Growing

Canada: Conservatives To Bar Patients From Growing Own Pot

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on June 17, 2011 Global, Growing, Medical

Canada’s federal government is expected to announce new rules for medical marijuana that would allow only a few licensed growers to be permitted to cultivate cannabis.

The move would eliminate individual and private growers from the current system, under which eligible people apply to Health Canada, which then issues the license, reports Amy Minsky at Postmedia News.

People in the medical marijuana dispensing community who have heard about the impending change said it is unwelcome, and will do more harm than good.

Florida Leads The Nation In Indoor Marijuana Grow Busts

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on June 16, 2011 Growing, News

Photo: NORML Blog

Florida has some of the nation’s harshest laws when it comes to growing marijuana — and it leads the nation in busts of grow houses.

You’d think a place called the Sunshine State should be growing outdoors, but last year, more indoor marijuana grow houses were busted in Florida than in any other state, according to the federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

Nationwide demand for high-potency marijuana has supposedly turned Florida into a top producer of hydroponic weed, reports Alexia Campbell at the Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel, and hundreds of Floridians are turning their homes into grow houses.

Florida law enforcement agencies raided 818 grow houses in 2010, followed by California’s 719, according to the DEA, but not all agencies report their findings to the DEA.

Garden Supply Sales Down After Med Marijuana Crackdown

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on June 15, 2011 Growing, Legislation, Medical

Photo: KULR 8

David Dayton, Heightened Harvests: “A lot of it is related to what’s happening with the news lately”

Montana’s medical marijuana system is set to begin a new, extremely restrictive phase, and cultivators and dispensaries aren’t the only businesses affected by the crackdown.

Owners at Heightened Harvests said they’ve seen a drop in demand for indoor growing equipment since Senate Bill 423 passed, reports Kyle Midura at KULR 8. The store specializes in indoor gardening supplies.

Store owner David Dayton said hardware sales, especially of grow lights, are down. “Indoor gardening typically is a big slower in the summer and it usually picks up in the fall, but a lot of it is related to what’s happening with the laws lately,” Dayton said.

Miracle-Gro Makes A Play For The Medical Marijuana Market

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on June 14, 2011 Growing, News

Photo: How To Grow Weed Indoors

Miracle-Gro seems to have finally gotten hip to the fact that lots of people use its chemical fertilizer to grow marijuana — and that with a little marketing, that number could get a lot, well, higher.

In an unusual move for the head of such a large company, Scotts Miracle-Gro Company CEO Jim Hagedorn said he is “exploring” targeting medical marijuana cultivators to boost sales at his lawn and garden supply firm, reports Dana Mattioli at The Wall Street Journal.

“I want to target the pot market,” Hagedorn said in an interview. “There’s no good reason we haven’t.”

Sales at Scott’s aren’t exactly suffering. In fact, they rose five percent last year, to $2.9 billion. But the company, based in Marysville, Ohio, relies on sales at three mega-retailers — Home Depot, Lowe’s, and Wal-Mart — for almost two-thirds of its revenue. But with those big-box retailers not building new stores as quickly as they used to, it appears the CEO wants to “diversify.”

Colorado Medical Marijuana Regulators Helping Bust Grow Sites

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on June 13, 2011 Growing, Legislation, News

Photo: Cannabis Therapy Institute

The MMED’s new logo. Whoever thought they’d see a law enforcement badge with the words “medical marijuana” on it? Just in case we forget how they look at medical marijuana patients and providers, it has ‘CRIMINAL’ right up at the top and center.

Colorado medical marijuana regulators have partnered up with local law enforcement to help cities shut down what they say are illegal commercial cannabis cultivation sites and prosecute those running them.

As the only state with medical marijuana regulations allowing companies to profit from selling cannabis, Colorado has adopted strict business licensing requirements, reports the Associated Press, making it easier for law enforcement to find, raid, and prosecute marijuana cultivators.

