Osama bin Smokin'? Marijuana found at Abbottabad compound

By various reports, we are now learning that marijuana grew along the outside walls of Osama bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Was the Al Qaeda mastermind a stoner? He and his buds were said to have "bought a lot of food," and frequently placed bulk orders for Coke and Pepsi with a local grocer— so there's that. And, those glazed and distant eyes. But I doubt it: if ever there were a persona more harsh than mellow, it was this fellow.

And, oh, alright: truth is, it's not unusual to find patches of wild cannabis growing in this region.

Sources: NY Daily News, Telegraph, Village Voice, and CNN's Nic Robertson on AC360 (via Andy Carvin).

Boing Boing editor/partner and tech culture journalist Xeni Jardin hosts and produces Boing Boing's in-flight TV channel on Virgin America airlines (#10 on the dial), and writes about living with breast cancer. Diagnosed in 2011. @xeni on Twitter. email: xeni@boingboing.net.

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jeligula

Wild hemp grows where it will. Along strands of Tennessee highway, pot plants are rampant. But they are nothing by hemp and not worth smoking.
Anonymous

This is silly. I’ve been to Abottabad, the Kashmir and Jhelum valleys and throughout the Northern areas of Pakistan; Weed grows everywhere there.
Anonymous

Maybe if he smoked it more he wouldn’t have been such a creep. He would have been too buzzed to care.
fresh

Sloth were right with there bin Laden smoking t-shirt! http://sloth.bigcartel.com/product/bin-blazin-mens-tee
shannigans

He did have about ten years put into the couch. Makes sense.
ill lich

All I know is this “bin Laden acid” I scored with his face on all the tabs gave me nothing but bad trips, every single one of them.
Jake0748

“He and his buds were said to have…”
Haha, you said buds.
Mister44

“Open up, Osama, it’s me, Abu. I got the stuff.”

“Abu’s not here, man.”

Seriously though, he’s from a country that exports the bulk of opium to around the world, and there are lots of complaints that the Afghani regulars like to slack off and smoke hashish. IIRC Kat (Quat?) is popular there too. Besides – what else is there to do beside watch TV and get stoned and you can’t drink.

Still… it could make a good anti-drug commercial.

“Smoke pot and we’ll send SEAL team 6 into shoot your mom and kill your dad.”
- MrsBug
  
  Dude, excellent reference.
Mister44

Clarification – I know he wasn’t born Afghanistan, but did run operations there for a time.
hobomike

No phone and internet connections? You gotta have something fun to do. Seriously, if the U.S.A. were hunting me, I’d be smoking out A LOT. In fact, I smoke out for a lot less reasons.
- Jack
  
  Dude, he held onto kids cricket balls. Looks like Osama Bin Laden was more like Osama Bin Killjoy!
Anonymous

Maybe he had a prescription.
cuboda

Why the persistence in associating marijuana with mellow? The brain in a sauna may get pretty limp, but when it is too weak to get off the hot rocks it slid or tripped onto, it isn’t too happy.
elix

HIPSTER BIN LADEN MEME GO!

I’m calling it right here, right now.
Jack

Best quote IMHO:

When school children playing cricket knocked balls into their compound they were never allowed in to find them instead the Khanâ€™s would pay them 100 rupees – approximately 70p – as compensation.

Itâ€™s like some sitcom that should be made. I can see Don Knotts playing one of the couriers going: â€œUgggh, what kind of stuff do we have to buy now? A case of Pringles? More like Osama Bin Binging! *conk* Ouch! Wait! Hey! YOU KIDS! GET YOUR CRICKET BALLS OFF MY LAWN!â€
- Mister44
  
  “This is the 20th time this week! If I didn’t know better, I’d say you were doing this on purpose. And why is it I always hear carnival music and bells just before it happens?”
  - Jack
    
    â€œSorry Mister Khan… Hey! What are you hiding in there? A talking horse? Câ€™mon! Let me in.â€
    
    The kids could be on a hill looking at the mansion and talking about what is inside: â€œI bet he has 12 talking horses! And a big TV screen! And dozens of kites!â€
    - Mister44
      
      “Man – they must be old people in there. They always start cooking at 4:20. Who eats that early?”
DangerJackson

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKvzWH9O4as

I bet it was like three different kinds of weed all grown together.
PeaceLove

Jokes are an easy default but the truth is likely quite straightforward. Cannabis is a miraculous plant that alleviates all kinds of nasty physical and mental conditions and OBL probably used it to treat one or more of his ailments.

Given his psychological makeup, he probably also used it to help himself hide from himself.
coaxial

I call bullshit. Next they’re going to say they found a fridge full of 40s.
boehj

They should have, ahem, “stoned” him to death. ‘Tis Sharia law after all.
Jack

PS: Xeni, another source for domestic Bin Laden mansion issues:
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-05-03/bin-laden-aides-are-said-to-have-bought-pepsi-coke-in-bulk.html

Bin Ladenâ€™s protectors â€œalways bought the best brands — Nestle milk, the good-quality soaps and shampoos,â€ Qaisar said. â€œThey always paid cash, never asked for credit.â€ They purchased meat from a butcher nearby who stayed closed yesterday, he said.
- Jack
  
  Ignore me. It was Bloomberg reposted on Businessweek. My bad.
olmsteader

“In her 2006 autobiography (as excerpted in Harper’s Magazine, September 2006, pp. 22-24), (former mistress Kola) Boof describes bin Laden as obsessed with Whitney Houston, smoking lots of marijuana, and forcing her to dance naked to Van Halen.”

