A huge plume of marijuana smoke is hovering over an Albanian town after a police crackdown on its notorious drug trade.
Heavily armed police were pelted with gunfire, grenades and even mortars as they tried to rid the town of Lazarat, Europe's biggest producer of marijuana, of its main crop, the Associated Press reports.
The hills of the village in the country's south yields around 900 tons of cannabis a year, worth close to $6.5 billion – or nearly half the small country's GDP.
The operation in the village, population 5000, is in its fifth day has seen the destruction of 80,000 plants and more than 12.8 tons of cannabis while 80 houses have been searched.
Residents have reportedly seen the events unfold on live television, burning their own crops as authorities close in.
"What did I do wrong? I just wanted five plants like everybody else," Lumturi Koli, a 42-year-old widower, told Reuters.
"I should have been first to plant them because I have to care for my children."
While thirteen people have been arrested for drug offences and firing on police, miraculously no-one has been killed despite long blasts of gunfire.
Four have been slightly wounded, including two shepherds who were hit by stray rounds.
The raids have been part of an overhaul push by Albania and its new Socialist government to gain entry into the European Union.
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Heavily armed police were pelted with gunfire, grenades and even mortars 
People living in small towns have guns, grenades and mortars? So they really are protecting their plantations!
"What did I do wrong? I just wanted five plants like everybody else," Lumturi Koli, a 42-year-old widower, told Reuters.
"I should have been first to plant them because I have to care for my children."
Sheesh, what happened to using land for growing food crops and keeping goats and chickens?
The commentary was from Orrin Devinsky, M.D., Professor of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, Director, NYU Comprehensive Epilepsy Center Member of Epilepsy Foundation National Board of Directors
...but I guess he could be a dad as well
http://epilepsy.med.nyu.edu/#sthash.sVKO2Fss.dpbs
Welcome to The Comprehensive Epilepsy Center
The NYU Langone Comprehensive Epilepsy Center is among the largest epilepsy centers in the United States. We provide our patients with state-of-the-art technology and a multi-faceted, expert team of health care professionals from technicians to neurosurgeons. As a Level Four epilepsy center we offer the most complex forms of intensive epilepsy monitoring, extensive neuropsychological and psychosocial services, and neurosurgical services for epilepsy treatment. Our dedication to our patients' quality of life is the driving force behind our commitment and our success.
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Tony Bowers Cleverman medical cannabis can be prepared so that it contains no THC. ie absolutely nil psychotropic effects (as tested by the NSW police Force). However the raw product is illegal to produce and refine
The plain fact is that 120 years ago Cannabis seed/oil was a main part of our diet.
Some of the therepeutic benefits can just as easily be afforded by eating food containing cannabis seed or is
prepared using cannabis oil especially in Arthritis patients as an alternative to Celebrex with absolutely no side effects
other than a full tum tum yet our law makers drag their feet for no discernable reason?
At present the only 2 countries in the world where it is illegal to ingest cannabis seed/oil as a food is Australia and New
Zealand....Until our lawmakers accept Hemp/cannabis/pot as a credible foodsource
...then imo legalized medical MJ or recreational use is a pipe dream
DEA Chief Administrative Law Judge, Francis Young, in response to a petition to reschedule cannabis under federal law concluded in
1988 that, “In strict medical terms marijuana is far safer than many foods we commonly consume.... Marijuana in its natural form is
one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man. By any measure of rational analysis marijuana can be safely used
within the supervised routine of medical care.”
