Chilean Miners Smoked Pot Underground

They also requested blow-up dolls, says new book by Jonathan Franklin
By Kate Seamons,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 13, 2011 8:12 PM CST
Chilean Miners Smoked Pot Underground
An image made from a video released by Television Nacional de Chile via the Chilean government Thursday Aug. 26, 2010, shows the trapped miners in their underground chamber.   (AP Photo/Television Nacional de Chile)

If you were surprised to learn that some of the Chilean miners contemplated cannibalism during their time underground, steel yourself for another big reveal: Some of them smoked pot, or so says a new book by New York Times journalist Jonathan Franklin. The Daily Mail notes that Franklin had special access to the rescue operation, and his book claims some of them got marijuana smuggled to them by way of letters from their family ... and didn't share.

Franklin says the pot "created more tension than it relieved," and says officials contemplated using a drug-sniffing dog. And speaking of tension: The men also asked for blow-up sex dolls, and a donor reportedly offered 10 dolls but was turned down. A doctor monitoring the men reportedly said, "33 or none. Otherwise they would be fighting for inflatable dolls: whose turn is it? Who was seen with whose fiancee? You are flirting with my inflatable doll." Instead, they got pin-ups from a popular tabloid and porn. The Mail also notes that there were two "near disasters" while the men were being hauled out. Click for more new details on their time underground.
(More Chilean miners stories.)

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