HOW DOES YOUR POT GROW?

Local Growers Give An Inside Look AT A Booming Multimillion-dollar
Industry

The benevolent outlaw

"Nobody produces any better weed than we do here," says Raul G. Raul,
a pot grower whose farm is somewhere between Santa Paula and Ojai.
Raul likes to think of himself as a benevolent outlaw, supplying
"medical" marijuana to clinics and "slanging [dealing] a little on
the side to make people happy."

His plants are gorgeous, even (or maybe even more so) to a man in
recovery who hasn't touched bud in 11 years. Some are easily 15 feet
tall, with the sexiest flowers this side of Holland.

"Weed is as natural and wholesome as spinach," says Raul, adding,
"and a lot more profitable."

Medical pot's reputation has been tarnished lately - LA County's DA
is shutting down dispensaries, and investigators with the Santa
Barbara County Sheriff's narcotics unit have blamed at least one of
the recent wildfires on a marijuana farm. But neither the negative
publicity, nor, in fact, anything short of a bust, is going to put
Raul out of business. Just one of his plants, he says, yields about
two pounds of herb, which would be worth about $5,000; Raul boasts
that his plants are worth "a cool green million."

The economics of weed are simple and seductive. It costs about $1,000
to grow a kilo (2.2 pounds) of pot, which sells for up to $7,500 to a
wholesaler. At a conservative $15 a gram, the $1,000 investment can
ultimately be worth $15,000. If "medical marijuana" clinics are
getting any part of the deal, you can imagine how sweet that is.

"You should go up to Humboldt County," said another grower. "It's
pretty wild. There's 18-year-old kids who grow enough pot to own
large houses with acres of land. Young kids in high school are
growing quality pot."

Pot = profit, and in broke California, authorities can't keep up with
increasing numbers of growers. They're also handcuffed by conflicting
state, federal and county laws governing marijuana.

With low start-up and overhead costs, marijuana is the most
profitable drug of all, according to local law enforcement officials.
With that kind of profit margin, marijuana is increasingly filling
the gap left by other failing industries, like lumber and fishing.

How marijuana became legal in California

In 1996, California passed the Compassionate Use Act, Proposition
215, which decriminalized medical marijuana. Proposition 215 was
conceived by San Francisco marijuana activist Dennis Peron in memory
of his partner, Adam West, who had used marijuana for AIDS.

Since then, 12 states have enacted similar laws. A federal appellate
court has ruled that the federal government cannot punish - or even
investigate - physicians for discussing or recommending the medical
use of marijuana with patients.

State law allows anyone to grow a limited amount of marijuana for
medicinal purposes as long as they have a prescription for it. In
Ventura County, that amount is "six mature plants or 12 immature
plants," and the amount can vary by county or even city. Moreover,
some individuals have been granted an exemption from this amount,
and in places like LA and Sonoma Counties "caregivers" are allowed
"up to 99 plants in a 100-square-foot growing area plus three pounds
of marijuana."

So in most places in California marijuana is effectively legal today.
There are an estimated 300,000 to 400,000 medical marijuana patients
in the state now, and the figure is rapidly growing. More
surprisingly, there are about 1,000-plus medical marijuana
dispensaries now operating in California and openly distributing the
drug.

These "compassionate-care clinics" are outpatient facilities that
sell marijuana and its concentrated resin forms, hashish and kif,
sometimes alongside a range of enticing, non-inhaled alternatives,
including marijuana-imbued brownies, cookies, gelati, honeys,
butters, cooking oils ("Not So Virgin" olive oil), bottled cold
drinks ("enhanced" lemonade is the most popular), capsules, lozenges,
spray-under-the-tongue tinctures and even topically applied salves.

In Venice Beach, a shop called The Farmacy, one of three stores in a
chain, uses a "pastry chef" to direct its baked goods operation. Most
dispensaries offer plants and seeds.

To the Feds, though, it's all drug dealing.

The Federal Government vs. marijuana

The US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), NIDA (National
Institute of Drug Abuse), and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
all maintain that marijuana has "no currently accepted medical use."

The Feds continue to classify marijuana, like heroin, as a "Schedule
I controlled substance," blocking doctors from prescribing it at all.
Viciously addictive drugs like Oxycontin, ironically, are more
leniently classified as Schedule II drugs, allowing prescription
use.

Thirteen states now allow residents to use marijuana medicinally,
typically as an anti-nausea and anti-vomiting agent, for example, for
those in chemotherapy; to assuage chronic pain, for movement
disorders and muscle spasticity, e.g., multiple sclerosis, and as an
appetite stimulant for AIDS and cancer patients.

