| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| enthuTIMsiast |
Posted - 10/19/2002 : 5:13:55 PM
Hey everybody. I've been a busy boy lately. If you're interested, keep reading. I'll tell you a little about my new job.
I work for the National Center for Natural Products research, aka the Marijuana Project. We have a garden (more like a field...garden makes it sound small) where we grow marijuana (on the campus of the University of Mississippi). We sell this marijuana for research purposes mainly to government facilities within NIDA. We have two vaults in our facility, and within the vaults there is about 600 Kg of marijuana. Yes, that is a whole whole lot of marijuana.
We test the potence of what we grow, and we select plants that are the most potent for future breeding. What I actually do IS test the marijuana. I rarely work in the field, but I did when it was prime harvest season. When I did work in the field, we filled a small semi truck bed full of wet marijuana. The 18 wheeler bed is where the marijuana dries; I think the inside temp is about 150 degrees. So we have lots of marijuana. And on top of that, it's really potent marijuana. Potency of what one might find on the street is probably...hmmm...3 to 4% thc. What we grow probably averages on the low end at about 7 to 8%, and it's not uncommon for us to have marijuana that is 20% thc. THC, by the way, is the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana.
I'll now attach a small part about my actual duties from an email I recently sent...
~~~~~~~
Ok, picture a double glass door. And picture the cloth curtains that hang all the way to the floor. Now picture there being an occasional slow leak (or not slow, it really doesn't matter) at the bottom, maybe with a little dirty or rusty water. Ok, that water will seep up the curtain and take with it the rust or dirt, or any impurities it contains. Well, the water will eventually dry, and there will be left on the curtain a line of rust where the water stopped. You can surmise that the water carried the rust that far on the curtain. Makes sense. Basically, that's chromatragophry. You might call it Curtain Chromatography. In the curtain case, there is only one thing being carried by the water (rust), but it could be other things too, like dirt. Chances are dirt and rust would travel in the water up the curtain at different rates. When the water dried, you could measure these rate differences and test things about both the dirt and rust. You could also measure the quantities of both dirt and rust by the thickness of the line they left on the curtain. But what I do isn't rust and dirt, it's canabanoids (THC [gets you high] and some other ones that are in marijuana). And there are 6 or 7 in marijuana, depending on the type of marijuana and some other stuff. And what we use to carry the canabanoids (remember, the rust and dirt) isn't water, it's a few different gases (helium and hydrogen, mainly). And finally, what we do is on an extraordinarily smaller scale than the curtain. The thing that the canabanoids (dirt and dust) travel up (the curtain) is a thin glass column about as big around as a 9mm pencil lead. It's so thin that it's flexible!
So in order to get something to put into the GC machine (which is basically equivalent to us putting rust and dirt in the water) is called manicuring. We take a sample of marijuana (usually 30 or so grams, about as much as would fit in a baseball). We sieve it, then grind it with our fingers to as smooth as we can, even to a powder, if we can. Then we put some liquid in it (called 'extraction'), let it rest for an hour, then take the liquid out. The liquid has taken the canabanoids out of the marijuana. The liquid goes into vials that
hold about 3mL, which is ... hmmm ... not very much. Maybe 10 drops. Then that goes into the GC machine.
We have to make two or three vials from each 30 gram sample. So we weigh out 100 mg (a tiny, tiny amount, maybe as much as a dime weighs) THREE times, and then extract each and GC them. The three samples have to be within 20% of each other in the THC content % to pass.
~~~~~~~
So that takes up the greater part of my day. Running the machines is fun and interesting, plus it's great experience. I work under what's called Good Manifacturing Procedures (GMP), and the FDA has a lot to say about what we do, because what we make is a food grade product. So we have to be clean and sanitary, AND we have to record EVERYTHING. Even when we wash our glassware. It's a pain in the ass, but it has to be done, and it keeps us busy. But the way it is, we can look back at any point within probably the last three years and know exactly who did what and when.
Ok, the second part of my job, and I'll keep this short, is to take samples from the government, from drug busts, and measure their potency. We do that, send them the results. I have no idea why they need that. But we track where the potent marijuana comes from (Hawaii, for those of you that are interested) and where the crappy stuff comes from (southern California - it often has pesticides which will kill you quickly).
