Robbery Suspect Kept Stolen Brain Beneath Porch and Used it to Get High

The story is as strange as the headline. Here is an excerpt to keep it blunt. Smoke 'em if you got 'em. 

( full article at The Washington Post) 

When police showed up at a vacant trailer-home in Penn Township, Pa., last month, neighbor Pat Beck was worried something might be wrong. 

Their presence seemed even more mysterious when Beck saw an investigator remove a box from the home and place it in a police vehicle. 

Several weeks later, a reporter from Fox affiliate WPMT finally told Beck what was inside that box: a human brain. 

“It just scares me to death,” a terrified Beck told the station. “I didn’t think they were that kind of people, but nowadays, you never know.” 

Police told the station that the brain was found beneath a porch, where it was kept inside a Wal-Mart shopping bag. 

It even had a name: “Freddy.”

( Not Abby Normal? There really is something wrong with this guy)

The next part of the story ...

“The defendant related that he knew it was illegal to have the brain and that he and (another man) would spray the embalming fluid on ‘weed’ to get high,” Trooper John Boardman, an investigator involved in the case, wrote in court documents cited by the AP. 

The 26-year-old Long — currently at Cumberland County Prison in lieu of a $100,000 bail — faces new charges in connection with the stolen brain: misdemeanor abuse of a corpse and conspiracy to commit abuse of a corpse, the Sentinel reported.

Spraying or soaking marijuana with embalming fluid is “an emerging drug trend,” according to a statement from the Drug Enforcement Administration. Embalming fluid is often found in morgues and funeral homes, but the fluid — which has serious health risks — can also be purchased directly from chemical companies or online, the DEA notes.

“Embalming fluid is a compound of formaldehyde, methanol, ethanol and other solvents,” the statement says. “The percentage of formaldehyde found in embalming fluid ranges anywhere from 5 to 29 percent. The percentage of ethyl alcohol, the psychoactive ingredient found in alcoholic beverage, varies anywhere from 9 to 56 percent. According to the Office of National Drug Control Policy, it is common for marijuana to be laced with PCP and/or embalming fluid, both of which produce a hallucinogenic effect. Cigarettes soaked with embalming fluid trend to burn slower, thereby increasing the chance for a prolonged high.”

Reactions to the drug appear to vary, with users reporting everything from “anger” and “paranoia” to an “increase in women’s sexual appetites,” the DEA added.
While authorities may have encountered formaldehyde-laced marijuana, using a dead person’s brain for drug use took some investigators by surprise.

File this one under - C'mon Mom, all the kids are doing it.......

Green Thumb? Wash. State Looks for Pot Consultant

From the Associated Press:

Green thumb? Wash. state looks for pot consultant

The Associated Press

Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2013 | 1:29 p.m.  

Wanted: A green thumb with extensive knowledge of the black, or at least gray, market.
As Washington state tries to figure out how to regulate its newly legal marijuana, officials are hiring an adviser on all things weed: how it's best grown, dried, tested, labeled, packaged and cooked into brownies.
Sporting a mix of flannel, ponytails and suits, dozens of those angling for the job turned out Wednesday for a forum in Tacoma, several of them from out of state. The Liquor Control Board, the agency charged with developing rules for the marijuana industry, reserved a convention center hall for a state bidding expert to take questions about the position and the hiring process.

"Since it's not unlikely with this audience, would a felony conviction preclude you from this contract?" asked Rose Habib, an analytical chemist from a marijuana testing lab in Missoula, Mont.
The answer: It depends. A pot-related conviction is probably fine, but a "heinous felony," not so much, responded John Farley, a procurement coordinator with the Liquor Control Board.
Washington and Colorado this fall became the first states to pass laws legalizing the recreational use of marijuana and setting up systems of state-licensed growers, processors and retail stores where adults over 21 can walk in and buy up to an ounce of heavily taxed cannabis.

Both states are working to develop rules for the emerging pot industry. Up in the air is everything from how many growers and stores there should be, to how the marijuana should be tested to ensure people don't get sick.

Sales are due to begin in Washington state in December.
Washington's Liquor Control Board has a long and "very good" history with licensing and regulation, spokesman Mikhail Carpenter said.
"But there are some technical aspects with marijuana we could use a consultant to help us with," Carpenter said.

The board has advertised for consulting services in four categories. The first is "product and industry knowledge" and requires "at least three years of consulting experience relating to the knowledge of the cannabis industry, including but not limited to product growth, harvesting, packaging, product infusion and product safety."
Other categories cover quality testing, including how to test for levels of THC, the compound that gets marijuana users high; statistical analysis of how much marijuana the state's licensed growers should produce; and the development of regulations, a category that requires a "strong understanding of state, local or federal government processes," with a law degree preferred.

In case no regulatory lawyers who grow pot in their spare time apply, multiple contracts could be awarded. Or bidders who are strong in one category could team up with those who are strong in another. Bids are due Feb. 15, with the contract awarded in March.
Many of those in the crowd Wednesday had experience in the medical marijuana world.
Several people asked whether winning the contract, or even subcontracting with the winning bidder, would preclude them from getting state licenses to grow, process or sell cannabis. Farley said yes: It would pose a conflict of interest to have the consultant helping develop the regulations being subject to those rules. But once the contract has expired, they could apply for state marijuana licenses, he said.
Christy Stanley, a Kitsap County resident who has researched marijuana and considered opening a medical dispensary in the past, said she'd like the consultant job, to help the state get the rules right. She knows growers, but has never grown marijuana herself, she said.

"This is big. The nation and the world are looking to us to set up a good model," Stanley said. "If it works here, they're just going to cookie-cut this for other states."