Marijuana Grower's Handbook Read online

  SINCE THEN, ASA HAS GROWN into the leading advocacy organization for medical cannabis. Based in Oakland, California with a national lobbying office in Washington, D.C., ASA reports that it currently has over 30,000 active members with chapters and affiliates in more than 40 states. ASA provides legal training and medical information, as well as court support and rapid response to law-enforcement raids. The ASA legal team has made a big impact, winning a suit against California Highway Patrol to make them comply with state medical cannabis law. Other landmark cases have helped establish the rights of patient collectives to organize in the state. ASA has even gone after the federal government’s lies about the medical efficacy of cannabis by filing a suit against the federal department of Health and Human Services under a little-known law that requires federal agencies to rely on sound science in the information they disseminate. ASA is also working closely with federal policy makers to remove barriers to research and establish protections for patients everywhere in the country. The Truth in Trials Act, which would give patients a medical defense in federal trials, has been a key piece of that legislative effort. ASA has also worked closely with state lawmakers in California and elsewhere to expand patient protections. Over the last six years, ASA has become a respected voice for medical cannabis patients.

  THE OTHER MARIJUANA REFORM ORGANIZATION to come out of the arrest and prosecution of Ed Rosenthal was Green Aid: The Medical Marijuana Defense and Education Fund. This tax-exempt 501(c)3 organization was formed by activists and allies as a way of rallying support and directing resources to the legal defense of critical, tipping-point medical cannabis cases. Green Aid helped Ed put together a group of attorneys that he dubbed “The Green Team,” including Bob Eye, a prominent attorney from Topeka, Kansas who had been a candidate for governor there; Bill Simpich, a leading civil-rights lawyer from Oakland, California; and Joe Elford, a young Yale-trained attorney who would become ASA’s chief counsel and establish landmark legal precedents for patients in California. Among the things Green Aid quickly did in support of medical cannabis was establish a website for tax-deductible donations for Ed’s case and other high-profile litigation. Green Aid also worked hard to publicize Ed’s case and keep it on the front pages, publishing a daily diary of his trial on their website. The result was national television and radio coverage and more than 200 published articles internationally, including front-page stories and sympathetic editorials in the New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Oakland Tribune, and San Francisco Examiner.

  ANNUAL CAUSES OF DEATH IN THE UNITED STATES

  Tobacco 435,000

  Poor Diet and Physical Inactivity 365,000

  Alcohol 85,000

  Microbial Agents 75,000

  Toxic Agents 55,000

  Prescription Drugs 32,000

  Suicide 30,622

  Incidents Involving Firearms 29,000

  Motor Vehicle Crashes 26,347

  Homicide 20,308

  Sexual Behaviors 20,000

  All Illicit Drug Use 17,000

  Aspirin, Other Anti-Inflammatory Drugs 7,600

  Marijuana 0

  HTTP://DRUGWARFACTS.ORG

  Thanks to Green Aid, Ed’s case changed the tone of coverage on the issue. The scare quotes disappeared from “medical marijuana,” and it would no longer be referred to as “so-called” medical use. Green Aid was also instrumental in helping Ed mount a successful appeal of his conviction and fight a now-expanded federal retrial in 2007. Tried under the same limited rules of evidence as the first trial, Ed was again convicted but not before exposing the pettiness of the government’s attacks on patients. Today, Green Aid continues to assist with the legal defenses of prominent medical cannabis cases.

  IN 1997, JEFF JONES founded the Oakland Cannabis Buyers Club (OCBC). To protect the OCBC from federal interference, Oakland city officials established growing and possession guidelines and declared the OCBC an agent of the city. Jeff’s legal battle to provide medical-quality pot went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court in 2001, but they shot him down. Then one of the patients he was supplying, Angel Raich and her attorney, Rob Raich, took her medical necessity defense to the high court, but they also ruled against her. Nonetheless, these two cases helped galvanize public opinion in favor of medical marijuana legalization.

  IN 2007, RICHARD LEE, the operator of the Bulldog Café, a medical cannabis dispensary in Oakland, opened Oaksterdam University to offer courses in cultivation and dispensary management to the burgeoning cannabis industry. Since its establishment, Oaksterdam University has expanded to campuses in Los Angeles and Sebastopol, California, and Ann Arbor, Michigan. The main Oakland campus has become a focal point for both education and activism on marijuana.

  THIS BRIEF HISTORY, which must leave out many important events and people, illustrates both how far we’ve come and how far we have to go. Thousands of articles have been written. Millions of people grow marijuana. Many decriminalization reforms have been passed by legislatures, but none have legalized cultivation for all. Omitting the underlying question of supply impedes all the modern laws attempting to regulate marijuana. Almost three decades ago, the International Cannabis Alliance for Reform met in Amsterdam to consider legalization plans and proposals, and came to the same conclusion. At a minimum, everyone should have the right to grow cannabis for personal use. This is the cornerstone of legalization, because it allows the consumer to opt out of the underground market. So to get to the real “tipping point,” the legal cultivation of cannabis is the most important issue to be resolved. The personal right to cultivate cannabis is the crux of any successful legalization scheme. In California, at least, medical patients have the right to free, legal, backyard marijuana. The tipping point will have been reached when everyone has that right.