I've typed enough for this post for now, but I'd be happy to tell you what you want to know. They don't allow us to take pictures of the plants or in the lab, so that's pretty much out, and no, we don't get any take home samples, and we don't get samples for during working hours.
Good to be back. Let the post whoring begin. |
| 39 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| pcbTIM |
Posted - 11/08/2002 : 12:22:37 AM
quote:
Originally posted by Evergreen
There's only one thing that should be stiffer in life.
Hehehe......I bet I can guess what it is...... |
| Evergreen |
Posted - 11/07/2002 : 4:01:29 PM
I was kinda kidding when I asked about potency. Practicing my open ended questions. I know ALL about things of this nature. I've done a few experiments of my own. Way way back a long long TIMe ago. HeeHee. I wasn't kidding about using it for stiffer penalties though. There's only one thing that should be stiffer in life. It sounds like really interesting work. Do you pump CO2 into your growing area? There have been discussions among people I know as to whether CO2 increases weight, density AND potency or just weight and density. I think the former is true. |
| enthuTIMsiast |
Posted - 11/06/2002 : 12:32:46 AM
quote:
Originally posted by Fluffy
I would not be surprised to find out that Jason's bosses are working on winning the Cannibus Cup in Amsterdam. They are in the perfect position.
Of course I'm not in on huge decisions, but from what I understand, what we grow isn't even close to on par with what pros grow. Everything about growing marijuana is important. From when you plant to when you water to what you fertilize with to when you harvest (even what time of day you harvest) and how you harvest. And our gardeners haven't gotten that figured out yet. I think they should bring in some arrested farmer or hell, for that matter just get someone from Holland to come over and tell us what to do. If that was possible, we could get much much better crops. Right now we are in the experimental stages of growing, which means sometimes we have good results, sometimes not. So no Cannibus Cup for us for a while. |
| Fluffy |
Posted - 11/05/2002 : 07:49:35 AM
So many things to read, so little TIMe. HEHE |
| PJK |
Posted - 11/05/2002 : 07:25:22 AM
I picked up that issue at the store the other day, just to read that article, but haven't had time yet.....still finishing Rogue States. |
| Fluffy |
Posted - 11/05/2002 : 07:07:36 AM
I would not be surprised to find out that Jason's bosses are working on winning the Cannibus Cup in Amsterdam. They are in the perfect position. Cheating bastards!!! HEHE Anyway, has everyone seen the cover of the newest TIMe magazine? Pot is on the cover and the cover story is on the many issues surrounding the Pot question. I haven't had a chance to read it yet but I am very interested to see how the info is presented. I will let you know what I think after I have read it. Unfortunately, there has been very little TIMe for reading on this tour. |
| enthuTIMsiast |
Posted - 11/04/2002 : 3:40:38 PM
I think somebody already did...
Flood control: 14
Jason: 0 |
| PJK |
Posted - 11/04/2002 : 2:48:11 PM
Don't go there Jason....hehehe! |
| enthuTIMsiast |
Posted - 11/04/2002 : 08:05:34 AM
quote:
The goats were the worst because I got so damn attached to them as I worked with them for months before I had to kill them.
Oohhh, the possibilities... |
| PJK |
Posted - 11/04/2002 : 12:43:26 AM
Hahaha....actually I did end up killing them. Nothing lives in agricultural research, which is one reason I am glad I am not into it any more. I did all the killing I care to in my life time. Once we were killing chickens (they cut their heads off) and since I worked with mostly men, I was always trying to prove that women were up to the task at hand, so one day I did the killing and let me tell you it was one of the worst experiences of my life. I did it, and I didn't let on that it was bothering me so much. Even though they were just chickens, it wasn't easy to do. The knife was sharp enough but it was one of those things that looks a hell of a lot easier when someone else does it. It was a bloody mess and I hated it. I had to kill pigs, steers, goats and dogs too, none of which I am very proud of. The goats were the worst because I got so damn attached to them as I worked with them for months before I had to kill them.
