Marijuana Grower's Handbook

by Ed Rosenthal

  THE UNINVOLVED INFORMANT

  The uninvolved informant, or anonymous citizen, is considered the most reliable. The police need little to no corroboration for reports of crime from them.

  Usually the citizen informant is a person who is a victim or witness to a crime. If someone sees a bank robbery and says, “That’s the man,” the police will detain and probably arrest the suspect. The same holds if a hunter, fisherman, or backpacker stumbles across your backcountry project, or if the meter reader sees the Jesus Light beaming from under the garage door. Their information is enough for the police to get a warrant and make a visit.

  Similarly, if somebody at the electric company notices that a house is showing the consumption of a lot of juice, they may suspect you’ve got a grow room and call the cops. Utility workers are sometimes rewarded for the tip, so assume they’re looking diligently. This information may not be enough for a warrant but it is likely to bring the cops to the house to look for more evidence. They can go through your trashcan (perfectly legal), ask a compliant UPS employee for delivery records, and gather information from cooperating grow-supply stores. All this goes into an affidavit to support the search warrant; it’s usually issued, and the garden is usually busted.

  Even burglars and robbers sometimes become citizen informants. You might think that people who come with larceny in their heart and a weapon on their hip are more deserving of prosecution than the person who is growing weed. But police and district attorneys are rarely sympathetic to a marijuana grower.

  There was a time, now all but forgotten, when marijuana growers were given reasonable disposition of the case (and occasionally a dismissal) in return for their testimony against the people who were there to rob them. This is no longer the case. The escalation of the War on Drugs has made punishment more fierce and unforgiving than at any other time in U.S. history. Even if you are a qualified patient in a medical marijuana state, it’s a toss-up whether the police will have any sympathy for you, in any circumstances.

  UNDERCOVER COPS

  Police and their agents don’t have to admit they’re cops if they’re asked directly. Entrapment laws don’t apply here. Being undercover means you never have to say you’re sorry.

  "Nobody knows, nobody sees, nobody knows but me"

  Lyrics: Marijohn Wilkin and Danny Dill “Long Black Veil”

  A legal garden needs no camouflage.

  The whole modus operandi of undercover cops is to lie to you well enough to make you believe they’re not what they are. Their lives depend on their ability to fool people. They seldom have much trouble with amateurs like you. An average judge or jury member doesn’t stand a chance of being able to tell when an undercover cop is lying. These guys are professional liars, and they love doing it!

  USA PATRIOT ACT

  In October 2001, in the wake of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center, Congress rushed to pass the USA Patriot Act. It granted the federal government the power to secretly intercept personal telephone conversations and email communications and investigate medical, financial, and library records—without a warrant.

  Under the USA Patriot Act, if the federal government considers you a potential “terrorist,” they have the legal power to investigate your personal communications and records. Since there are no set guidelines for identifying someone as a “suspected terrorist,” there is no way to know for sure if the federal government considers you one. It is safest to assume that they do. Of 763 warrantless wiretaps conducted under the Patriot Act in 2008, only 3 were related to terrorism, while 65% were drug cases.

  Avoid speaking on the phone about your garden. If you have patients you supply or friends or partners who help you with your grow, call only to arrange an in-person meet up. Avoid using full names, exact dates and locations, or explicit information about your operation over the phone. You literally have no idea who is listening on the other end. It’s bad enough to get busted, but it’s even worse when you’re the one who leaked the information.

  Plants camouflaged by fall colors.

  As important as it is to be brief, discreet, and self-conscious on the phone, it’s just as important to not implicate yourself digitally. Every computer has an unique IP address, and content posted online can be traced back to your specific computer. In the event that you are busted and your home or business is raided, the police often take any computers as evidence. A quick scan of your hard drive will turn up any photographs of your garden, any records and notes you kept digitally, your friends contact information, and even your finances. A hard drive full of incriminating evidence is your ticket to prison.

  The cannabis grew between the sunflowers, which were taller. They were good camouflage early in the season, but they finished earlier and did not hide the mature cannabis plants.

  ASK ED®

  TOP 10 STUPID GROWER TRICKS

  10. Drive to the grow supply store in the car registered at the garden’s home address.

  9. Purchase all growing supplies over the phone or Internet and have them sent to the garden address.

  8. Tell two friends. They will be sure to tell two friends, who will tell two more…

  7. Invite everyone to the garden for “an after-hours party.”

  6. Mess with your best friend’s lover.

  5. Mess with anyone, if you have a lover who can find out.

  4. Plant an outdoor plot two blocks from the municipal airport.

  3. Make yourself known to local cops by speeding, getting into bar-room disputes, or engaging in other nasty habits.

  2. Smoke fatties when there’s a major drought and no one else has weed.

  1. Brag about what a great grower you are and the great success of your last garden.

  If you feel you must keep records and photographs of your grow, store them on external hard drives, flash sticks, cloud memory sites, or CDs. None of these storage systems are entirely secure, but if you must keep digital records and photographs, they are much harder to find on a well-hidden external storage drive or in a safe than right on your home computer.

