The 25,000 residents of Lice, a town in Turkey’s Diyarbakır province, involuntarily got high after police burned tens of tons of seized cannabis in the town center.

On April 18, Turkish authorities conducted an operation to burn over 20 tons of confiscated cannabis in Lice, which caused the air in the settlement to become thick with weed smoke. For at least five days, people couldn’t leave their windows open and avoided going out, for fear of becoming intoxicated and experiencing symptoms like dizziness, nausea, and hallucinations. The destroyed cannabis, valued at 10 billion Turkish Lira ($261,433,808), weighed 20 tons 766 kilos 679 grams and had been seized from all over Diyarbakır province during 2023 and 2024.

“The smell of drugs has been enveloping the district for days,” a local man complained. We cannot open our windows. Our children got sick, we are constantly going to the hospital.”

The Chairman of the Yesil Yıldız Association, Yahya Oger said that, although the success achieved by authorities in the fight against drugs is important, the manner in which the cannabis was destroyed was incorrect. He emphasized that arranging the bags of weed to form the name of the town, LICE, in burning letters only added insult to injury.

“This was perhaps done as a preventive measure to deter, but the fact that it was destroyed in the city center could cause serious discomfort to people due to the smoke of burned hemp,” Oger told reporters, adding that his association recommends that police dispose of the cannabis in factories with filtered chimnies, to prevent the smoke from affecting the local population.

“As you know, the destruction or burning of such herbs can also cause serious intoxication,” Oger explained. “Just as tobacco harms passive smokers when used in a closed area, the smoke released by such narcotic substances when disposed of can cause serious discomfort to people on the other side. It can make people drunk, dizzy, nauseated, and cause hallucinations.”