Ok, now that I thoroughly depressed everyone including myself, I will go. |
| Silky The Pimp |
Posted - 11/04/2002 : 12:12:12 AM
quote:
Also got to make rectums in chickens...
...rectum... damn near killed em'!! |
| LizT |
Posted - 11/03/2002 : 10:17:38 PM
quote:
I did get to castrate pigs (I was pretty damn good at it too, my boss used to tell the guys that if they saw me coming with a scalple in my hand to walk the other way. HaHa) Also got to make rectums in chickens...now that was interesting and hard to do.
Thanks for the laugh Pam! |
| PJK |
Posted - 10/31/2002 : 2:43:38 PM
Looks like Canada is going to change some of their "pot" laws. Ineresting to see what happens. |
| enthuTIMsiast |
Posted - 10/31/2002 : 1:38:45 PM
Don't want to disappoint you, Evergreen... we don't do anything special. There's more potent stuff coming out of lots of other places, we're just consistently higher (pun intended) on average than others. And since I don't work in the garden regularly, I don't know what they use (except miracle grow, of course). I can tell you that a few people there regularly read High Times. Apparently they know about what they are talking. |
| Evergreen |
Posted - 10/31/2002 : 11:44:47 AM
Promise? I'm VERY interested |
| enthuTIMsiast |
Posted - 10/31/2002 : 11:05:00 AM
More on your questions later. Just tested a sample yesterday with thc content of 28%. Highest ever tested here was from Oregon at 33%. The 28% came to us from NY, but probably didn't grow there.
Like I said, more on your questions later. |
| Evergreen |
Posted - 10/31/2002 : 09:25:17 AM
Looks like we should be calling you everGreen. Like Jay this would be way to big a temptation for me. They would find me in the middle of the pile with a homer simpson smile on my face when he's in the presence of beer and donuts. Like a kitty rolling in catnip.
Tell me about how you increase the potency to 20%. Here in Vermont they are discussing whether to legalize growing for personal consumption. I'd love it. I used to have a green thumb I'd like to have it again. Hopefully your research is focused towards helping terminally ill people rather than making penalties more strict for users. It's interesting about the feds having you test the seized stuff. Maybe thats so they know which pile to take their head stash from. |
| Fluffy |
Posted - 10/28/2002 : 10:06:44 AM
TTT for Evergreen!! |
| Jay |
Posted - 10/22/2002 : 4:05:25 PM
it's red ribbon week in my school, too. THe ribbons read, "Freedom is Drug Free!" Bullshit! You are telling me the 30 MILLION people who smoke pot aren't free? DAMMIT! Well, back to my enslavement! |
| PJK |
Posted - 10/21/2002 : 9:34:14 PM
Hey Jason, I work for a middle school now and it's red ribbon week (anti drug week) so we got these papers with facts to tell our students.Here's a little sample of the "drug" trivia.
As recently as 2000 Afghanistan was responsible for 70% of the world's supply of opium and heroin.
More cocaine is produced in Columbia than any other country in the world.
And the one that is related to your job....Mexico was responsible for producing 7,000 metric tons of marijuana last year alone. |
| PJK |
Posted - 10/20/2002 : 10:24:58 PM
Wow, one class during working hours!!!!! Never heard anyone offering that before. Must be a college research thing. I worked for a large drug company and the pay was very good. That was until the take over which basically screwed all the employees. My husband was lucky enough to get a pretty good package deal(he worked for the same company, we met in the pig barns there....real romantic right? HaHa) I will have to look into some of the colleges close to me...maybe they offer the same kind of deal. |
| enthuTIMsiast |
Posted - 10/20/2002 : 9:53:02 PM
Yeah, lab work isn't great if you're looking to get rich. But I do think that it's a good stepping stone. At least that's what I'm hoping. I mean, I'll probably never make 100k a year doing this (unless I start my own lab, probably), but it will be steady good work. Easy work, plus I work with great machines (meaning something good for the CV), GMP advantages for me, advancment potential. But you know all that. Heck, you should come down here and work for the University. Full time employees get to take one class (3 hrs) during working hours and one class after hours (ie night class) for free. Plus if you make less than a certian amount, you get $ for your books, too. So it's a great deal. Did I mention two weeks off for Christmas. Yeah, maybe I did.
