Marijuana harvesting in Kyrgyzstan sometimes involves naked horseback riding

The Chu Valley between Kyrgyzstan and Kazkhstan is the home to an extremely hardy type of marijuana that resisted Soviet-era efforts to stamp it out. Law-breaking marijuana farmers in the region harvest the crop normally, but they also procure their stick-icky using a tried and true method that’s been around for centuries: nude equestrianism.

Every August, naked horseback riders descend on the Chu to gather resin for a highly concentrated form of smokeable marijuana known as “plastilin.” Plastilin is so potent that a few pieces the size of pinheads will get the user proper goofy. Explains Radio Free Europe:

It begins with a freshly showered person riding naked for hours on a clean, washed horse inside a two-meter-high “forest” of marijuana.

Afterwards, the human body and that of the horse are covered with a thick layer of resin mixed with sweat.

This produces a substance that is usually dark brown in color, which is then thoroughly scraped off the human and horse’s bodies […] But it is a lot harder to produce this form of the drug because you need more time to make it.

Imagine 10, 20, or 30 individuals running or riding naked in a field of wild marijuana. It goes without saying that they are more exposed and it is easier to catch them. Nonetheless, people do it and they have been doing it since time immemorial.

And here’s some Kazakh rap extolling the virtues of Chu cheebah. Let’s hope those horses don’t get the munchies while they’re working.

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