'Stoned' sheep go on 'psychotic rampage' after eating cannabis plants dumped in Welsh village

'Stoned' sheep go on 'psychotic rampage' after eating cannabis plants dumped in Welsh village

County councillor Ioan Richard raised the alarm, saying the sheep have been "roaming the village" causing havoc by breaking into homes.
"There is already a flock of sheep roaming the village causing a nuisance," he said.

"They are getting in people's gardens and one even entered a bungalow and left a mess in the bedroom."


So the moral is feed hemp not Pot?

Reefer Madness.

Sorry, but I don't buy this for a second.  Marijuana does not make any creature go on 'psychotic rampages'--I've seen enough accidentally stoned dogs and cats to know this.  Also, Marijuana needs to be heated to at least 190 degrees Fahrenheit to release THC.  A mammal could eat a pound of the stuff raw and not suffer more than indigestion.  The article is bogus or severely misinformed.

@Anthony H: "Marijuana needs to be heated to at least 190 degrees Fahrenheit to release THC. "

Doh!!...Of course!  The peanut butter on the Ritz cracker effect!.....  It's eluded me all these years!!....  And wound't those sheep just have gotten the munchies?

And wound't those sheep just have gotten the munchies?

Yeah.  Instead of roaming the village, they would have all been just hanging out in the 7-Eleven parking lot.

Marijuana needs to be heated to at least 190 degrees Fahrenheit to release THC.

Sheep have an entirely different digestion system than humans.
Perhaps they have enzymes that release the THC.
(They were designed to 'eat grass', not smoke it.)

Stoned? Not according to my goat. He devoured seven ready to harvest marijuana plants at one sitting and didn't show the least bit of effect.

No, I wasn't raising marijuana. But one of my neighbors was.....on my back acres. Unbeknownst to me that the pot farm was back there, I let the goat into the back acres to browse the tangle of weeds. Next thing I heard was the he ate the potted plants right down to their bare tough stalks. They must have been tasty.

I don't think so.  THC doesn't get activated by enzymatic influence.  However, thinking about the 'bio-fermentation' that goes on in a sheep's digestive tract prompts me to believe the Welsh sheep were drunk.  Marauding break-ins sound more like drunken behavior than stoned behavior.

When we lived in the Pacific NW, we accidentally got our pet pig drunk on yeast and sugar......made as a concoction to lure the banana slugs into the trap.  The cans with the mix sat too long around the garden and fermented.  And then she discovered them and slurped down the contents of every last can.     Can't recall even hearing a belch....

That's false. I've gotten pretty high from eating raw buds on several occasions.

So the crux of the matter is the conversion of THC and CBD on the plant to THC-a and CBD-a through a process known as decarboxylation.

The fastest way to do this is to smoke it. The pot is decarbed as it burns. This obviously doesn't work for making edibles, though, so what is typically done is a controlled heating of dried bud to just below vapourisation temperature of THC, in the range of 190 to 245ish degrees fahrenheit. Decarbed raw bud at this point, while not as tasty, will get you high.

This is not the only way to decarb cannabis. If you cure it for a long time, or it dries on the plant, it can also decarb. I would imagine scenarios of combined dry weather and intense sun exposure which might do the trick. But it's not magic. It's a process of oxydisation that converts THC and CBD to acid forms that can be used by the body.

And yes, I have also seen accidentally stoned animals. I think that they are more likely to be frightened or apprehensive at the new and unknown state. I would expect them to seek familiar surroundings for reassurance, and for sheep probably an increase in herd activity, as it is their natural defense mechanism.

And as to goats I would expect them to get high when they get high (because of their predilection for climbing).

-CK

I'm locking this thread now.  If anyone wishes to discuss this further, please take it to the cider press where it belongs.