  ED'S INTRODUCTION

  WARNING: Although using marijuana may not be addictive, growing it is.

  Why grow marijuana? The reasons can be many, and varied. Perhaps you have never considered growing marijuana. Or, perhaps, you never tried because it felt like a difficult, risky undertaking. You may have even tried your hand at raising a young plant or two but abandoned the project when the plants failed to thrive or were overcome with mold or pests.

  Despite any potential pitfalls, there are many compelling reasons to embark on this journey. First, there are practical benefits from being able to choose which strains to cultivate—selecting for height, grow time, aroma, taste, and the wide spectrum of the mental and bodily effects varieties offer. Also, many medical cannabis patients understandably prefer to have the control over their medicine that a personal garden allows, with the knowledge that it is grown safely and organically. Another factor can be cost: it is generally much less expensive to grow one’s own than to pay for someone else’s packaged product, and less risky than buying a bag from some unknown source.

  As a plant, cannabis is similar to any other plant—it likes light, water, nutrients, and human attention. Yet it has some unique characteristics and a long history of interaction with the human species. Time, observation, and research have taught us the best ways to care for marijuana to achieve big, beautiful buds and amazing harvests. Any effort you make to learn how to cultivate this fascinating plant will be well rewarded, and this book will help demystify the process.

  The most powerful reason to grow marijuana, in my experience, is the enjoyment and satisfaction that comes from forming a personal relationship with this fascinating plant. As I can attest, this is the only truly addicting aspect of marijuana.

  Marijuana Grower’s Handbook is designed to help you grow bountiful yields of high quality marijuana. Whether you are a beginner or an experienced grower, this book provides the information to help you grow a garden that will provide you good harvests, enjoyment, and an enriching pastime.

  Most gardeners, myself included, have an anthropomorphic attachment to marijuana. They name their plants, develop a fondness for one or the other. There are some good reasons for this: unlike other annuals, marijuana
has separate male and female plants. It has distinct life stages including growth and reproductive, and it takes between 50 and 80 days of “flowering” to ripen, each day of flowering comparable to a year in the life of a human.

  The best part of gardening is that at the end of the journey you will harvest some of the best buds you have ever smoked, all ripened to perfection.

  PRECAUTION: The legality of marijuana depends on who you are and where you are located. If you are living in a state where it is legal for medical marijuana patients or suppliers to grow, then you will have a different attitude about growing than someone who lives in the majority of states and countries where marijuana is illegal to use or grow.

  Before you start to plan a garden you should have a clear understanding of the laws regarding cultivation of marijuana. With this information you can make a realistic assessment of the situation and decide whether gardening is for you. You should also begin to make contingency plans based on worst-case scenarios.

  In states where medical patients are allowed to grow marijuana there are often strict limits on the number of plants or the amount of space that can be devoted to the garden. Marijuana cultivation is often considered a serious offense so it is imperative to take precautions to keep yourself free.

  Some questions you might ask yourself before you commence this venture are:

  Am I willing to take on the responsibilities and risks?

  Can I afford a legal quagmire?

  How do my roommates feel about it?

  Do I really have a secure area?

  Most marijuana arrests are the result of “accidents,” lovers’ spats, nosy neighbors or jealous friends. People who snitch to get out of trouble also appears in the statistics. It pays then, for marijuana growers to become nicer people than they might otherwise be. Don’t alienate others. Treat your friends better. Be nice and helpful to your neighbors. Let the harried driver cut in. Develop a broader perspective on life.

  Marijuana Growers Handbook Website—www.mjgrowers.com

  Writing this book I found myself constantly having to make choices about what should be included and at what level of detail. This book provides what is most necessary and relevant to your growing success. Fortunately, the Internet has provided us a way to make even more information available to you. At www.MJGROWERS.com you will find additional photos, research, and articles on a wide variety of topics. As changes occur in equipment and methods the website will keep the book, and you, up to date on the latest developments. Your password to this library: MJReader

  HIMILAYAN GOLD | Photo: Green House Seed Co.

  SPACE BOMB | Photo: Subcool

  HOW MARIJUANA GETS YOU HIGH

  by G. LEE, Ph.D and D.J. SUN, Ph.D

  Photo: Sannie’s Seeds

  MARIJUANA AND THE BRAIN

  In recent years, remarkable progress has been made in our understanding of cannabinoids and how they operate in the body. The study of cannabinoids has focused mainly on the brain, so first let us consider the cerebral effects of cannabis, starting with the obvious.

  Marijuana influences mental perception. That much must have been immediately clear to the first people who started cultivating cannabis for its delta 9 THC (Δ9-THC) effects (as distinct from fiber hemp) over 2,000 years ago. And while those cognitive effects have been sought after, let’s not be overly romantic about them. Sometimes they can feel stupefying, like a sacrifice of chronology and mental dialogue, or an impaired ability to follow conversation. Short-term memory can be interrupted and spatial orientation impaired, effects which can give way to a heightened sensory perception of the here and now.

