Pubdate: Tue, 16 Aug 2005
Source: Reuters (Wire)
Copyright: 2005 Reuters Limited
Contact: London, UK
Website: http://www.reuters.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/364

STONE THE COWS?

Russia Uses Pot As Animal Feed

MOSCOW - Russia's long winter will just fly by for a herd of Russian cows
which, a newspaper reported on Tuesday, will be fed confiscated marijuana
over the cold months.

Drug workers said they adopted the unusual form of animal husbandry
after they were forced to destroy the sunflowers and maize crops that
the 40 tonnes of marijuana had been planted among, Novye Izvestia
daily reported.

"There is simply no other way out. You see, the fields are planted
with feed crops and if we remove it all the cows will have nothing to
eat," a Federal Drugs Control Service spokeswoman for the Urals region
of Sverdlovsk told the paper.

"I don't know what the milk will be like after this."

Drug use in Russia took off with the decline of the Soviet Union and
police have been fighting drug smugglers -- often shipping heroin from
Afghanistan -- for years.

Such large hauls are relatively common, although they are normally
burnt.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin