Getting Lobsters High On Weed Is Illegal In Maine
You can file this story out of Maine under “unusual.” A Maine eatery had recently begun using weed in order to keep their soon to be cooked lobsters calm, claiming that giving the crustaceans cannabis makes the process “more humane.” However government officials in the state do not share the restaurant’s belief that getting lobsters high prior to being boiled alive (which is a pretty horrible way to go when you think about it) and have deemed the practice to be illegal.
The owner of “Charlotte’s Legendary Lobster Pound,” Charlotte Gill, recently made headlines due to her restaurants unique lobster prep method. This prompted a review by Maine’s health inspectors who concluded that the “food served to consumers at licensed eating places and affected by marijuana, as has been described with this establishment, as adulterated and therefore illegal” citing that regulators do not possess enough “information on the health implications or effects of ‘sedating’ lobsters with marijuana,” according to a report by the New York times.
However Gill argues that the THC being used to get the lobsters baked does not impact the final product since the lobsters are being boiled noting that “THC breaks down completely by 392 degrees, therefore we will use both steam as well as a heat process that will expose the meat to 420 degree extended temperature, in order to ensure there is no possibility of carryover effect (even though the likelihood of such would be literally impossible)…I’m not selling an edible.”
The proprietor of Charlotte’s, which opened its doors seven years ago, began working with weed smoke to get her lobsters high before they are killed and cooked believing it to be more humane than standard methods. “I feel bad that when lobsters come here there is no exit strategy…It’s a unique place and you get to do such unique things but at the expense of this little creature. I’ve really been trying to figure out how to make it better.”
The first guinea pig for Gill’s little experiment was a lobster nicknamed “Roscoe” who was placed into a small enclosure with a few inches of water at the bottom. Weed smoke was then blown into the box through the water in order to get Roscoe nicely toasted before his ultimate demise. Gill, who also happens a licensed medical cannabis caregiver in the state, argues that Roscoe appeared to be in less distress while in captivity while also making him more docile while around his fellow lobsters. After the apparent success of her trial, Gill set aside a special tank that allows for lobsters to be sedated with THC infused smoke, but only if a customer requests it. “The animal is already going to be killed…It is far more humane to make it a kinder passage.”
Do you agree that sedating lobsters by getting them high with THC infused smoke can be a more humane way of handling them considering that they will be killed in the end? Do you believe that Maine authorities have overreacted to Gill’s process?
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