Chinese Tourists, Businesspeople Load up on Pot During Trips to North Korea

[misskit]

Chinese who visit North Korea on sightseeing or business trips are purchasing marijuana in large quantities in the Rason Special Economic Zone, sources inside North Korea said.

Since marijuana cultivation is legal in North Korea, selling yeoksam, as it is called in North Korea, has become an easy way to earn money, they said.

“People in Rason buy the large quantities of buds of yeoksam from residents and pay 30 yuan (U.S. $4.30) per kilogram (2.2 lbs.), and then sell them for 500 yuan (U.S. $72) per kilogram to Chinese people,” a source from North Hamgyong province told RFA’s Korean Service.

Rason is a warm-water port in the northeastern part of North Hamgyong province bordering China and Russia. Visitors must obtain a special visa to enter the area from officials assigned to the zone by central government authorities in the capital Pyongyang.

Cannabis, which is illegal to grow in many foreign countries because of its designation as a narcotic drug, is classified as an oilseed crop in North Korea. In China, possession, sale, and transport of cannabis for recreational or medicinal purposes is illegal and harshly punished. However, the cultivation of industrial hemp for use in clothing ropes or export is legal.


Current legislation

North Korea has been growing marijuana legally since the early 1980s, the source said.

“[Former leader] Kim Il Sung extensively encouraged the cultivation of yeoksam to solve a cooking oil shortage in the early 1980s,” the source said.

Some people still grow it for cooking oil, but most yeoksam grows wild from seeds of previously cultivated plants, he said.

Because the plant is now so widely grown outdoors, most North Koreans do not realize it is categorized as an illicit drug in other countries, said a second source from North Hamgyong province.

“Rason’s custom officers do not doubt the danger of dried yeoksam, but they treat it as general wild greens and allow Chinese to take as much as they can without restrictions,” he told RFA.

The source added that the residents of Kyongwon and Puryong counties near Rason heard the news that Chinese visitors buy dried cannabis in large quantities at a high price, the source said.

But because many people do not know what cannabis is used for, they cut down entire plants and dry them to sell, he said.

North Koreans previously used marijuana fodder for rabbits they kept, though now more people have come to realize that it is a drug, he said, adding that the number of marijuana users will now increase, with residents fighting each other fiercely for possession of it.

“North Korean people never thought that yeoksam could bring them money until now,” the source said. “It grows outdoors and can be seen everywhere in North Korea.”

Chinese Tourists, Businesspeople Load up on Pot During Trips to North Korea

[Maanaam]

“People in Rason buy the large quantities of buds of yeoksam from residents and pay 30 yuan (U.S. $4.30) per kilogram (2.2 lbs.), and then sell them for 500 yuan (U.S. $72) per kilogram to Chinese people,”

Capitalism is alive and well in N.Korea.


It's been said before: Thailand should decriminalise it and make Thailand a pot-tourism hub.

[BaitongBoy]

Thot they wanted to be known as the yaabaa "center of the universe"...

[wasabi]

BBC radio 4 crossing continents program recently reported on Albania as the European cannabis growing centre. Similar reasons, poverty before growing the new cash crop.
It's grown so big that it's swamped Europe.

[harrybarracuda]

As long as alcohol is legal, there is no justification for banning marijuana.

Look at what's happening in Colorado. They have more than enough money to fund schools and the like, and are actually refunding taxes to their citizens.

And all the scare stories from the god bothering republicans have proved to be shit as always.

[terry57]

Forget about the Punters having a great old knees up smokin the stuff one would reason that most Governments would love all the extra tax dollars.

Funny how they are slow at getting on the Game.

That said, since the Septics are really leading the way maybe just maybe other countries may just have a little think about the way they look at the Mull issue.

Thailand would make a fookin Motsa out of it considering the amount of Backpackers flooding through the joint.

[Hugh Cow]

I never tried cooking in hash oil before. Probably take me 3 days to cook a steak.

[Sumbitch]

It's been said before: Thailand should decriminalise it and make Thailand a pot-tourism hub.

I was amazed that they said "no" when I asked some young adults if they had heard of Thai sticks:

A Thai stick is a form of cannabis from Thailand that was popular during the late 1960s and 1970s. It consisted of premium buds of seedless marijuana which were skewered on stems.

BBC radio 4 crossing continents program recently reported on Albania as the European cannabis growing centre.

But Portugal is currently the only country in the world where all drugs are decriminalized.

Look at what's happening in Colorado.

And CA follows this year.

[GracelessFawn]

Alcohol creates far more health damage than marijuana.

[Sumbitch]

^ and the health benefits of marijuana far outweigh those of alcohol. So it's a win-win for pot smokers, innit?

[GracelessFawn]

I agree 100%.

[wasabi]

Man North Korea better ban the smoking of local pot , because it makes the mind see through government bullshit. It revolutionises the revolutionary into rebelling, look what it did in the American elections,
Cannabis helped Trump win. Strains of North Korean cannabis influenced voters to make America great again.

[Farang Ky Ay]

^ 55 or maybe it's the other way round: pot makes people so gullible that both King Jong Un and Trump speeches sound logical and consistent for them... or more probably they don't care about them as long as they can roll one ...

[sabang]

Are there discount flights to Pyongyang from Ubon?

[cyrille]

marijuana cultivation is legal in North Korea

every cloud has a silver...err...cloud

[sabang]

China does not exactly share the western hysteria about the lost War on Drugs either.
In Dali, Yunnan Province, you can look from the ancient city walls to a hillside covered in weed. You can pick it, smoke it (tourists included) all you want- but you are not allowed to sell it.
In Shek Ou, Guangzhou (a short ferry ride from HK), I recall sitting with friends enjoying a few beers on a seaside promenade, while the sweet smell of maryjane wafted by. The PLA were not the least bit bothered.

Maybe We are just a bit behind the times? Bring back Prohibition I say.

[wasabi]

Oh goodie, it's another opportunity for Great Britain to reenact the Opium wars, send in the British gun ships to China and make em buy only our weed.
I mean we supplied class A drugs to your ancestors.

[UrbanMan]

Look at what's happening in Colorado.

And CA follows this year.

Almost half of the states in the US have some level of legal pot - either medicinal purposes (prescription easily arranged), or completely legal.

It's all part of the strategy to keep the masses from fully realizing what's actually going on.

[wasabi]

The masses are tuned in man.

[UrbanMan]