340 lines
18 KiB
Plaintext
340 lines
18 KiB
Plaintext
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POT MOVES INSIDE
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IN THE LATE 1970s word reached the San FranciscoBay Area of a new strain of
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Cannabis indica being grown in the Pacific Northwest. When the "Afghani"
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from Seattle reached the Bay Area's shelves, if fetched nearly twice the
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price then being paid for sativa varieties grown on California's sunny
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slopes.
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There was no mystery to the price differential. The indicas, likeAfghani,
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have been cultivated for thousands of years for the chemical
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tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). Those millennia of cultural selection have
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produced a cannabis genotype with an extremely high percentage of THC. The
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sativas, on the other hand, have traditionally been cultivated for hemp
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fiber and consequently contain a smaller percentage of THC. Since today's
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consumers demand THC from their cannabis, it stands to reason that
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cultivators can double their price by growing a cannabis variety with twice
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as much THC.
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The mystery was in the location. How could anyone grow plantsfrom the high,
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dry deserts of Afghanistan in the rain-drenched forests of the Pacific
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Northwest? Furthermore, how could they grow enough to export a surplus to
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the Bay Area?
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I began to think that a technological breakthrough had occurred,something
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akin to the Israeli development of drip irrigation. So, after collecting a
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couple of names, I packed my bags, notebooks, and cameras, and then headed
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north up Interstate Five.
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I met the "Preacher" in the office of a Seattle publisher. Aftera brief
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introduction in a back room, the Preacher began his sermon: "Marijuana is a
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sacrament," he said, "and marijuana gardens are churches. If people would
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learn to smoke more sacrament the world would be a much better place." And
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if the price of admission to the secret gardens was a sermon, I would sit
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and listen.
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The Preacher has surprising news when he and several of hislay assistants
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picked me up at the motel that evening. My tour of the "churches" would
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begin with a Super Sonics game at Seattle's Kingdome. We soon found
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ourselves sitting high up in the press section with refreshments in hand.
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Now, the Kingdome is one of those marvels of modern sportsarchitecture -- an
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enclosed multipurpose stadium. Picture a small mountain of solid granite;
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take about a million pounds of TNT and hollow it out; level the floor;
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install seats up the sides; and there you have a Kingdome. And though cold,
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dark, and dank, this Kingdome enables fans to enjoy sports right through
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some of the longest rains in the USA.
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"Why do you suppose we brought you here?" the Preacher asked. When I
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shrugged, he squinted up into the light and said, "Check out the lamps.
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They are the real miracle in this stadium." That was easy enough to see.
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Without those lights, of which there were hundreds, the Super Sonics would
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sustain many injuries tripping over stalagmites in the dark. "Each one of
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those lights is a 1,000-watt metal halide lamp, so they use a lot of energy
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and generate a lot of lumens.
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"Now as you probably know," the Preachercontinued, "the big money in
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professional sports comes from television revenue. And television cameras
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are calibrated for sunshine. So, for a broadcast to be of good quality, the
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lighting must closely match the frequency of sunshine. Those metal halides
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were designed to do just that. People sitting at home with a beer in their
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hand hardly notice that the game is being played in this big dark cave
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because the lighting is so much like sunshine."
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The Nine-Light Garden
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After the game we headed toward theOlympic Peninsula where, I was promised,
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we would visit a commercialsize grow-room. The Olympic Mountains receive up
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to 150 inches of rainfall per year; we drove for a long time with windshield
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wipers slapping back and forth.
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"Funny thing about all this rain," thePreacher remarked. "There is so much
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of it that we can't grow our sacrament outdoors like the growers in
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California. Yet there is so much falling water that we have an abundant and
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cheap source of electricity. So our clouds really do have a silver thing."