New thread to come later tonight. It's nothing groundbreaking, just something I've been curious about lately. |
| PJK |
Posted - 10/20/2002 : 9:32:25 PM
Jason, what was the thread you were going to start but were too tired to last night.....I mean earlier this morning?
I really do miss working in the lab. I forgot how much until you started posting about your job. Like I said earlier your timing was perfect as I am at the point where I am going back to school to get a better job and I just wasn't sure which direction to go in. You provided food for thought. Thanx! |
| enthuTIMsiast |
Posted - 10/20/2002 : 8:32:51 PM
Jesus. $100 an ounce? I just threw away about 100 ounces just Friday. In ONE DAY!!! Here's the reason, and it's not something that we do every day.
We keep the barrels I've mentioned in a conditioned vault (I want to say it's 70/70 temp/humidity or mayb 60/70). We have to closely monitor the moisture content of the marijuana in the barrels. So from the samples we take from the barrels (which as I mentioned is usually about 30 or 40 grams) I (and I say I because I'm the only one who does this now) take 10 grams and weigh it, then heat it at 100 degrees for two hours, let it sit in a room temp vacuum for one hour then weigh it. Using the difference in weight, we can tell what the moisture content is. Here's the crazy part: We just turn those dishes of 10 grams of marijuana over the garbage can and dump them. Every other part of the process involving marijuana in that lab and elsewhere in the facility (except maybe in the garden) is very very closely monitored by weight... We just dump this marijuana in the can. This is one of the cans that I mentioned get burned, but it's not weighed or anything, and no one knows how much marijuana should be in there. See what I'm getting at? Really, this is the only non-chemically altered marijuana we have, and it just so happens that we have many grams of it at once... I've been pouring the dried samples into a paper bag, and I'd estimate that at this point, the bag has 150 to 200 grams in it. Damn, that bag's worth a lot of cheese.
Well, I'm not sure how I got away on that ramble, but anyway. Did I mention that this marijuana is probably 8% potency?
And truthfully Jay, you probably better wish you never get my job. I imagine you'd have trouble with the temptation, whereas I don't. And it would be bad for you to get in trouble for that reason. I used to be curious about marijuana, and I figured I would be moreso with this job, but I've become somewhat used to it, and the curiosity has ebbed. It's still a fascinating plant, tho. |
| Jay |
Posted - 10/20/2002 : 7:02:37 PM
Oh i wish i had your job, man! It's about $100 buck for an ounce in Ohio, but it all depends on where you are. One chick i knew could buy an ounce for $25, but that is because she lived in teh south and everyone grew it... |
| enthuTIMsiast |
Posted - 10/20/2002 : 1:49:18 PM
I've heard a cool way that postal employees steal stuff is by simply taking address labels (with their address) to work with them, and when they see a package they want, they just stick their address in the To: part. Pretty clever, I think.
And yeah, I guess it is plausible for there to be body parts sent in the mail. I thought maybe of cocaine being sent, and I see that as likely, but I'm not sure who works with that...I know we have some barrels labeled "coca leaves" but I'm not sure if it is actually that. I don't know why it would be. Anyway.
And when we do shipments (like the four barrels I mentioned) they get shipped FedEx.
pcbdmb, it's funny that you say that in a way... The field is guarded all the time, and our vaults are pretty safe... Someone won't just sneak in there, if you know what I mean...but get this..when we are done with a sample of marijuana, however much it is, we throw it in a special garbage can which gets compacted, then stored in our vault. Well, when the time comes, that garbage goes to an incenerator. That's right, the weed gets burned, and that's on campus, in one of the main buildings...so it's easy to see why Ole Miss was voted one of the top 10 party schools in the nation a year or so ago. It's in the air, man..it's in the air.
