Medical Marijuana Group Displays Message on Florida Billboards

Medical Marijuana Group Displays Message on Florida Billboards …

Advocates for medical marijuana reform are targeting what may seem an unlikely demographic: senior South Floridians.

And Tuesday morning, they spelled out their message in sky-high letters across two billboards along Sample Road about a mile east of Powerline Road. Tinted sky blue and cloud pink, the 14-by-48-foot billboards are on the north side of the street, visible to eastbound drivers.

“Legalize Medical Marijuana” shouts one, with a godlike hand extending from the heavens, a marijuana leaf in its palm. Facing it is the photo of a senior in a wheelchair and the caption “I’m a Patient Not a Criminal.”  

Happy Green Day!

 

Grow Your Own Green Marijuana

That’s right, it’s St. Patrick’s Day!  Today we celebrate the green (as in medical marijuana, of course).  😉

Why not start some green of your own?  There’s no better time than the present.  Get your butt moving and grow some green to earn some green.  It’s easier than you think.

This is the best place to get yourself started.  You know you want to do it.  What are you waiting for?

Related articles

• Important Aspects of Growing Medical Marijuana (thegreatestgrowonearth.com)
• Essential Nutrients for Growing Medical Marijuana (thegreatestgrowonearth.com)
• Choosing Your Medium for Growing Medical Marijuana (thegreatestgrowonearth.com)
• The Marijuana Diet: How Pot Enhances My Life (alternet.org)

Germination of Medical Marijuana Seeds

Haven’t you really just been dying to know about germinating your marijuana seeds?  Sure, I know you have.  It’s like I’m reading your mind.  Here ya go…  It’s pretty simple.

Germinating Marijuana Seeds

The seeds should have nice striations on them.  Squeeze the seed slightly between your fingers.  If they don’t crush, they’re good.

It is questionable as to how much environmental factors effect the sex of the marijuana plants.  For those of the opinion that it does, the following is their advice.  For germination, low temperatures and high humidity favors females.  Warm temperatures and low humidity favors males.

You can really use different methods for germination.  An easy method is to put the seeds in a cup of water.  Put an air pump in the cup.  The seeds will pop in 2-4 days.  Once they do, it’s time to plant.  Oxygen is important in all the methods of growing.  You’ll be able to tell which plants are going to be weaker, even at this early stage.  It really is best to cull the weak seeds early.  I know, it might kill you to throw out any marijuana.  However, the sooner you get rid of the weaklings, the better.  You will waste resources, such as electricity, nutrients and water, on these marijuana plants that won’t produce much bud for you, in the end.  

Wondering why we should legalize marijuana?

Why Would Anyone Legalize Marijuana – By: Michael Cheser

 MARCH 12, 2012 BY PLUGGED IN

Grind up, roll up, flick your bic, inhale, hold your breath, and exhale. Now your’re feeling good; yes, this is the process of smoking a blunt, a process that has never killed a single person.

Smoking marijuana was made illegal in the 1970s and now only 40 years later it’s on the verge of becoming legal again. So no deaths have occured from marijuana and one of the main reasons why is because a person would have to smoke 8000 “joints” in exactally one minute, this is physically impossible and could not be done by any human being; no person could down 8000 cheerios in one minute much less smoke such a large amount marijuana.  

Cloning Your Medical Marijuana Plants

That’s right!  I’m going to cover cloning, step-by-step, for all you medical marijuana caregivers out there.  It’s really not too complicated.  Hopefully, you already have an established plant to take a clipping from or a trusty caregiving friend that will let you clone from their mother plant.  Remember, you can clone any time in during the vegetative stage.  You could cut clones like crazy, if you wanted to.  Just remember, every cut you make on your marijuana plant causes stress.  So, I wouldn’t recommend getting too wild.  Don’t cut too much right before flowering either.  It would be best to take a few clones off of the bottom of each strain of cannabis that you have.

