Apparently, 1-inch tall weed plants are now worth $2000 a pop.
At least according to a lame, misleading, sensationalist headline in the Chronicle. The headline and lede hype the number of plants (8,000) and ‘street value’ ($16 million). In the eighth paragraph, however, it is revealed that the 8000 money trees were actually ‘starter plants’, just an inch tall, and confined to a 50-square-yard area (about 22ft x 21ft).
I understand the need to dramatize certain events, but in this case the ‘news’ is pretty much a fabrication. A more accurate headline would say something like ’8,000 marijuana seedlings confiscated’. The $16 million figure is a theoretical street price calculated based on a 100% survival rate and pure, seedless, high-quality bud. In reality, I’d guess that far less than half the plants would survive, and these kids (ages 19 & 17) would need some supreme ‘gardening’ expertise to yield anything close to what the cops and article try to portray.
Anyways, it is deceitful and weak, and pretty typical of modern American journalism.
Those numbers are ridiculously inflated. In these ‘scared straight” “zero tolerance” times it wouldn’t surprise me if some member of law enforcement came up with those numbers to scare the hell out of those kids and have them roll on some higher-up (huh, I said high) or to prove that they’re “tough on crime”. Either way totally bogus, man.