Ha, that cracks me up. And makes me hungry... |
| PJK |
Posted - 10/20/2002 : 09:47:11 AM
Jason, just thinking of things going through the mail, I know body parts have been sent, if pot is, other drugs probably are too. And we laugh but who knows, uranium might be.If you think about it when you send a package, even UPS etc. they just take the person's word for it as to the contents, which is how it should be, but makes me wonder that the way things are going, if someday we will have to show a postal employee the contents before sealing the box. If it comes to that, I can imagine a lot of postal workers making money under the table by looking the other way. And ofcourse lets remember all those infamous fruitcakes being sent around the holidays.....HaHa.        |
| pcbTIM |
Posted - 10/20/2002 : 03:50:24 AM
I've been wondering..........you must have a very good security system. I mean.......thousands of pounds of marijana........college campus.........c'mon! |
| enthuTIMsiast |
Posted - 10/20/2002 : 02:49:27 AM
quote:
Makes you wonder what else is sent by mail
Actually, I hadn't thought about that. I kind of figured one of the most unlikely things to be sent by mail would be marijuana.
It does make me wonder what you think might be sent by mail. Uranium? That wwould he interesting.
I'm glad I don't have to kill animals. I'm not sure I'd like to do that. But if it's what you have to do to pay the bills, then it's what you have to do. That reminds me of a thread I'm going to start soon, but after I've slept. I'm not coherent enough at this point.
Goodnight. |
| PJK |
Posted - 10/20/2002 : 02:33:07 AM
I hear ya with the allergy thing...I have allergies too. I had a real bad reaction when I was working with rats once and my boss said I was no longer allowed to work with them.....I hate rats, especially lab rats so I wasn't too upset by that. I know when I had to work in the barns at certain times the hay etc would really get to me.
Speaking of rats, I find it dumb that so many cancer studies use rats, because they are so prone to cancer. We used to get a lot of tumors in our rats who were only fed Purina Rat Chow....go figure.
More trivia....vegetable oil when injested will kill rabbits. Found this out the hard way when we mixed a test drug in oil because it wasn't water soluble and fed it to the rabbits. Next morning we freaked out because all of our rabbits were dead...even the controls that were only given the veg. oil. So much for that experiment. That is one thing I hated about my job....always killing animals. I will work on anything once it is dead, but I hate killing it. The farm animals I kind of felt were doomed anyway, but I had to kill dogs and that really got to me. There was more than one occasion that I went off and just cried after a job.
Funny about the govn't sending the pot by mail. Makes you wonder what else is sent by mail....hummmmm. |
| enthuTIMsiast |
Posted - 10/20/2002 : 02:11:05 AM
Yeah, I knew a kg was about 2.2 pounds... And I was trying to figure out how the math worked out that we have 600 kilos but at least 3000 pounds. I know we just shipped four barrels (to a place in California), but that wouldn't even come close to making up the difference. Barrels weigh maybe 18 kgs, marijuana included.
Anywho there are a whole whole lot of barrels. I'll ask Monday how much we have.
O shit, I just remembered what's the diddily-o. Our crops produced almost 600 kilos this year. That was the goal. I think we're about 50 kgs short. So we grew this year 550 kilos. Like I said, the garden is big (maybe 5 or 6 acres). So I guess the 3 to 4000 pounds in the vaults would include what we already had, which would make sense, because that was a substantial amount.
Anyway.
Oh, and an interesting fact: we get our confiscated samples in the mail! They come to us and all we have to do is sign for them! Sometimes they are huge boxes, too. It's crazy. Once we were leaving the post office carrying a huge box of marijuana and this girl walked past us and said jokingly "oh, is that for me?" I just thought...If you only knew...
Oh, and I'm sure weighing marijuana is more fun and easier than weighing animals. But some of the samples we've had lately are so dry that the dust made me have an allergy attack. I've been wearing a mask when I work with those samples for the last two days. |
| PJK |
Posted - 10/20/2002 : 02:00:41 AM
FYI a kilo is about 2.2 pounds....I had to weigh a lot of critters and we used metric...Weighing pot would be more fun...or not? |
| enthuTIMsiast |
Posted - 10/20/2002 : 01:47:01 AM
600 Kg, that's right. I actually don't even know how much that is in pounds. But I do know that at one point (before this years harvest) we had somewhere around 3000 pounds. And this harvest probably almost doubled that...maybe not quite, so I'm guessing around 5000 pounds of marijuana in our vaults.
By the way, anyone here who smokes the stuff, I've been meaning to find out...how much does marijuana cost on the street? Like a pound or something. Or 10 grams or so? Just a base price, something common?
