What -is it- with people???

Yesterday, I read a newspaper article about Canadian forces patroling in Afghanistan. They ran into some problems trying to move through a 3 meter tall forrest of cannabis. At some point, they tried to burn it down. But then some of the soldiers got caught in the smoke and experienced what the article referred to as “negative consequences.”
As soon as I read that, I had a scene from “The history of the world” by Mel Brooks flying through my head. If you’ve seen it, you’ll remember the bit where they’re being chased out of Rome by soldiers. If not, I’ll just tell you that they come across a pot forrest and roll up a bunch of plants into a gigantic joint, set it on fire, and the soldiers all inhale the smoke, get high and start to dance. It doesn’t sound funny, thought.

Another article read that some moron had gotten caught whilst trying to smuggle over 100 kg of live snails into the country. The authorities suspect that they were meant for eating. I don’t know what’s weirdest about this: smuggling a gigantic horde of slugs across the border, or someone actually wanting to eat them… There’s not a drop of French in me, that’s for sure. And why smuggle them across in the first place? You could make some extra cash by lining them up just behind the border, and having a slug race. But seriously – watch the picture and imagine yourself chewing on that. Yuck.