The Legislature passed a law last year, HB 1284, requiring a special marijuana business license for dispensaries, cultivators, and cannabis-infused product manufacturers. Under a constitutional amendment passed by voters in 2000, medical marijuana patients had to be registered with the state, but businesses providing it had not been required to register until the new law passed.

California Rejects Plan To Reduce Cannabis Cultivation Penalties

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on June 3, 2011 Growing, Legislation, News

Graphic: disinfo.com

The California Assembly on Friday rejected Assemblyman Tom Ammiano’s bill, AB 1017, to reduce marijuana cultivation from a mandatory felony to a “wobbler,” which would have allowed discretion on charging a misdemeanor. The vote was 24 yes to 36 no.

The bill had been supported by the district attorney of Mendocino County, but was opposed by the state D.A.’s association.

“The state Legislature has once again demonstrated its incompetence when it comes to dealing with prison crowding,” said disappointed California NORML Director Dale Gieringer.

“With California under court order to reduce its prison population, it is irresponsible to maintain present penalties for nonviolent drug offenses,” Gieringer said. “It makes no sense to keep marijuana growing a felony, when assault, battery, and petty theft are all misdemeanors.

Stoner Photo of the Day: The Flower That Scares Big Pharma

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on May 31, 2011 Growing

Photo: No Longer Sad in Western WA

Jillybean by TGA Genetics, day 65, harvested on day 66. “Just because I’m a proud granny — and this plant was just so incredibly beautiful at harvest time,” No Longer Sad tells us.

See that pretty flower?

It scares the hell out of Big Pharma.

Because when people can have their own organically grown anti-depressant, anti-tumor, anti-nausea, pain medication, what do they need Big Pharma’s high prices and harsh chemicals for?

Canada Couple Wants Province To Buy Pot Growing Equipment

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on May 27, 2011 Global, Growing

Photo: Bristol County District Attorney’s Office

The government of Nova Scotia is facing a lawsuit by a couple who say the Canadian province should pay for their equipment to grow medical marijuana because they’re too poor.

Sam and his wife, Tanya, have disabilities and are on income assistance, reports CBC News. They both have medical marijuana licenses from Health Canada, and are allowed to grow a total of 25 plants.

But the couple said they don’t have enough money to buy the lights.

“We’re out of medication quite often,” Sam said. “We can’t keep up on the amount that we need to grow.”

Canadian Marijuana Bears Wake Up With The Munchies

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on May 24, 2011 Global, Growing, News

Photo: CBC News

RCMP officers were amused last year when the friendly bears came out to greet them as they raided a marijuana grow operation. Now they’ve woken up after a long winter’s nap — and they have a major case of the munchies.

The infamous marijuana bears of British Columbia have woken after their winter hibernation, and they have the munchies — but they seem to be weaning themselves off dog food, according to the man who was once feeding them $100 of kibbles a day.

Allen Piche of Christina Lake, B.C., pleaded guilty in March to feeding the roughly two dozen wild black bears on his remote property after the B.C. Conservation Service last summer charged him and ordered him to stop, reports CBC News. Piche was charged after police found the mellow bears when they raided a marijuana grow operation on his property last August.

Initially there was speculation the bears might be guarding the cannabis crop, but Piche denied that.

Superfast Computers Triggering Botched Marijuana Grow Raids

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on May 23, 2011 Culture, Growing, News

Photo: Bitcoin Miner

Turns out, looking only at electric usage from a residence, the consumption for bitcoin mining won’t look much different from a marijuana grow-op. Cue clueless cops.

You don’t have to be growing marijuana to get raided for it. At least one Bitcoin miner has been raided by police because unusually high power usage led them to suspect he was growing marijuana, according to unconfirmed reports on Monday.

The tip comes from an IRC chat captured by blogger Mike Esspe, though there are no corroborating details, reports Jerry Brito of Techland.

Bitcoin is the anonymous virtual currency that uses distributed computing power to validate online coins. “It’s like gold mining, except that instead of digging, a miner uses cryptographic math,” reports Techland.

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