time growers in the booming pot trade. Until then, pot farmers in the Northwest stand to reap a bundle this fall from bumper crops?if they don't get bumped off first...
...state's civil liability law applied only to bars, restaurants and liquor stores, not partygivers. Said the majority: No one can serve booze "under conditions involving a reasonably foreseeable risk of harm to others." California thus joins a small but growing group of states, including New York, Iowa and Oregon, where a too generous host can be held liable for his tipsy guests' excesses...