Pot Goes Up In Smoke, Turns Into Energy In Florida Incinerator

June 19, 2009 7:06 p.m. EST

Tampa, FL (AHN) - It was a scene that would have made Cheech and Chong, the comedians best remembered for their stoner movies, cry.

Nearly 2,000 pounds of marijuana with a street value of $6 million went up in smoke in Hillsborough County, Florida Friday morning, destroyed in a TECO waste-to-energy incinerator at Falkenburg Road.

The weed was collected in 2008 during a series of law enforcement raids on 62 grow houses in two counties that led to 72 people getting arrested and charged.

No point in breaking out the munchies, however. The marijuana was quickly consumed by the extreme heat of the incinerator, and the smoke was far enough away from the public there was no chance for a contact high, according to a spokesman for the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Department.

The burning of the marijuana also converted the pot into energy.

Burning a ton of pot "light 40,000 100-watt light bulbs for an hour," John Wilson, vice president of business development for Recycled Energy Development, a Westmont, Illinois-based waste-to-energy company, was quoted as saying by Tbo.com.