A 33-year-old Korean-American was busted for selling pot that he grew in an indoor greenhouse he built in the basement of his home in suddenly scandalous Bangbae-dong, Seocho-gu, Seoul.
The man, identified by his family name of Choe, is accused of producing some 130g of the weed (market value: 20 million won), some of which he managed to sell.
Choe, who immigrated to the United States when he was a child, graduated from a prestigious American university. He then allegedly put his degree to good use researching marijuana cultivation methods through books and Internet sites. According to the Munhwa Ilbo, by growing pot indoors, you can cut the cultivation time in half, but produce gear with over 20 times the hallucinative effect.
Well, you learn something new everyday.
Choe was so “daring” (so exclaimed the Munhwa) that he took his horticultural activities outdoors as well, planting some 20 gangja plants along a hiking path on Seocho-dong’s Mt. Umyeonsan.
The young man had been putting on a veritable clinic on how to beat Korea’s airport drug checks, smuggling in from the United States some 30 bags of pot seeds in February and on June 19 bringing in some 820g of cocaine hidden in his underwear (which, granted, doesn’t show the same kind of professional dedication as this).
Or so it is alleged.
15 Comments
In 1990 the guy who played the blind swordsman Zatoichi got busted at Honolulu airport with cocaine hidden in his underwear. I wonder if Choe was a Zatoichi fan?
Oh, if only it were that simple.
Anyway, that reminds me… at least the US is still #1 in something.
http://www.phishhook.com/board.....p?t=550448
That’s like some batman shit right there.
Wow, that comes out to w154,000 per gram —
must be some pretty good {Bush-word} !
US kyopos and US citizens alike living in South Korea like to test the law of the land, because they can’t abandone their marijuana habits. Well deserved jail time for him. In South Korea, you smoke and drink. No other street drugs. Do those at your risk of jail time, even for users.
the actual article mentions, he brought in cocaine, too. Have a nice time in South Korean jail.
my bad, cocaine was mentioned here by the Marmot, too.
Korea, however, does offer ‘ditch weed’ growing by the roadside. Although it’s not an interest of mine, back when I lived in Busan, one of my coworkers discovered some while on a run near Haeundae (those intrepid enough should hunt around the area north of Dalmaji), and after that we spotted the stuff quite often.
As I said, not an interst of mine, but there’s today’s public service announcement for all you 420 fans on the southern end of the penninsula.
820 grams of cocaine! Talk about burying the lede. That would be worth far, far more than 130 grams of pot.
As for smuggling in the pot seeds… what’s the point of that? It’s not like Korea does not have plenty of those plants already. Just laziness on the part of the-man-known-only-as-Choe.
As our resident lawyer says, if you can’t do the time, don’t do the deed, or something to that effect.
Actually, I say that we have a pretty good record of getting people off, whereas your embassies can tell you shocking stories of the occasional foreigner who took his chances with the Korean public defender and ended up cooling it in the slammer for a year or two just for getting high. But hiring good lawyers who can speak English costs too much money and they’re not happy about it. So my advice to the hopheads is this: If you want to keep all your money, dummy — for buying pot when you get back to Seattle — try to avoid getting arrested here in Korea. The very best way is not to do drugs. A bottle of vodka costs W26,000 at your local package store and Koreans are exceptionally tolerant of public intoxication. Vomit boozy puke all over the subway, sleep in the street (in your suit!), piss on the corner and shout at random passersby — that’s all okay, Mr. Foreigner. Whatever helps. Just don’t smoke weed. Or go ahead and do it. But if you want my firm’s help we’re taking all your money.
Different seed lines can result in plants of differing qualities depending on what characteristic the plants have been cultivated for. I’m willing to bet that most of the weed you can find in Korea is ditch weed with low THC content compared to what you’d find in Hawaii or Northern California.
This is like 101 stuff. Didn’t you folks go to college?
Wow that is strange, guess I’ll have to hold off on my plans to build a greenhouse in My basement. . . I am making a Zine with my friend Shelton, can we reprint this story in it?
Go ahead—just note that it comes from the Munhwa Ilbo.
I am amazed at the market price per gram!
In good old New Zealand pot is illegal, but attitudes are relativly liberal, and even the police admit chasing after stoners caught with a gram or two on them is not worth the time or public’s money.
The price of a gram is all of $18! That is to say - much cheaper than a bottle of vodka.
Not that I endorse any law breaking whatsoever
Now I’m off to Busan this weekend for a bit of a “nature walk”.
Why so harsh on dope smokers?Why is marijuana illegal in the first place?Who made that arbitrary decision way back when?We should all take a more libertarian view of things.As long as it doesn’t harm others,enjoy.And JINX!,you’re not allowed to bring up the big,bad,hairy drug smugglers.They wouldn’t exist if the laws weren’t so draconian.
…planting some 20 gangja plants along a hiking path on Seocho-dong’s Mt. Umyeonsan.
This guy has an awesome sense of humor. Everyone knows that elderly halmoni’s love to go scrounging for na-mul by the sides of trails in the woods.