Cloning Marijuana

• Get a bowl of water.
• Adjust the pH in the water to 5.5.
• Put a few drops of SuperThrive in the water (Advanced Nutrients has Organic B, which is similar, never used it though).  

Why the Heck is Marijuana Illegal Anyway?

It’s pretty amazing when you find out the truth.

Why is Marijuana Illegal?

7000-8000 B.C.First woven fabric believed to be from hemp. 1619 Jamestown Colony, Virginia passes law requiring farmers to grow hemp. 1700s Hemp was the primary crop grown by George Washington at Mount Vernon, and a secondary crop grown by Thomas Jefferson at Monticello. 1884 Maine is the first state to outlaw alcohol. 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act is passed, forming the Food and Drug Administration. First time that drugs have any government oversight. 1913 California, apparently, passes the first state marijuana law, though missed by many because it referred to “preparations of hemp, or loco weed.” 1914 Harrison Act passed, outlawing opiates and cocaine (taxing scheme) 1915 Utah passes state anti-marijuana law. 1919 18th Amendment to the Constitution (alcohol prohibition) is ratified. 1930 Harry J. Anslinger given control of the new Federal Bureau of Narcotics (he remains in the position until 1962) 1933 21st Amendment to the Constitution is ratified, repealing alcohol prohibition. 1937 Marijuana Tax Act 1938 Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act 1951 Boggs Amendment to the Harrison Narcotic Act (mandatory sentences) 1956 Narcotics Control Act adds more severe penalties 1970 Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act. Replaces and updates all previous laws concerning narcotics and other dangerous drugs. Empasis on law enforcement. Includes the Controlled Substances Act, where marijuana is classified a Schedule 1 drug (reserved for the most dangerous drugs that have no recognized medical use). 1972 Drug Abuse Office and Treatment Act. Establishes federally funded programs for prevention and treatment 1973 Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Changes Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs into the DEA 1974 and 1978 Drug Abuse Treatment and Control Amendments. Extends 1972 act 1988 Anti-Drug Abuse Act. Establishes oversight office: National Office of Drug Control Policy and the Drug Czar 1992 ADAMHA Reorganization. Transfers NIDA, NIMH, and NIAAA to NIH and incorporates ADAMHA’s programs into the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)