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Finally, somewhere deep in the night, wepulled into a gravel driveway and
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got out to stretch our legs. The clouds had parted to reveal the twinkle of
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stars. It was cold. The green grass crunched beneath our feet as we walked
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around a modest suburban home toward a detached two-car garage. The
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Preacher opened a door and we entered a room filled with lawnmowers, tools,
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gardening implements, and the other paraphernalia typically associates with
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the average American dream. But after closing and locking the outside door,
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the Preacher removed a padlock from an inside door leading to the other half
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of the garage. He then turned and said, "Are you ready?"
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"Yes," I replied. He swung the dooropen to Afghanistan at high noon.
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My eyes, accustomed to the soft twinkleof starlight, revolted at the flood
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of light which came pouring forth. The grow-room had been lined in
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sheetrock and painted white. Eight 1,000-watt halide lamps, like those
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which illuminated the Kingdome, were shining over a dense stand of mature
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sweet-smelling sinsemilla. The room vibrated with the lights' buzzing
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ballasts.
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"They are an indica/sativa hybrid," the Preachersaid, pulling the top of a
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plant down to his nose. "And they are almost ready for harvest."
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I tried to count plants but they were so thickI couldn't see the entire
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forest. "How many plants do you have in here?" I asked.
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The resident grower, an administrator with alocal city government, replied,
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"There are about thirty plants. We grow two crops per year and hope for a
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yield of a half-pound per plant."
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"But you have to use a propagation light toget two good harvest per year,"
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added the Preacher. "We have another halide out in a shed that we use for
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starting seeds and making cuttings. Then, when we harvest this crop, we
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have another already started and ready to grow out."
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"You have spring out in the shed and autumnin here. How do you regulate the
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growing seasons?" I asked.
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"The most important element in controllinggrowth is the photoperiod," the
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administrator answered. "And controlling the photoperiod of these halied is
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really easy with automatic timers. We run the lights here in the grow-room
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for twelve hours a day to initiate flowering. We run the propagation light
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eighteen hours a day to initiate vegetative growth."
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"How much electricity do you use?" I asked.
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"Followme," said the administrator. We walkedback outside into the cold and
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dark and headed toward the house. He stopped at the side of the house and
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shined a light on the electricity meter. I glanced at the meter and saw it
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spinning with the enthusiasm of a child's toy top. "Each of those lights
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burns about as much electricity as two twenty-one-inch color televisions.
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That's a lot of juice."
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"Doesn't somebody wonder about all of thatelectricity?" I asked.
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"We run the lights at night so the meter readerwon't see the meter spinning
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so wildly," the administrator replied. "And we are going to install an
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electric pottery kiln for camouflage. But there aren't many people running
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this many lights, so the authorities aren't really watching closely, we
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hope!"
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The administrator and I hustled back into thewarmth of the grow-room, where
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the Preacher had decided it was time for a small harvest. "We do about
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three harvests for each crop," he said. "First we take the top 'solas'
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because they are next to the lights and more developed. Then in another
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week or so we harvest the rest of the colas from the top half of the plant.
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Then we harvest what's left on the bottom half of the plant. This technique
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allows each flowering node access to light and ensures maximum production of
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flowers."
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I shot photographs as they snipped their wayfrom plant to plant. "What is
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the biggest problem you had to overcome to grow indoors?" I asked.
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"Our biggest problem at this location was allthe moisture," the Preacher
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answered. "We started with a pure Afghani indica, but when the buds got big
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and tightly packed they started melting away with botrytis. We called it
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'The Great Bud Rot.' So we crossed the indica with a sativa from Colombia
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that had a good resistance to botrytis. Now we have a strain with a high
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THC content and a resistance to rot."
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On the way back into town I asked the Preacherif there were any real big
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grow-rooms. "You know, ones with a hundred lights?"
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"None that I know," he replied. "The logisticsof keeping something like
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that secret would be nearly impossible. So if I did know of one, I wouldn't
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breathe a word about it to anyone. But I do know of one real efficient
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operation and the growers just might let you in for a look."
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The Twelve-Light Garden
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Jack" and "Jill" were professional indoorgrowers who survived by moving
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their operation from location to location in the back of U-Haul trucks.
