by Tanta on 12/15/2007 04:06:00 PM

For those of you who might be new to this website, "drinking the bongwater" has been one of our favorite, er, "colorful" metaphors for the utter abandonment of sane underwriting standards during the great mortgage bubble. Not that anyone around here knows what a bong is or why it has water or what would happen if you drank it. It's undoubtedly something our children picked up in daycare.

As usual, though, we find that reality has a way of seeing you one and raising you one. Via Atrios, we learn about the bongwater housing economy:

Sheriff's Office narcotics detectives reported raiding three houses where hundreds of marijuana plants were being grown. . . .

The investigation, which started 18 months ago, has led to a total of six raids at five addresses -- including the houses searched Thursday -- Carney said. Detectives have confiscated almost 2,000 plants, worth $2.4 million to $3.6 million on the street. The other houses are in South County and one has been busted twice by drug officers, Carney said.

The same group of people bought all the houses in 2005 and allegedly set up the grows, according to detectives. Investigators think the owners were using the marijuana grows to pay the mortgages on the homes.

"It appears they've been financing the houses with the cultivation and sales of marijuana," Carney said.

I'm guessing they went "stated income."