Many people assume that marijuana was made illegal through some kind of process involving scientific, medical, and government hearings; that it was to protect the citizens from what was determined to be a dangerous drug.The actual story shows a much different picture. Those who voted on the legal fate of this plant never had the facts, but were dependent on information supplied by those who had a specific agenda to deceive lawmakers. You’ll see below that the very first federal vote to prohibit marijuana was based entirely on a documented lie on the floor of the Senate.You’ll also see that the history of marijuana’s criminalization is filled with: Racism Fear Protection of Corporate Profits Yellow Journalism Ignorant, Incompetent, and/or Corrupt Legislators Personal Career Advancement and Greed These are the actual reasons marijuana is illegal. Background For most of human history, marijuana has been completely legal. It’s not a recently discovered plant, nor is it a long-standing law. Marijuana has been illegal for less than 1% of the time that it’s been in use. Its known uses go back further than 7,000 B.C. and it was legal as recently as when Ronald Reagan was a boy. The marijuana (hemp) plant, of course, has an incredible number of uses. The earliest known woven fabric was apparently of hemp, and over the centuries the plant was used for food, incense, cloth, rope, and much more. This adds to some of the confusion over its introduction in the United States, as the plant was well known from the early 1600′s, but did not reach public awareness as a recreational drug until the early 1900′s. America’s first marijuana law was enacted at Jamestown Colony, Virginia in 1619. It was a law “ordering” all farmers to grow Indian hempseed. There were several other “must grow” laws over the next 200 years (you could be jailed for not growing hemp during times of shortage in Virginia between 1763 and 1767), and during most of that time, hemp was legal tender (you could even pay your taxes with hemp — try that today!) Hemp was such a critical crop for a number of purposes (including essential war requirements – rope, etc.) that the government went out of its way to encourage growth. The United States Census of 1850 counted 8,327 hemp “plantations” (minimum 2,000-acre farm) growing cannabis hemp for cloth, canvas and even the cordage used for baling cotton. The Mexican Connection In the early 1900s, the western states developed significant tensions regarding the influx of Mexican-Americans. The revolution in Mexico in 1910 spilled over the border, with General Pershing’s army clashing with bandit Pancho Villa. Later in that decade, bad feelings developed between the small farmer and the large farms that used cheaper Mexican labor. Then, the depression came and increased tensions, as jobs and welfare resources became scarce. One of the “differences” seized upon during this time was the fact that many Mexicans smoked marijuana and had brought the plant with them, and it was through this that California apparently passed the first state marijuana law, outlawing “preparations of hemp, or loco weed.” However, one of the first state laws outlawing marijuana may have been influenced, not just by Mexicans using the drug, but, oddly enough, because of Mormons using it. Mormons who traveled to Mexico in 1910 came back to Salt Lake City with marijuana. The church’s reaction to this may have contributed to the state’s marijuana law. (Note: the source for this speculation is from articles by Charles Whitebread, Professor of Law at USC Law School in a paper for the Virginia Law Review, and a speech to the California Judges Association (sourced below). Mormon blogger Ardis Parshall disputes this.) Other states quickly followed suit with marijuana prohibition laws, including Wyoming (1915), Texas (1919), Iowa (1923), Nevada (1923), Oregon (1923), Washington (1923), Arkansas (1923), and Nebraska (1927). These laws tended to be specifically targeted against the Mexican-American population. When Montana outlawed marijuana in 1927, the Butte Montana Standard reported a legislator’s comment: “When some beet field peon takes a few traces of this stuff… he thinks he has just been elected president of Mexico, so he starts out to execute all his political enemies.” In Texas, a senator said on the floor of the Senate: “All Mexicans are crazy, and this stuff [marijuana] is what makes them crazy.” Jazz and Assassins In the eastern states, the “problem” was attributed to a combination of Latin Americans and black jazz musicians. Marijuana and jazz traveled from New Orleans to Chicago, and then to Harlem, where marijuana became an indispensable part of the music scene, even entering the language of the black hits of the time (Louis Armstrong’s “Muggles”, Cab Calloway’s “That Funny Reefer Man”, Fats Waller’s “Viper’s Drag”). Again, racism was part of the charge against marijuana, as newspapers in 1934 editorialized: “Marihuana influences Negroes to look at white people in the eye, step on white men’s shadows and look at a white woman twice.” Two other fear-tactic rumors started to spread: one, that Mexicans, Blacks and other foreigners were snaring white children with marijuana; and two, the story of the “assassins.” Early stories of Marco Polo had told of “hasheesh-eaters” or hashashin, from which derived the term “assassin.” In the original stories, these professional killers were given large doses of hashish and brought to the ruler’s garden (to give them a glimpse of the paradise that awaited them upon successful completion of their mission). Then, after the effects of the drug disappeared, the assassin would fulfill his ruler’s wishes with cool, calculating loyalty. By the 1930s, the story had changed. Dr. A. E. Fossier wrote in the 1931 New Orleans Medical and Surgical Journal: “Under the influence of hashish those fanatics would madly rush at their enemies, and ruthlessly massacre every one within their grasp.” Within a very short time, marijuana started being linked to violent behavior.

Water & Nutrients in your Marijuana Hydroponic Setup

Water & Nutrients in Hydroponics

Obviously, your water is extremely important when you are using hydroponics.  This makes sense, right?  Water is the medium you are using to grow your medical marijuana in.

You’ll want to keep your water topped off.  Some growers like to add their nutrients when they do this, but you don’t have to.  Yet, it might be easier for you to remember.  You’ll want to change your nutrient solution every two weeks.  It’s helpful to do this but not absolutely necessary.  You can go 2-3 months with only adding water and checking the pH.  However, the more often you do this, the less chance of error you’ll have in producing healthy marijuana.  When you change your nutrient solution, discard the old solution.

