EDINBURG, TX: Firefighters who spent half an hour fighting a blaze in which 2,000 pounds of marijuana went up in smoke breathed so much of it that they would have failed a drug test, a fire chief said.
It took more than 35 firefighters, 1,000 gallons of water and five gallons of chemical suppressant to extinguish the warehouse blaze on Wednesday, Fire Chief Shawn Snider said.
Snider said Thursday the firefighters were exposed to so much marijuana smoke that they would not be able to pass a drug test, despite wearing air packs to prevent them from inhaling toxic or hazardous fumes.
Oh, the humanity…
Probably not the best comedic timing for this otherwise funny “high firefighter” story.
http://www.wkyc.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=70104
I can just see the scene now. Firefighters holding the masks away from their face to better ‘breathe’ the herbal essence.
Reminds me of times in the military in full chemical protection gear. The gas mask filters were always hard to breath through due to all the smoke the had filtered. So I would get out of sight and pull the mask away from my face during exercises so I could Breathe.
I agree w/ Libertican, probably not the best day to post this story.
Man, I hope somebody brought them something for the munchies.
I wonder what happened to the xtra 1000lbs?
Oh, WOW man! Where did they go for munchies?
Snider said Thursday the firefighters were exposed to so much marijuana smoke that they would not be able to pass a drug test, despite wearing air packs to prevent them from inhaling toxic or hazardous fumes.
Well there is an important lesson to learn here. The firefighters inhaled so much pot smoke that they’d not pass a drug test (for at least 5 days, I would imagine) so presumably they had to experience an intoxicating effect.
Under this influence, were they unable to put out the blaze? (how big a blaze was it that only 1000 gallons was used?)
Did they get all goofy and start playing fire jokes on each other?
Did they succumb to reefer madness?
Did the rape anyone?
Did they… you get the idea…
So why again is this harmless plant illegal?
#1 and #3 – It is sad that 9 firefighters lost their lives in South Carolina in an earlier and unrelated fire, but I’m sure no disrespect was intended or implied.
But I don’t think this story is comedic. I think if the fire chief was seriously concerned about this, its sad, but moreover I think it informs us about what some of us already know. Marijuana is not dangerous and its illegality is bizarre, unjustifiable, oppressive, and wrong.
This untaxed cash crop has huge potential for our economy, and we ignore it because the authoritarians on the right can’t admit when they are wrong.
Tragic. The few that don’t die over the next few days from being poisoned with this dangerous narcotic will probably go driving around and subsequently t-bone church vans full of pre-teens and ram Greyhound buses head-on…
btw – in that part of Texas, among my redneck buds, folks still call it gage.
In my hamlet cops and firefighters don’t have to take drug tests. Actually, nobody should have to — it’s unconstitutional, of course.
I imagine that, given enough global coverage of news, any funny situation can be coupled with a recent disastorous one. Every time someone dies, somone somewhere is laughing, loving or celebrating. There’s gotta be a song somewhere here.
I find this story “highly dubious”
7. “So why again is this harmless plant illegal?”
You’ll find more than a dozen reasons here.
http://www.dvorak.org/blog/?p=12097
RBG
#13 – No… You won’t…
It’s probably the only fire they’ll ever extinguish that they were really glad to be present for.
RBG – I think some of your sheep wool is over your eyes.
Now if true- – – -this is a newsworthy episode highlighting the fact that the safety masks used by the firefighters DONT WORK!!!
13—If you find more than a dozen reasons from that article why pot is harmfull, how many will you report when an article actually contains any?
But as usual==simple minds can only handle or respond or vote pursuant to simple issues/conclusions. The ttuth requires a balancing of competing interests. EG: is pot harmful?==Yes. Is making it illegal harmful==Yes. Are other legal substances harmful?==Yes. Are other more harmful substances legal?==Yes.
Its clear to me that “on balance” its foolish to keep ALL DRUGS illegal. Its a libertarian analysis–if drugs are legal, then people choose whether or not drugs harm them. When drugs are illegal, criminals injure innocent people in their criminal enterprise AND they are disproportionately injured by the legal system.
In other words, even if more people abused legal drugs, I would rather see people choosing to be drug free not killed in a cross fire of bullets by gang lords distributing their product.
I don’t know what this story is about. The War on Drugs has eliminated all illicit drugs from society. Not only that, but D.A.R.E. has informed everybody about the dangers of drugs, and nobody does drugs anymore because RBG says they’re bad and stuff.
Wait, is that story from The Onion or something? Oh, you got me, you got me, ha ha ha… this didn’t happen…
This kind of thing happens every once in a while. I’ve heard some stories from some of the other firefighters where I serve that they had this happen to them.
#6
The cops dropped by and gave them donuts.
#9
Redneck buds? Are they any good? Seeds? Seedless? How big? Hydroponic? Details man!
FF generally wear their SCBAs to protect against “noxious gases” and stage from the windward side. The Chief is obviously covering everybody’s behinds and trying to be funny with his “drug test” statement.
You may find this interesting: The 5 gallons of “chemical” mentioned in the story is likely soap. It breaks “surface tension” which allows water to penetrate better. It works great.