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"They can change houses and identities in less than one week," the Preacher
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said.
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Like deer in hunting season, Jack and Jill werenot easily approached. It
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took many phone calls to set up a meeting and a great deal of talking to
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gain their confidence. Finally, their professional pride opened the door
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and I went in for a visit.
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They were, at the time, located in an olderhouse somewhere in Seattle's
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University District. Their neighbors were suspicious; when I arrived late
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in the afternoon they peeked out from behind their window blinds.
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It was dark inside the house. When my eyesbecame accustomed to the gloom, I
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saw that Jack and Jill did not enjoy many creature comforts. Their living
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room had only two old overstuffed chairs and one reading light. Old
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newspapers and magazines were scattered about the floor. When I was ushered
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into an unlit kitchen for a cup of coffee, I asked why they didn't turn on a
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light. "We are into energy conservation," Jill answered, "and every little
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bit helps."
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After a few moments of coffee and conversation,I discovered what she was
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taling about. Suddenly the floor started vibrating like the deck of an
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aircraft carrier on a high-speed run. "What is that?" I asked.
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"Just the lights," Jack answered. "We run themat night because we don't
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want the power company to read the meter when the lights are running." Jill
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turned on a kitchen light (25 watt), locked the front door, and then we went
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downstairs.
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The basements, about 800 square feet, was extremelyactive. I counted ten
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1,000-watt halide lamps and two banks of fluorescents. They were separated
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into two growing areas by a large furnace. The walls of the largest room
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were covered with a reflective tinfoil insulation. Cannabis indica was
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everywhere; there must have been a thousand plants in various stages of
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growth. Transpired particulates saturated the air with a skunklike
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fragrance. The entire basement vibrated with the buzz of halide ballasts.
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It was not a comfortable environment. The airwas charged and felt as though
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bolts of electricity were about to jump from floor to ceiling.
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We stood on the stairs for a while and justlooked. Finally, I asked why
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they had two growing areas.
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"One area is spring, and the other autumn,"Jill replied. "Come down and
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I'll show you what I mean." She led the way into a corner of the basement
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which contained the fluorescents and two halides.
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"We run these lights eighteen hours a day tokeep the plants in their
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vegetative cycle," Jill said. Then, pointing to a row of large plants
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against the wall, she continued, "These are our mother plants. They are
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variations we developed from an Afghani strain we call 'Big Momma.' This
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one is a Thai/Afghani hybrid; this one is an African/Afghani hybrid. We
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take cuttings from these mother plants and root them under the fluorescents
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and then grow them under the halides. Then we sell the rooted cuttings to
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other growers or move them into the autumn room for flowering."
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"What price do you get for the cuttings?"
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"We get from forty to one hundred dollarsapiece, depending on the size of
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the order," Jack answered. "Since there is as much risk in selling ten as
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in selling a hundred, we charge a lot for an order of ten."
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The tinfoil-covered autumn room was filledwith one-and-a-half-foot cuttings
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in eight-inch pots. "We don't grow tall plants like they do outdoors," said
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Jill. "We just grow them up to about two feet and then switch the light
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cycle back to 12 hours a day to initiate flowering. Each of the cuttings
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will produce about two ounces of sinsemilla buds."
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"What price do you get for the flowers?"
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"We wholesale them for $200 an ounce. Ourcustomers break the ounces down
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into grams and then sell each gram for about twelve to fifteen dollars."
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"What about the electricity? Doesn't the utilitycompany wonder about the
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size of your bill?"
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"Each halide costs about thirty dollars a monthto operate," Jack answered.
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"It adds up to about $300 a month, which we figure is about as far as we can
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go and still remain respectable. We installed a hot tub out back, but of
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course we never heat it. We are also thinking about getting a
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propane-powered generator with a custom-built muffler. It would sure help."
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"What about the smell?" I asked. "Surely yourneighbors can smell the
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plants."
