Story Archive

Green Lobster

“I feel bad that when lobsters come here, there is no exit strategy,” said Charlotte Gill, owner of Charlotte’s Legendary Lobster Pound, a restaurant in Southwest Harbor, Me. “It’s a unique place, and you get to do such unique things but at the expense of this little creature.” So she came up with a way to make exiting “kinder” for the lobster, and now she says Charlotte’s is the place for “high end lobster” because she helps the lobsters get high. At least, that’s her hope: she’s run a test (on a lobster named Roscoe, since released) and says exposing the crustaceans to marijuana smoke makes them calmer. After being exposed, Roscoe didn’t use his claws as weapons. (Scientists say lobsters don’t do that anyway.) The state is investigating, but Gill hopes to be able to sell her ...uh... high end lobsters while complying with Maine’s marijuana law. She said the active ingredient in pot will be destroyed at the temperature the lobsters will be cooked: 420 degrees. (AC/Portland Press Herald, Mount Desert Islander) ...And how long had she been experimenting before she arrived at that temperature?