Wash and rinse the reservoir your marijuana plants are in.  Also, clean the pumps, air stones, tubing and other equipment with hot water.  Take the pump off of the reservoir.  Put the tube on it.  Run it to a drain, sink or outside and turn the pump on.  After cleaning, wipe things down.  Add fresh water and then your nutrient solution (if you’ve decided on adding it at this juncture).  

Marijuana Grow Room Checklist

Weekly Grow Room Checklist

I can’t stress how important it is to keep a checklist!  Every marijuana grower should have a checklist.  You will only spend about 10 minutes per day on this, and it will provide you with productive growth.  This is probably the simplest thing you can do to ensure a successful grow outcome.  You’ll be able to see what you are giving your plants and how they are reacting.  You can determine what is working well for your marijuana plants, as well as problem areas.  Well, some of you are probably thinking, “I hate writing things down!  I don’t even know what I should be writing down, anyway.”  Well, I’m here to tell you exactly what you should write down!  If you absolutely hate writing with a passion, pull out your laptop, smartphone or tablet and keep an electronic log.  If you go this route, just make sure you keep it safe.  My point is, there’s absolutely no excuse to not keep a checklist.  If you don’t mind writing (remember it’s only maybe 10 minutes a day), get a composition book and record the following data:  

The First Pot POW

Reblogged from NORML.  I actually was unaware of this before reading it today.  I’m wondering how many of you out there knew about it?  Crazy to think how quickly things can change over one poor judgement call.

After a decade of U.S. government scare propaganda that convinced Americans that crazed Mexicans, blacks and fans of jazz clubs were pushing marijuana “reefers” on school children and honest youths, turning them into raving murderers, politicians decided to act.

The First Pot POW

The U.S. Congress passed the Marijuana Tax Stamp Act. Growing and selling marijuana were still legal, but only if you bought a $1 government stamp. And that stamp was not for sale.

On the day the Marijuana Tax Stamp Act was enacted — Oct. 2, 1937 — the FBI and Denver, Colo., police raided the Lexington Hotel and arrested Samuel R. Caldwell, 58, an unemployed labourer and Moses Baca, 26. On Oct. 5, Caldwell went into the history trivia books as the first marijuana seller convicted under U.S. federal law. His customer, Baca, was found guilty of possession.  

Important Aspects of Growing Medical Marijuana

Let’s just quickly go over some points, we’ve discussed so far on growing your medical marijuana plants.  Then, we’ll move on to bigger and better grow info.

• Rotate your plants every day or so.  This will promote even growth and foliage.
• Double your yield with good light distribution and rotation.
• Keep your plants spaced as far apart as possible.
• You’ll want to use some kind of reflector.  A reflective hood would be a good choice.  Some reflect better than others.  You can double your grow area with a good reflector.  A good hood can be close without burning your marijuana plants.
• As far as lighting, HPS through both vegetative and flowering stages is okay.  MH through both is okay.  MH for the vegetative stage and HPS for the flowering stage is very good.  MH and HPS through both stages is the best.  You’ll want to be heavier on the blue (~60/40) for the vegetative stage and heavier on red/orange (~60/40) for the flowering stage.  

Essential Nutrients for Growing Medical Marijuana

Proper nutrients are one of the most important components of a successful, productive medical marijuana grow.  You’ll get the nutrients to your plants through your water.  You need to have a reliable, clean source of water, which will be discussed later.  You’ll also need the required nutrients to help your plants grow and thrive.  Here, we will cover the basics of cannabis nutrition.

Nutrients for your Medical Marijuana

Choosing the right nutrient combination for your cannabis is key.  

