Visualize It: How Much Pot Has the US Seized On the Mexican Border? Climateer Investing
go to original July 2, 2013

Want to know what 17 million pounds of pot looks like? The Center for Investigative Reporting takes a heady look at how much marijuana is seized at the U.S.-Mexico border. (theifilestv)

From The Center for Investigative Reporting: From 2005 to 2011, American authorities seized 17 million pounds of marijuana along the U.S.-Mexico border. That’s a lot of pot.

But how do you get your head around visualizing just how much weed that is? What exactly does 17 million pounds of pot look like, say, in relation to the Statue of Liberty? How many joints could be made out of that stash?

One journalist at The Center for Investigative Reporting was determined to find out. Using a lot of algorithms, news applications developer Michael Corey came up with this very funny and innovative visualization, which has the distinction of being the first video to bring together the Sydney Opera House, the All Your Base Are Belong to Us meme, and a giant flying, intergalactic blunt.

If you want to nerd out on the specifics of the painstaking math behind the graphics, Corey breaks it down here...

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