Another 15 states are weighing legislation or ballot initiatives that
could turn them into medical marijuana states by next year.

Under Presidents Bush, Clinton and Bush Jr., the US Justice
Department treated state medical marijuana laws as nullities. Such
laws were contradicted and therefore preempted by federal drug laws,
the Justice Department reasoned, and the US Supreme Court upheld that
position in 2005.

So the Feds raided and prosecuted defendants who said they were
complying with state medical marijuana laws. In court, defendants
were not allowed to tell juries about the existence of those laws.

In late February, President Obama signaled a new approach. His
attorney general, Eric Holder, confirmed at a press conference that
he would no longer subject individuals who were complying with state
medical marijuana laws to federal drug raids and prosecutions.

By the way, the last three presidents have all admitted trying pot,
but apparently no one ever got high off of it until Obama, who, when
asked if he inhaled, quipped, "I thought that was the point."

How it works

To obtain a prescription for marijuana in California, you must go to
a clinic and make an appointment for an exam. The exam, which
includes a "free" ID card and "free verification," will cost around
$150.

The doctor will ask you about this condition of yours that requires
marijuana. The law allows physicians to recommend marijuana for
disorders like cancer, anorexia (loss of appetite and inability to
eat), AIDS, chronic pain, glaucoma, arthritis and a migraine. (Asthma
apparently justifies a need for medical pot as well, according to
one clinic.) The exam will usually take less than half an hour.

Then you will be handed a "prescription" for marijuana - good for one
year, with no refill limits. The next step is to find a dispensary
where you can actually get the prescription filled. For that, check
out PotLocator.com for doctor referrals, prices and locations.

The domestic grower

"Robby D." is a round-faced, shaved-head Iranian kid who lives in
Beverly Hills and grows pot for a living.

Robby spent a day in jail in 2006 because he grew too many female
marijuana plants. How many is too many? In LA County, the limit is
only "six mature plants or 12 immature plants and eight ounces of
bud."

Robby was arrested when a SWAT team of Sheriff's Department deputies,
equipped with weapons and an armful of warrants, burst into his house
and swept him and his plants, and many of his possessions, including
his computer, away. He spent a day in jail before his wealthy family
bailed him out.

Thus began an arduous legal battle, headed by a famous
attorney/marijuana advocate who eventually got Robby off with rehab
and probation.

You'd think that Robby would have learned his lesson from that
experience, but he still grows marijuana today, in another Beverly
Hills home that is a little farther away from his original bust. Why
does Robby persist? "The lifestyle is addictive. Lots of girls
around the house, lots of great weed and other drugs, and easy money."

Robby sells some of his weed to a marijuana dispensary in Studio
City. This dispensary is the hub of a "collective," a group of people
associated with the dispensary who have legal marijuana cards
obtained from California marijuana "clinics."

But he makes most of his money selling weed illegally on the
street.

California's pot guidelines

Although there are exceptions for both locale and situation, California
has what are called its SB 420 Statewide Default Patient Guidelines: "To
be as safe as possible from arrest and prosecution, patients
and caregivers should stay below the medical marijuana immunity law
passed by the California Legislature, HS 11362.77, which sets a minimum
statewide guideline of six mature plants or 12 immature plants and up to
eight ounces of processed cannabis flowers. Cities and counties are
empowered to set guidelines that are greater than those amounts, but not
less." However, a "physician's note exempts larger amounts."

To make the matter even more confusing, the California Attorney
General has issued his own set of guidelines. These are not binding
law, but give an idea of how prosecutors will consider the
circumstances of a medical marijuana patient or garden. These
guidelines are exactly the same as those above, with the proviso
that "if a qualified patient or primary caregiver has a doctor's
recommendation that this quantity does not meet the qualified
patient's medical needs, the qualified patient or primary caregiver
may possess an amount of marijuana consistent with the patient's
needs."

The grower's garden of grass

Marijuana is dioecious, meaning that it has separate male and female
plants. In nature, the male plants fertilize the female plants with
pollen that infiltrates the flowers. Growers cull out the male
plants and cultivate only females. The unpollinated, sterile plants
then produce prodigious flowers in an attempt to entice nonexistent
males, and create Buddha plants that are rich in resin and THC
content. This sterile technique produces marijuana without seeds.