  ACCIDENTS

  Besides the snitch, another common way to get busted is an accident. Although a person can’t always stop accidents from happening, many of them can be prevented or ameliorated. For instance, a passive watering system is less likely to leak than an active one. Smoking a joint in a car while transporting cannabis could create a disaster. Using an unlicensed car, or one that stands out or has mechanical problems, is asking for trouble.

  A fire in the grow room, or someone getting hurt in or around your property, may implicate you in a grow. Keep your home and especially the grow space up to code. Keep a charged fire extinguisher on hand and make sure that all electrical plugs, connections, and outlets are safe from dripping water and none of the wires are exposed.

  DON’T ACT SUSPICIOUS

  You should be paranoid, because they are out to get you. On the other hand, while you should always be alert and aware of your surroundings, looking guilty usually means you are, and neighbors, police, and passersby will pick up on this.

  These plants were grown outdoors when search planes were expected. A shed was placed on tracks and could easily slide over the plants and cover them. When the danger passed, it was rolled back to "holding position."

  RESPECT MOTHER NATURE

  Not only is it morally reprehensible not to be “green” while growing green, disrespect for Mother Nature can invite a bust. A yard that is littered with trash—discarded grow supplies, empty fertilizer boxes, broken pipe fittings, and other junk—irritates your neighbors and shows your lack of respect for the property.

  In an outdoor grow, cut branches and uprooted vegetation are a dead giveaway. The aerial over-flight has ended the clean-cut methods of the 1970s. The cut end of a 3-inch (7.5 cm) diameter tree branch may stand out up to a quarter-mile away because its color or shape is not natural looking. It is easily, if accidentally, spotted from any airplane or helicopter that happens by -- cops or not. Smart g
rowers treat their garden as part of the natural landscape.

  Any disruption of nature stands out. Non-natural shapes and colors stand out dramatically. From an airplane, the circular shape of the piled brush enclosure, or of the Doughboy pool used for water storage, is eye-catching. Paths are also quite noticeable from the air; if they lead to anything of interest, a bust may follow. Obvious paths should be avoided, though established animal trails may work. Rocks can be used as stepping-stones, tree limbs as bridges; other “trail-less trails” can be devised to break the connection from any well-traveled path to the private one.

  Expert growers’ paths are tended like Zen gardens. A person who “sees” the environment can “read” which creatures have been visiting. There are usually areas of clean, bare dirt where one would ordinarily leave a trail. To conceal activity, these are swept clean coming and going, leaving no tracks to be seen.

  There is truth to the notion that marijuana has a particular color. Some studies show that a particular wavelength of light is specific to marijuana plants. The Feds have used super-sophisticated, computer-controlled, color-differentiated spectroscopic analysis from satellites and spy planes to determine the extent of coca and cannabis cultivation worldwide. The usual “color bust” is a result of well-fed and watered plants that are unlike the struggling native vegetation. One solution: dinner for all the plants in the neighborhood. Another is a foliar spray of inert color. Some also plant weeds or native vegetation in between cannabis plants to act as an aerial camouflage.

  Water lines are responsible for some seizures. If the line is not buried at least 6" (15 cm) deep, it has a very distinctive infrared signature, easily identified by a cop with an infrared camera. If a hiker or deer hunter sees water lines or an instream pickup system, either a bust or a rip-off may soon follow. A garden using a stationary reservoir as a water source is an easy bust. One grower claimed he had never been busted because he uses a water-bag reservoir, mounted in his pickup, to irrigate plants.

  KEEP YOUR HOME OR INDOOR GROW SPACE CLEAN, SAFE, AND UP TO CODE

  The perceptions of you and your home are vital to the security of your garden. Keep your yard clean and trimmed, keep your grounds and property safe, and most importantly, have a reason to have so many garden supplies! A house with cement in the front and back yards and a trash can full of garden supplies may be more than a little bit suspicious.

  Grow vegetables and flowers that thrive in your region. That means low-water plants like succulents and vines in dry areas, vegetables and flowers in moderate climates, and hearty plants such as potatoes and other tubers in colder climates.

  TRASH

  The U.S. Supreme Court says you can have no expectations of privacy for trash you put out for collection. Cops can root around in your trash to determine what goes on inside your house. They may even arrange with trash collectors to later retrieve what they have picked up. (If you have good trash karma, the trash people may tell you the cops have asked about you, so do everyone a favor and separate your trash and recycling correctly, and compost food scraps, paper towels, and biodegradable containers.)

  LIGHT

  Seal windows in the grow space so light does not escape. Place curtains or blinds in the window and close them. Traditional window coverings reduce suspicion. An obviously boarded-up window not only degrades the appearance of the home but is incredibly suspicious. Seal out light behind the initial window covering with thick dark cloth, black plastic, or wood.

  The odor of growing marijuana, especially in plants approaching ripening, is a dead give-away of an indoor garden. Carbon filters are an efficient way to trap the odor molecules before they reach anyone’s nose. The Phat Filter uses tightly packed, low-density virgin carbon to remove the telltale odor emanating from your room.