  At other times or simultaneously, marijuana can evoke a nebulous sense of well-being—the feeling of getting high, enhancing appreciation of a moment or hysterical irony, a melody or profound lyric. It can help you feel momentarily less concerned about societal and interpersonal pressures. These properties have been portrayed from opposing perspectives: as good or bad, uplifting or unsettling, habit-forming or not, anxiety relieving or promoting.

  As with other hallucinogens, a person’s set (including individual psychological, physical and genetic dispositions) and setting play a role in particular mental experiences and outcomes, as do the chemical variations in the herb (see the discussion of terpenoids). It isn’t trivial to acknowledge that one person might feel calmed by smoking a joint, while someone else might experience outright panic hitting the same joint. Likewise, while exceedingly few people who experiment with marijuana develop a dependency, it does happen. These matters are complex and frequently oversimplified, but it is important to recognize that even if cannabis is kind to a great many people, it does not mean it is for everyone.

  The various promises and warnings about how marijuana affects the brain are rooted in genuine human experiences. To determine which are accurate and supported by science calls for continuing objective research and a mature conversation about cannabis and our relationship to it.

  Now consider some of the less “psychoactive” biological effects of Δ9-THC other cannabinoids:

  •nausea goes away

  •multiple kinds of pain are relieved

  •inflammation is reduced

  •muscles are relaxed

  •seizures are sometimes brought under control

  These are just some of the therapeutic effects of cannabis that have been described by healers since antiquity, and each addresses health problems that demand a huge amount of clinical attention.

  For instance, millions of people lose quality of life to chronic pain. While scientists and physicians continue to get a better grasp of what physical pain is, doctors readily acknowledge that current prescription medications are fraught with side effects and do not work on all types of pain, particularly the neuropathic pain that can result from nerve injury and disease.

  Thanks to modern medical marijuana initiatives and biomedical research, including an increasing number of gold-standard, randomized double-blind clinical trials using botanical cannabis and extracts, this ancient remedy can once again be discussed without apology. Not only does cannabis relieve pain on its own, it works in concert with other analgesics to improve their efficacy. Similarly, no one should feel shame recommending or trying marijuana to combat severe nausea—nausea control and appetite stimulation can be one of its downright life-saving properties for people undergoing toxic chemotherapy or suffering from wasting syndrome. It is appalling that a patient struggling for survival should have to risk their freedom for choosing marijuana as their medicine.

  CANNABINOID RECEPTORS

  Marijuana affects the body because its bioactive cannabinoid compounds, especially Δ9-THC and cannabidiol (CBD), bind to and activate cannabinoid receptors—tiny molecular ports encoded by our genes and expressed on the membranous surfaces of our cells. The diversity of physiological effects generated by marijuana is due to the many different cell and tissue types that express cannabinoid receptors.

  Various areas of the brain and other nervous system tissues contain cannabinoid receptors called CB1. The neurological effects of marijuana depend on the particular brain areas and networks these cannabinoid-sensitive cells participate in (for example, the neuronal networks mediating short-term memory, anxiety, or compulsive behavior). The location of the receptors on the cell can alter how they operate. Most mental and perceptual effects of cannabis can be attributed to CB1 receptor activation.

  A second receptor, called CB2, has been identified primarily in certain cells of the immune system. CB2 appears responsible for the ability of THC, CBD, and the terpenoid β-carophyllene to reduce inflammation and some kinds of pain, among other effects.

  How do we know such things? There were early clues that a specific receptor system is involved in marijuana’s effects. To test this hypothesis experimentally, some of the cannabinoid drugs produced in the 1980’s were designed to be weakly radioactive. These “hot” drugs light up the cannabinoid receptors they bind to, allowing scientists to see which neuro
ns in the brain are sensitive to THC.

  This and other techniques have revealed that the brain is teeming with CB1 receptors, consistent with marijuana having wide-ranging influences on mental function. Some of the only regions of the brain where CB1 receptors are absent are areas controlling vital functions such as breathing. This is why cannabis poses no risk of fatal respiratory depression that can occur with overdoses of opiates and other nervous system depressants such as alcohol, and why labeling marijuana as a “deadly narcotic” is incorrect and irresponsible.

  THE ENDOCANNABINOIDS

  The natural physiological chemicals that drive CB1 and CB2 receptors are a family of molecules present not just in humans but all over the animal kingdom. These native molecules are called endogenous cannabinoids, or endocannabinoids, a name borrowed from the plant. Endocannabinoids (often abbreviated as eCBs) have been called the “marijuana of the brain,” although this is a deceptive metaphor; eCBs are an integral part of our physiology and appeared much earlier in evolutionary history than the cannabis plant, as indicated by their presence in so many life forms, even very simple marine organisms. It is more accurate to say that the cannabis plant evolved to produce compounds that are remarkable biochemical mimics of the eCBs.