It's just a weed there

Imagine my surprise when I was walking around both Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan and saw the wild cannabis growing everywhere! Evidently (though I don't know, cause I've never smoked it, and wouldn't know potent from nonpotent marijuana), the stuff must not be very potent here, or you'd think that people would just pick it out of their gardens and smoke it (it really is looked at like a common weed here, I guess).

Evidently, while there is a drug problem in those two countries, the drug of choice is more often opium rather than this common weed.