Maine survey restaurant that sedated lobsters with marijuana

SOUTHWEST PORT, Maine – Public health inspectors investigate a Maine lobster restaurant that tried to fluffy lobsters with marijuana. Charlotte's legendary lobster book in Southwest Harbor remains open, but it has stopped allowing customers to ask lobsters for meat sedated with marijuana, reports the Portland Press Herald.

Charlotte Gill, the restaurant's owner, is a state-approved medical marijuana caregiver. On Friday, Gill said she had recently started offering lobster meat "smoke" and was hoping to resume sales by mid-October.

Emily Spencer, spokesperson for the Maine Department of Health and Human Services, would not say if the state had asked Gill to stop these sales.

It is not known if the soup smoke calms lobsters or affects their meat. Gill said that she had injected marijuana smoke into the water of some lobster pens.

Finding ways to reduce pain in lobsters is not a new concept. Earlier this year, Switzerland banned the usual cooking method of throwing a live lobster into a boiling pot, deeming it cruel because lobsters can feel the pain, USA Today reported.

Gill argued that the gentler killing method would make the animal happier – and that happier lobsters mean better tasting the meat. "The difference it makes in the meat itself is incredible," she told Mount Desert Islander. "All you put in your body is energy."