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"We don't ventilate until the neighbors areasleep, which is usually around
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one o'clock in the morning. And we use negative-ion generators," Jill
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replied, pointing to a small black box. "They cause the odor-bearing
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particles to fall to the ground instead of floating out with the exhaust."
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"It seems as though you have solved the basicproblems," I commented. "But
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how do you keep everything under control all of the time? What about the
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gossip of the neighbors or an unexpected visit by the landlord?"
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To my nervous questions, Jacn and Jill smiled,toked, and said," ... 'ere."
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Supply And Demand
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The Preacher was right about Californiagrowers: they did, and do, grow their
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sinsemilla under the sun. If you consider the resources with which they
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operate -- the ample sunshine, the hills covered in native vegetation, the
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'0-acre ranchettes -- you can readily understand why. But something
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happened between the late '70s and the middle '80s; a new industry blossomed
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into life.
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Today there are approximately 35 retail storeson the West Coast, and five in
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the Sand Francisco Bay region alone, which cater to indoor growers. They
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are hybrid enterprises, half light store and half garden supply store.
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Furthermore, growers can simply purchase their halide from a conventional
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lighting store. ("I, ahh, need a bright light for my back yard.")
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To get a handle on the scope of this industry,I decided to ask the light
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manufacturers just how well their business is doing these days. Though most
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refused to disclose details, a cooperative gentleman from
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Phillips-Westinghouse said that 1977, his company manufactured 1,600,000
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metal halide lamps, and in 1984, it manufactured 3,100,000.
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Law enforcement sees the indoor gardens as avictory of sorts. When I asked
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Jack Beecham, director of California's Campaign Against Marijuana Planting
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(CAMPe, about the phenomenon of growers moving indoors, he replied, "There's
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no question that a portion of it (cultivation activity) has been forced
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indoors. Just how much we really don't know at this point. We see this as
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a victory because it probably costs about ten to twelve times more to
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cultivate indoors than it does outdoors. And by forcing it indoors we see a
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prime target for asset seizure. It's going to be difficult for anyone to
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deny the fact of a marijuana garden in their bedrom or living room."
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"What strategy will CAMP use for finding theindoor gardens?" I asked.
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"We think through traditional informationsources, like informants, we will
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be able to target many of the growing operations," he answered.
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"It would seem that one easy way to find thegrowers would be through a
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search of electricity bills. Does CAMP monitor electricity bills?" I
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asked.
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"I know some local agencies and the DEA havedone some of that," he answered.
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" can't speak with any real authority, but it is my understanding that there
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may be an invasion-of-privacy problem. One of our most knowledgeable agents
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says that we can't just randomly search utility bills. We have to have
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grounds to do that, like information from informants."
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"I have heard rumors that the DEA is consideringusing infrared scanners to
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check houses for abnormal heat leaks. Does CAMP use such scanners?"
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"There is nothing Star Wars-y about what wedo: we just do it with the naked
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eye. At this point in time indoor growing is not our priority. Our
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priority is the outdoor operation, and we have plenty of those to go
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around."
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Imagine fifty more years of Cannabis Prohibition:to catch the cultivators,
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authorities use an infrared scanning device capable of detecting a single
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marijuana plant from a geosynchronous orbit twenty thousand miles above the
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Earth. To resolve their dilemma, cultivators grow a strain of cannabis so
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potent that one six-inch sinsemilla plant, growing under a twenty-five-watt
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lamp in a lead-lined box, can supply the entire demand of a city the size of
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San Francisco...
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X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X
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Another file downloaded from: The NIRVANAnet(tm) Seven
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& the Temple of the Screaming Electron Taipan Enigma 510/935-5845
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Burn This Flag Zardoz 408/363-9766
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realitycheck Poindexter Fortran 510/527-1662
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Lies Unlimited Mick Freen 801/278-2699
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The New Dork Sublime Biffnix 415/864-DORK
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The Shrine Rif Raf 206/794-6674
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Planet Mirth Simon Jester 510/786-6560
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"Raw Data for Raw Nerves"
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