  ODORS

  Most gardeners have to find a way to solve the odor problem. The plants don’t usually have much of an odor during the vegetative stage and during the first weeks of flowering. However, during the last half of flowering the trichomes start growing on the flowers and the leaves surrounding them. As the buds ripen, the molecules become more concentrated and the odor becomes more intense and pungent. It peaks at maturity.

  The trichomes are the glands that grow above the tissue surface. THC is produced and stored in the trichomes. The cap on top of the stalk also contains a number of terpenes, the odor molecules. The terpenes evaporate through the trichome’s porous membrane. They are composed of various combinations of the molecule C5H8, (carbon and hydrogen) which gives them different odors. Terpenes are categorized as volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which is why the smell of marijuana can easily permeate its surroundings.

  Negative ion generators purify air and neutralize odors.

  There are several ways to eliminate these odors: carbon filters, negative ionizers, odor absorbing gel, and ozone generators.

  CARBON FILTERS

  Carbon filters use activated carbon to capture the molecules through adsorption, the adhesion of molecules of gas, liquid, or dissolved solids to a surface. The charcoal is processed to become very porous so it has a large surface area. One gram has a surface area of 5380 sq ft (500 sq. m). This provides a large area where chemical reactions can occur. Atoms at the surface of the activated carbon are ready to bond with suitable partners, including VOCs. Once the surface areas are covered with adsorbed molecules they lose their effectiveness and must be replaced.

  Carbon filters clean the air in gardens and keep it clean of odor. Inline fans convert air that is to be evacuated to an innocuous odor-free state.

  Carbon filters work by drawing air through the filter using a fan. The VOC’s are adsorbed by the activated carbon as they pass over the surface of the carbon particles in the filter. The VOCs are attracted to the solid carbon because they have a positive charge (they are missing an electron) and are pulled into the crevices of its cavernous surface.

  Carbon filters can be used both in closed systems and those with ventilation. In ventilated rooms the filters are usually placed close to the air intake. In closed rooms they are used as stand-alone units that clean and re-circulate the air.

  Since the effectiveness of a filter is based on the amount of unfilled pores it contains, its efficiency declines with use. By placing a pre-filter over the unit many particles are caught before they get to the filter, preserving the life of the carbon. When the filter loses its effectiveness it must be replaced.

  VOLATILE ORGANIC COMPOUNDS can mean any organic compound (containing carbon) that is volatile (evaporating or vaporizing readily under normal conditions). They evaporate at low temperatures and float in the air until they are evacuated or eliminated.

  Excel Air Odor Eliminator filters odors through five trays of custom charcoal, ensuring that new scents are removed from the area to outside the grow room. It can be ducted into any space and can clean areas up to 800 sq ft.

  Carbon filters are sold both as standalone units and as inline units that attach to the ventilation tubing. They are easy to use, effective and reliable. Their one drawback is that they are on the heavy side.

  ODOR ABSORBING GELS

  Odor absorbing gels are made from essential oils and other plant derived compounds. Some of the ingredients mask odors and others bond with the odor molecules rendering them odor-free.

  They come in several different forms: evaporative discs, gels, sprays, and liquids. There are several brands available using different formulas. All of them received high ratings from gardeners who have used them.

  NEGATIVE ION GENERATORS

  (For more information, see Temperature, Humidity & Air Quality)

  OZONE GENERATORS

  Ozone is a highly effective, fast acting, odor eliminator but should be used only in spaces that are not unoccupied by people or animals.

  The usual form of oxygen as a gas is O2. Two oxygen atoms form a molecule. However in the presence of UV lamps or a high voltage electrical arc it forms the unstable ozone molecule O3, consisting of three oxyg
en atoms. Ozone breaks apart on its own and reforms into more stable O2 molecules over a short period of about 90 minutes. It is also a powerful oxidizer and when it encounters VOC’s—it oxidizes them, renders them odorless, and neutralizes their charge so they precipitate rather than float in the air. In addition to oxidizing VOC’s, ozone also oxidizes particles floating in the air such as mold and fungus spores, other microlife and dust.

  The main drawback to ozone is that it is harmful to animals and humans. They should not come in contact with it. It can be avoided by not entering a room where it has been used for about 90 minutes after it is turned off.

  Ozone generators are small devices, are lightweight, use little electricity and are convenient to use. To avoid contact with ozone they can be set on timers so they are switched off several hours before you are to be in the space.

  When you first come in contact with ozone you can smell its distinctive odor. Remove yourself and other animals from the space until the ozone has dissipated or been evacuated from the room.

  TEN COMMON SENSE POLICE RULES

  1. Don't consent to a search of your body, your house, your car, or any other personal property.

  2. Don't talk to cops about the garden or any other property. Show them proof of your medical status.

  3. Request a lawyer.

  4. Don't believe ANYTHING cops say about you, your friends, loved ones, neighbors or partner. They are trained to mislead suspects in order to elicit information.

  5. Don't sign any statements.

  6. Don't volunteer information.

  7. Don't give in to their threats.

  8. Answer questions with questions. For example, if asked, "Where are you going?"— answer with, "Why do you want to know that?"