Don't buy pot in Jamaica

[snopes]

Comment: I'm planning a vacation to Jamaica and the Bahamas in January and
I've been reading internet messageboards with reviews and tips and
whatnot. I'm not a drug user, but there are a few in my (large) group.
I've seen it mentioned several times that dealers will approach tourists
to sell them marijuana and then when the deal is complete the tourist will
be immediately arrested by the police and detained on the island, as the
dealers get paid by the police to turn their customers in.

I've seen similar rumors referring to both Jamaica and the Bahamas so I
was wondering if they might be just that. Have you heard of this at all?

The thread title is great. Buy anywhere else, just not Jamaica, man....

[Troodon]

Originally Posted by Doug4.7

The thread title is great. Buy anywhere else, just not Jamaica, man....

It's not my thing, but I've known people who buy pot in the USA and they're pretty casual about it (hence my knowledge of their activities). I personally find it less offensive than tobacco - at least pot smoke smells nice.

[Amigone201]

Originally Posted by Troodon

It's not my thing, but I've known people who buy pot in the USA and they're pretty casual about it (hence my knowledge of their activities). I personally find it less offensive than tobacco - at least pot smoke smells nice.

Really? I smelled it a few times in the boys' room in high school. It was possibly the most Godawful stench I had ever been subjected to. It smelled like someone ate a tire, farted into a brass pipe, and burned it.

Cigarettes are kind of nasty, but I want to say I've smelled two different kinds. One is less unpleasant than the other; is it the difference between filtered and unfiltered? Because one smells like smoke, but it's not that bad. The other one smells like the exhaust pipe of an ocean liner.

[greenfrog78]

Amigone, there is a whole range in quality of weed. It can be anything from skunk weed, which smells amazingly like a skunk, to kind bud which has a sweet-sticky smell.

I'll bet you smelled skunk from your description of the smell.

Cannabis smoke is nicer then most tobacco but I adore the smell of pipe tobacco or certain cigars. I will hang out with my brother because the fool still smokes, he smokes Tampa Sweets cigars and I like the secondhand smoke.

like any kind of spice, ( and yes, that is what it is to most of the world, in Greece one can buy fairly high quality pot, albeit ground like oregano, in the small spice and market stalls) it depends on quality.

good pot, i have been told by friends who had never smoked anything, smelled more pleasant than it tasted, much like, as one woman said, like coffee did. That is pleasant smell, not so pleasant taste. But almost universal agreement on the higher noxiousness of tobacco smoke....

Even as an ex tobacco smoker, I must say, that stuff is horrid smelling.

Pot is nothing like as bad.

just my not so humble opinion

moon

[Troodon]

Originally Posted by Amigone201

Really? I smelled it a few times in the boys' room in high school. It was possibly the most Godawful stench I had ever been subjected to. It smelled like someone ate a tire, farted into a brass pipe, and burned it.

I guess I must have smelled the good stuff - it had a sweet, spicy odor and I quite enjoyed it. It reminded me of incense.

[A Turtle Named Mack]

Originally Posted by Amigone201

Really? I smelled it a few times in the boys' room in high school. It was possibly the most Godawful stench I had ever been subjected to. It smelled like someone ate a tire, farted into a brass pipe, and burned it.

Given your age, there is a very high likelihood that what was being smoked was a cheap cigar (usually a 'Philly blunt') hollowed out and then stuffed with pot. This method of smoking pot has become popular in the past fifteen or so years. The idea is that it looks and smells like the hideous cigar that makes up half the bulk being smoked. I can think of so mony ways to say this is a terrible practice, but I won't go into them here, I think.

Originally Posted by Troodon

I guess I must have smelled the good stuff - it had a sweet, spicy odor and I quite enjoyed it. It reminded me of incense.

That's the odor I associate with it. I rather anjoy coming across the smell at concerts and the like, if it is not too strong.

[Sultana of Beetroot]

Originally Posted by moonglum

like any kind of spice, ( and yes, that is what it is to most of the world, in Greece one can buy fairly high quality pot, albeit ground like oregano, in the small spice and market stalls) it depends on quality.

Cite?

In 2003, a new law was enacted which stipulates that individuals obtaining or otherwise processing drugs for personal use only, in quantities to satisfy their own needs only, or using drugs or cultivating cannabis plants in numbers and areas justified for personal use only, are sentenced to not more than one year in prison

Which sounds like there is indeed a differentiation between buying spices and buying pot in Greece.

[Jay Tea]

>snigger< Skunk weed doesn't smell like skunks It is thus called because you can smell it a mile away, a strong, herbal odour, redolent of hops, but sharp and acrid.

I've sniffed some pretty nasty smelling solids before (hash) but this is usually rip-off stuff, cut with bad oils and other additives, but normally we're talking about a warm, pungent smell, that you might not like, but can't be descibed as 'bad'.

