According to recent media reports, cannabis growers in New York have an estimated $750 million worth of cannabis just sitting around waiting to be sold. Rumors suggest that New York also has rats the size of cats! But the rat problem in New York isn’t just a rumor.
On Dec. 6, 2022, the New York Times published an article about New York Mayor Eric Adams being fined for having a rat infestation at one of his Brooklyn properties. If the New York rat infestation is as bad as they say, cannabis cultivators better watch out for these rats. Luckily, the police in India may be able to give authorities in New York some pointers to help them from facing this very issue.
Apparently, New York isn’t the only place that has a problem with rats. Mathura, Uttar Pradesh, in Northern India, does too. Police in the city of Mathura, India, were unable to produce a certain amount of confiscated cannabis and told the courts that rats ate or made off with an estimated 500 kilograms (or 1100 pounds) of it. According to authorities in India, as much as 700 kilograms of cannabis stored throughout different locations could have potentially been affected by their rat problem. A statement from the court said, “Rats are small animals, and they aren’t scared of the police.”
After the case, the Mathura City Police Superintendent told CNN that the cannabis was “destroyed by rains and flooding.” Court documents contradict this statement, saying, “There’s a rat menace in almost all police stations. Hence, necessary arrangements need to be made to safeguard the cannabis that’s been confiscated”—perhaps referring to crooked activities in the police department itself.
This isn’t the “first time” rats have struck. Police in the town of Pilar, Argentina also experienced a similar situation. Rats had allegedly made off with or ate an estimated 540 kilograms (or about 1,190 pounds) of cannabis from a police warehouse. These rats don’t only have a taste for weed, but they love booze too! Police in Bihar, an Eastern Indian state, blamed rats for consuming several thousands of liters of alcohol that had been confiscated by authorities.
If New York thinks it has a rat problem, perhaps folks there should be thankful they don’t have rodents stealing cannabis and booze. However, with $750 million worth of cannabis sitting around, I would watch out for rats of all kinds! The likelihood of rats consuming thousands of gallons of alcohol and making off with over a thousand pounds of pot is very unlikely. It is more likely that instead of the culprits being four-legged rats, they might be of the two-legged human variety.
A rat infestation is a serious matter. It is an issue that, once it gets out of hand, puts the health of the surrounding area at risk. Rats can transmit all kinds of nasty things—things like Lyme disease, ectoparasites, murine typhus, rat bite fever, lymphocytic choriomeningitis, hantavirus, leptospirosis, and more. They can also chew through and damage buildings, electronics, and more. The last thing in the world anybody wants is fecal contaminants in their cannabis products. Cultivators in New York already raised concerns about being unable to meet requirement limits for contaminants like mold and mildew. As a result, the state dropped testing requirements on these issues. This certainly doesn’t bode well for New York.
Rats can be a real problem, whether they are the four-legged kind or the two-legged kind. You can take some steps to avoid them. The first is to obviously keep clear of suspicious individuals. This will help remove the two-legged ones from your life. When you live with integrity and there’s nothing to rat you out for, you’ll likely avoid attracting rats into your friend group to begin with.
When it comes to keeping the four-legged ones away, cleanliness is extremely important. Make sure there is zero access to the outdoors. Keep a clean surrounding inside and out, as they love dirt and clutter. Be mindful that they’re mostly looking for food and nesting material. Perhaps rats figured out what an incredible building material cannabis is and are building an underground network of rat skyscrapers and condominiums. I mean, weirder things have happened, right?
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