Oh, and incidentally, I do know the value and means of selling one product of what we grow, and this is pretty interesting.
There is a process that starts with about 10 Kg of marijuana (I'm going to say that about as much as would fit in a garbage can that's 40 gallons big (average kitchen garbage can: 13 gal, the big round ones: 50 or so gal, you get the idea). This marijuana is placed in a huge drum with a spigot on the bottom. Into the drum goes some solvents, and this soaks for a while. Then the liquid is drained thru the bottom, leaving only marijuana plant. The liquid contains all the THC from the plant. Then the liquid is placed in a large glass which is heated to evaporate the solvent. What is left is almost pure THC. 10Kg of plant material yields about 1 Kg of THC extract (which is maybe half a gallon, I don't really know). We sell this for about $40,000.
I think that's pretty impressive. That's the work I hope to get in on some day. I find that really interesting.
We also have an indoor grow room which is where we germinate the seeds and grow some throughout the year. I think there are probably 50 plants in there now.
Seriously, it's a cool job. |
| pcbTIM |
Posted - 10/19/2002 : 11:43:27 PM
Ugh!......science. Well, I'm glad that you're enjoying working there. Because I would die in a place like that. D'oh well. Different strokes for different folks. Once again, glad you're enjoying it. |
| Silky The Pimp |
Posted - 10/19/2002 : 8:44:32 PM
Good stuff Jason, I'm glad everything is working out for you! |
| enthuTIMsiast |
Posted - 10/19/2002 : 8:40:38 PM
You bet, I'm glad there was at least one interested reader out there in internet land. |
| PJK |
Posted - 10/19/2002 : 8:33:12 PM
That site is awesome! Really great news for cancer patients, even if it won't be on the market for about 3 years. That is part of the problem with research and developement, all the government red tape makes it hard to get anything on the marke.Gosh, between that and your post really makes me want to get back into a lab, and just when I am planning on going back to school for a teaching degree. Hummm....something to think about! Sure glad you posted all this....the timing was right, thanx. |
| enthuTIMsiast |
Posted - 10/19/2002 : 6:22:57 PM
Thanks for being interested. Yes, the University has great benefits (two weeks off for Chirstmas) and retirement, and all that. The job is super, because I've always been interested in marijuana, even tho I've never smoked it. Research is good, but there's not a whole lot of $ in it. But there is money in parts of the operations (GMP Quality Control, for example) and since I'm working under GMP, I should be able to step up the ladder sooner or later. And anyway, I'm making a whole heck of a lot more than I was before, and now I don't have to work on Saturdays EVER. Since what I work with is a Class I Narcotic, it has to be stored in a vault that only three people can get into. I am not one of those people. I do not want to be one of those people. Anyway, when the day ends, the marijuana goes into the vault, and doesn't come out until the next morning. So once I get the busy work done, there's nothing for me to do, and thus even if I went in on Saturday, there would scarcely be anything for me to do. It's a great job, really.
Ewwww, microbiology! That subject cooked my goose more than once. Anything you want to know, feel free to ask, I'm full of posting, today.
I meant to put this link above, but I'll put it here instead. This is a story on hightimes.com that is about my boss. I don't work with him, and this story is about his private lab off campus (where he makes a shitload of money, I guess).
Oxford lab's pot-like medication will target chemotherapy nausea
Pretty interesting that I work for the guy who has the patent for marijuana suppositories, which, by the way, have no psychoactive effects.
|
| PJK |
Posted - 10/19/2002 : 6:02:31 PM
Wow, sounds interesting. I spent 12 years in agricultural research, mostly in parasitology and microbiology. I liked research but at times it got boring so I'd make up little games to keep it interesting. I did get to castrate pigs (I was pretty damn good at it too, my boss used to tell the guys that if they saw me coming with a scalple in my hand to walk the other way. HaHa) Also got to make rectums in chickens...now that was interesting and hard to do.
The salary and benefits were good too. Unfortunately there was a hostile takeover and the company no longer exists.
At least you work for a University so there is job security. I am so glad you posted because I was interested in how you were doing and hearing about your job. Thanx |
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