As for the OP, no, I wouldn't buy drugs in Jamaica, you could quickly find yourself 'wishing' somebody would call the Police. As far as I know tourists caught with ganga aren't going to face much more than a fine, but stray from the beaten track in the yard and you face harsher punishments...

[Esprise Me]

I lived in Mexico as an exchange student, and the program coordinators warned us not to buy pot because we might be buying from undercover cops. That, to me, seems more likely than cops employing dealers to turn in their customers.

[Lady Neeva]

I'm just curious WTF my neighbor is smoking. Our townhouses were built in IIRC the late 60's, early 70's. Personally, sometimes I think 50's-60's might be more accurate.

There is nothing vaguely resembling scent-proofing in the basement, and while normally all you get is to smell like a 70's rock concert, yesterday whatever they were smoking just reeked to high heaven. I actually got a headache from it, and I was only in the basement for maybe 2-3 minutes. Then I vomited several times. I was nauseous the rest of the day.

Fortunately (kind of) it dissipated quickly... I say kind of because while the stench went away, unfortunately the police can't do anything unless they smell it. And yes, my husband did call the police... it's one thing to know your neighbor smokes pot. It's another thing to smell the pot. And it's a completely different kettle of fish altogether to have your wife vomiting up her toenails because she went into her own dang basement.

I still haven't found an answer to whether or not my husband can get nailed in a drug test from the neighbor's habit. I hope not, because I think my husband would kill himself if he lost another job in his field that he enjoys because of something outside his control. Well, hopefully not seriously, but he would be extremely depressed.

[Jay Tea]

I actually got a headache from it, and I was only in the basement for maybe 2-3 minutes. Then I vomited several times. I was nauseous the rest of the day.

I'd be interested to know what it was they were smoking that made you sick. The only stuff i've seen make people sick was solids that had been smuggled in a boat and accidentally steeped in engine oil, but i've never heard of people being sick from pot fumes before.

Opiates stink, and the scent can make you feel sick, opium, heroin, when smoked, give off a very sickly stench indeed.

[RichardM]

And the production of meth smells pretty bad too. Or so I have been led to believe. That also would make you sick. I think you should call the police back and suggest meth.

[geminilee]

Originally Posted by Jay Tea

>snigger< Skunk weed doesn't smell like skunks It is thus called because you can smell it a mile away, a strong, herbal odour, redolent of hops, but sharp and acrid.

Skunky weed can most definitely smell like a skunk.

[Ali Infree]

Back in the last century, as a college student, we came across opium flavored incense. It was black and sticky, much like the real thing (as we discovered a little later that year). It had a sickening sweet smell, although I always liked the residual sweetness, as a lifelong incense burner might.

Imagine my surprise, when about 15 years later, I find some stick incense whose flavor is called Opium. I bought it for old times sake, but when I lit a stick, the smell was not what I remembered. I considered the possibility of memory loss, brain damage, etc, to explain this conundrum. Then a woman friend smelled it and told me that there was a fragrance called "Opium" and that my sticks of incense reproduced that smell pretty well.

Lady Neeva: I agree with the others that your smell might be something a whole lot more hazardous. A meth lab in my state was uncovered which used Lithium in making meth. A very dangerous variation of the process, since lithium can be volatile by itself.

On topic: buying dope from the locals might not be a good idea for tourists.


Ali "burnin' down the house" Infree

[greenfrog78]

Originally Posted by Jay Tea

>snigger< Skunk weed doesn't smell like skunks It is thus called because you can smell it a mile away, a strong, herbal odour, redolent of hops, but sharp and acrid....

Beg pardon? I've had skunk weed and I've been around, but not partaking, when others have smoked skunk. Not all of it does, but there is some that most certainly smells like a skunk.

Originally Posted by geminilee

Skunky weed can most definitely smell like a skunk.

Thank you

[major accent]

I wonder what the record is for the number of posts that don't actually respond to the question at hand.

I have not been to Jamaica, but my sister in law was married there, and I've known a few other people who have been there. Numerous of them acquired cannabis and smoked it without having been subjected to the scenario described. One group was constantly offered cannabis; sellers would semi-discreetly call out "pssst! hey mon..."

This would have been in the mid 90's.

I think the legendary lambsbread might be reason enough to travel to Jamaica; I can't imagine being in the birthplace of reggae without sampling the local ganja. To each their own, of course...

[pirateslife]

Second-hand pot smoke made me vomit; I was at a party and I went into the smoking room to get my stuff out of it since I didn't want it to smell bad; I was in the room less than two minutes and I barely made it down the hall before I threw up. It gave me a headache, and my nose started running right after I went into the room. That's why I don't hang out with people who smoke pot; even the residual smell gives me migranes and makes me want to puke.

[DoubleNaughtSaleen]

La Mota makes me queasy, too. Nasty smell, and that stench hangs around, too.

I don't believe that inhaling the smoke secondhand will make you fail a drug test.