Maine Restaurant Gets Lobsters Stoned Before Dinner
One lobster pound explores a new frontier of ethical seafood feasting.
Image: iStock
It is a question that has plagued conscientious humans since they discovered the lobster’s supreme edibility: how do you cook them so they don’t feel pain?
Maine lobster pound owner Charlotte Gill is grappling with the ethical implications of killing delicious, buttery-sweet crustaceans by offering them a hearty dose of cannabis smoke before turning them into lobster rolls, according to the Mount Desert Islander.
To reduce the suffering of her signature sea creatures, Gill undertook a series of experiments on a specimen named Roscoe at her restaurant, Charlotte’s Legendary Lobster Pound. Over the course of a few minutes, Roscoe sat in a box as Gill pumped cannabis smoke into the water. She then removed the lobster’s claw bands. For the next three weeks, he was reportedly never aggressive again with the other lobsters in his tank, implying that he was seriously chilled out by the drug.
Roscoe was eventually released back to the ocean, where he is now undoubtedly telling his shelled friends about one heck of a trippy alien abduction experience.
Marijuana use and possession of up to 2.5 grams in Maine was legalized in 2017, though it is not yet legal to sell the drug in stores.
Gill is currently offering a choice between traditionally boiled or steamed lobsters and ones that have first been subjected to marijuana smoke, though she intends to get all of her lobsters high for the next lobster season.
But fear not, ye old cannabis abstainers; psychoactive THC breaks down at a temperature of 392 degrees, so between the steaming and "a heat process that will expose the meat to a 420 degree extended temperature," there’s no chance you’ll be getting stoned yourself after a meal from Charlotte’s Legendary Lobster Pound.
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