http://kolabooftraitor.blogspot.com/
- Pantograph
  
  Wasn’t that an early episode of MTV Cribs?
teapot

Matt: I find it hilarious the mods see fit to delete my criticism of your irrational, persistent ranting but you can read-all-about-it here:
http://www.boingboing.net/2011/05/03/white-house-modifies.html#comment-1100622
teapot

PS: Just noticed they deleted your comment too, so I suppose that’s just good housekeeping.
ultranaut

I heard the SEALS shot him in the face because he had a bong made from a Stinger missile…
Anonymous

Osama both used and was funded by oil.

oil = terrorism = oil

Ban oil now!
Anonymous

He was kicked back, watching I Dream of Jeannie, and eating some Cheetos when he heard the door being kicked in…..
starcadia

That would explain the Pizza Hut phone number sewn into his clothes.
bat21

This would explain the scale in his bedroom. http://ll-media.tmz.com/2011/05/02/050211-osama-video-3-credit.jpg
Anonymous

I’ve been to Pakistan, Marijuana grows everywhere, it’s a weed.
nixiebunny

Some countries don’t outlaw weeds.
Talia

Pot turns you into a terrorist! I knew it.
- Anonymous
  
  LOL!
aelfscine

Where’s Shocked Cat? This seems like a prime photo for him/her to be shocked within.
Anonymous

Well, it’s a weed after all, and Afghanistan is its natural habitat.

Any word on whether it was cultivated, or naturally growing?
Fett101

Bulk orders for American products? Seriously?
- Anonymous
  
  Huh, that is kind of ironic. They probably felt compelled to buy them because, after all, terrorists do own a good deal of American stocks.
Anonymous

Is that what they mean that weed is a gateway drug?
Anonymous

The name ‘Assassins’ comes from the Arabic Hashishin or “users of hashish.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hashshashin I wonder what OUR troops were high on that night. I also wonder if those guys ever got to see reruns of the Great Speed Racer Assassin Gang episodes. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQIjbN9jMj0&feature=player_detailpage#t=69s
- Noufal Ibrahim
  
  Not for sure. The wikipedia article you quoted mentions an alternate origin of the word – “..call his disciples Asasiyun, meaning people who are faithful to the AsÄs, meaning “foundation” of the faith…”. It also mentions that the more popular etymology (hashish eater) was commonly used by their adversaries to discredit them.
  
  Another thing that comes to mind because of the Pepsi reference is how “addicted” (for want of a better word) arabs generally are to the drink. People used to wake up in the cold desert morning, come to a local restaurant and ask for a shawarma and a bottle of Pepsi. They’d feel the bottle and ask for one that was colder.
travtastic

I hear he had a shrine to Satan in his closet, and only ate organic produce.
- Xeni Jardin
  
  The same news reports say they were growing cauliflower and tomatoes out on the back 40, so you’re on the right track!
- felixjawesome
  
  He also drove a Prius and donated to NPR.
  - travtastic
    
    Apparently he listed interests on facebook like “George Soros” and “Planned Parenthood”. Makes you wonder.
HotPepperMan

I worked in Pakistan covering the Swat Valley, Abbotabad etc. I can assure you that ‘Weed’ grows as a weed. In fact, even in the capital, Islamabad, there is one place we called ‘Happy Valley’; returning after a days work I would often grab a nap in the car while my driver managed the ‘interesting’ drive down the GT Road. I immediately knew when it was time to wake up and we were nearly back when the smell of ‘Happy Valley’ wafted into the car. Despite their best efforts, the local town council often failed to cut down all the plants before people got to them… Oh, and do not be fooled about ‘no alcohol’ there. It is readily available and consumed… so much for strict religious faith…
MacBookHeir

Various reports I’ve read say that there were several CHEECH and CHONG CDs and DVDs found inside the compound
Soliloquy

I bet he was super paranoid.
Anonymous

Damn, the war on drugs merges closer to the war on terror. Should have known, our county weed squad is half Iraq veterans and the other half tries to look the part. Legalization just jumped back a decade or two.
Anonymous

grows wild,acres of it.blew my mind when i saw it first time.
Anonymous

Well this certainly explains his dementia and hunger for world domination. Such drugs only lead to harder drugs, flashbacks and a degenerated life of crime and mayhem.
If only his family friend George Bush had implemented an intervention.
ryxxui

Some people feel a bit strange releasing a headshot of the guy who they just perforated to make a few conspiracy nuts happier.
travtastic

What? No they don’t. Look up Hussein’s two sons.
Ugly Canuck

As far as macabre trophies of war….feed your head, read some history, and choose a side. Be we savages and barbarians, or be we not?

http://www.ecu.edu/cs-admin/news/inthenews/archives/2005/12/061206chicagotribune.cfm

I call any such displays “moral backsliding”…shall we fight over it?
Mister44

My favorite war trophy? The bushel of gold rings Hannibal sent to the Senate after the Battle of Cannae during the 2nd Punic War.

Hey – I heard that snickering over there. That’s PUNIC.
travtastic

No, we’re not going to fight over it. Don’t be patronizing. Someone has made a hell of a claim about killing a man, with political repercussions, and I would like to see some proof. We’re not talking about displaying it in Times Square and letting people throw things at the body. I don’t really care if it seems macabre.