There is a whole lingo around pot growing that has cropped (no pun
intended) up: "Mids" are plants that have been grown in the presence
of males, and "crip" is weed that was grown only with other females.
Crip has a higher THC and resin content and hence potency. Other
common terms for seeded, or otherwise low-quality, cannabis are
schwag, regs, booty, greta or mersh. There are strains galore, and
more are being invented every day, with poetic names like Jack Herer,
Bubba Kush and HOG.

A grower in the San Fernando Valley says, "There are four basic price
categories for weed. Indoor Kush fetches the most, especially 'OG
Kush,' which can get you $4,800 to $5,500 a pound. Other indoor
strains range from $3,500 to $4,600.

Greenhouse strains can go from $2,800 to $3,200, and finally, outdoor
strains can range from $1,000 to $2,500 a pound. All of these usually
have few, if any, seeds. People whose herb has seeds don't generally
even try to sell to the clubs."

"We used to call the first price category 'kush,' and the second
'chronic' or 'purps,' if it was purple weed. The third is called
'greenhouse' and the last is called 'outdoor,' " he continued.

"Nobody really uses seeds anymore. Nearly all medical growers use
clones, which are rooted cuttings of a mother plant, and are
genetically identical to the mother. This means they are 100 percent
guaranteed to be female, with no chance of seeds in the buds. Clones
are available at many collectives and are priced $5 to $15 per clone.
There are even some clone-only collectives, which do not even sell
the finished product."

There are Web sites, forum, and blogs, too numerous to mention here,
devoted to growing herb. Small-time stoners and entrepreneurs alike
exchange pictures of their prized projects, information on their
"grows" (crops or plants), techniques on fertilization, harvesting,
drying and curing, and just about everything related to weed. Growing
pot is not only big business, it's a culture.

Government stash

There is a perception that most medical marijuana is grown by the US
government and universities, with arcane scientific names like X-239.
There is an urban myth that a potent strain called G-13 was created
by the CIA, which had nothing better to do in the 1970s than develop
powerful strains of cannabis. This strain was purportedly a bona fide
superweed, with a concentration of 28 percent.

There are rumors that the University of Washington, under government
contract, was also involved in the development of this strain. One
story states that a single cutting of this potent strain was leaked
by students, and local growers managed to cross-breed the G-13 with
blueberry strains, creating PG-13 in the late '90s, so nicknamed
because of its purple color. The truth is that, although the
University of Mississippi assembled a world-class cannabis collection
during the late 1960s and early 1970s, there is no evidence that
those researchers were ever involved in breeding high quality cannabis.

By contrast, back in the day of flower power and free love, good
commercial-grade marijuana available to most smokers had a THC
content of about 2 percent to 5 percent, and premium sinsemilla had a
THC content that was somewhat higher. Today, the good commercial
grade marijuana available to most users has a THC content of about 5
to 10 percent, and premium sinsemilla is about 10 percent to 20
percent THC.

There is only one legal marijuana farm and production facility in the
United States, and it is indeed located on the campus of the
University of Mississippi. This is the government's "cannabis drug
repository."

Since 1968, the National Institute on Drug Abuse has contracted with
the university lab to grow, harvest and process marijuana and to ship
it to licensed facilities across the country for research purposes.
The lab also collects samples of marijuana seized by police to
determine its potency and to document national drug trends.

There is a small group of patients - like a guy named Irv Rosenfeld,
who can be found on low-quality videos all over the Internet - who
actually gets medical marijuana legally from the federal government.
Rosenfeld is part of the Compassionate IND (Investigational New Drug)
program, and he legally receives about 300 marijuana cigarettes in a
metal tin per month.

Contrary to stoner lore, the government's weed, like its cheese,
isn't very good. According to reports, it has very low potency and is
full of seeds and stems.

Pot gone wild

There is really no purely "legal" medical marijuana in California. If
you buy from a dispensary, somewhere along the line some of that weed
was illegally grown or traded.

When states like California craft legal loopholes allowing medical
use of marijuana, they must grapple with the tricky question of what
precisely constitutes medical use. And let's face it; doctors
regularly prescribe powerful drugs like Oxycontin and Xanax to
patients who are hardly at death's door.

"Medical marijuana is God's little joke on the [marijuana]
prohibitionists," says Richard Cowan, 69, a longtime legalization
activist.

And marijuana, both medical and recreational, will continue to grow
and be grown in California for a long, long time.

This story first appeared in the VC Reporter. George (Butch) Warner, MA,
MFTI, CADC is an addiction therapist in Pasadena and Studio City. Contact
him at butchwarner@gmail.com.