Mystery marijuana washes up on Florida beach puzzling beachgoers

'There was pot, just marijuana all up and down here'

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Tuesday, July 25, 2023
Mystery marijuana washes up on Florida beach puzzling beachgoers
A large amount of weed somehow washed ashore in Neptune Beach, Florida according to police.

NEPTUNE BEACH, Fla. -- A different kind of seaweed washed ashore on a Neptune Beach in Florida Saturday morning.

"There was pot, just marijuana all up and down here," Bryan Crews told WJXT News.

Tons of loose, unpackaged marijuana washed onto shore. It was enough to cover parts of the shoreline near Florida Boulevard.

"I don't know from personal experience, but watching shows if you put it altogether it probably would've been five or 10 pounds," said Crews.

The Neptune Beach Police Department posted photos on Facebook warning people not to try and pick it up or take it home.

It looks like Sargassum, a type of brown algae, so it's easy to confuse but Zach West said he knew something was off when he looked at it.

"I did pick it up and smell it to see what it smelled like and it was weed so I was like okay it's kind of crazy," said West.

Once West confirmed that it was beach bud, his mom called 911.

"Me and my mom were kind of concerned just because there are babies and if they get it now of days they lace it with fentanyl," said West. "So, they could've picked it up and there could've been fentanyl in it and the baby just dropped dead. Nobody around with Narcan so."

Officers eventually came out to the beach and cleaned it up.

It's not yet clear who it belongs to or how it got there.