Odor Control in the Marijuana Grow Room

Marijuana Odor Control

Odor control is an important concern in a medical marijuana grow room.  Many growers have brought unwanted attention to themselves by letting odors escape their grow quarters.  This is completely unneeded attention.  Even if you are a legal caregiver, it is crucial not to advertise this fact.  The easiest way for outsiders to find out about your grow, besides word of mouth, is by odors escaping your grow operation.  Here, we will discuss a few of the options for odor control in your grow room.These are the three main trusted odor controls for a grow room.  Of course, people will come up with a combination or other controls.  You need to consider the size of your room, money available and personal preference.  

The Importance of Air Circulation in your Grow Room

Air in the Medical Marijuana Grow Room

Fresh air is essential in all gardens.  It is extremely important that it be provided sufficiently, if you are growing medical grade marijuana.

You’ll need to ensure you have a fan, reflector and carbon filter.  If you don’t have sealed reflectors, the circulation won’t work as well.  It can be done without sealed reflectors, but it will only make your job harder.

You must have at least one passive intake.  This could be as simple as a hole in the wall or your tent.  Simply put, the passive intake is a way for air to pass into your grow area.  As long as the exhaust is running, there won’t be an outflow of cannabis odor through the intake.  Your intake should be one and a half times the exhaust size (i.e. 12″ exhaust = 18″ intake).  

10 Simple Steps to Creating a Medical Marijuana Grow Room

Let’s just lay out some simple steps that you need to start with for your medical cannabis grow room.

1. Choose an out of the way location to grow your marijuana.
2. Enclose the room (tents are an easy way to do this) you will grow in.
3. Make the grow room as reflective as possible (not the floor though).  

Purchase a Cool Product and Support a Good Cause

The Toker Choker – Roach Clip Necklaces and Bracelets

There’s nothing cooler than buying an awesome item and having your money go to a good cause, as well.  There are really nice multi-purpose necklaces you can purchase on eBay.  They are hemp necklaces with an alligator clip (aka roach clip) as the clasp.  It’s called the Toker Choker.  

Main Considerations for Setting Up Your Medical Marijuana Grow Room

There are some simple points you will want to go over and consider before starting your grow room.

As far as setting up your medical marijuana grow room, the following are points to think about:

• Do you want to be able to construct your grow room in a day?
• The best location will be a basement, obscure corner or somewhere where you can maintain the temperature year round.
• An attic is good, except for the heat build up you will have to contend with.
• Garages, barns and buildings not attached to your main living quarters are a bad idea.  They will not be secure enough and likely will not stand up to legal requirements for caregivers.
• You’ll need to have an alarm system.  This is usually a legal requirement for caregivers.  

Basic Grow Room Lighting Setup

General Grow Room Lighting for Medical Marijuana

Most importantly, you need to make sure your lights are the right distance from your cannabis plants.  It is crucial to identify the proper wattage of your light system and thereby determine the appropriate distance they need to be from your marijuana.  A 400w light should be around 18″ or 1.5′ from the seeds.  For 600w lights, they should be around 24″ or 2′ away.  You’ll need to measure your distance daily.  This is simple to do.  You can use a string to measure between the reflector and the top of the plants.  It is really best to use a thermometer hanging on a string at the top of the plants.  This way, you can get an accurate measurement of the temperature at the tops of your plants.  You want to make sure the lights aren’t too close or far.  You must always be aware of the risk of burning your plants and also fire hazards.

Lighting will often be the limiting factor in the grow room.  Keep this in mind.  

Start Growing Medical Grade Marijuana

There are 4 main things to identify when starting to grow marijuana:

1. Establish your goal – How much to grow?  You’ll want to have an idea of how much you need for yourself and/or your patients.
2. Identify your limiting factors – Money, space, time.  Space will most likely be the most limiting factor.
3. Choose a medium – soil, hydroponics or aeroponics
4. Select a grow site

A small space would be best for hydroponics.  

Cannabis Species

Species of Marijuana

There are three main species of marijuana: sativa, indica and ruderalis.

Sativa

Sativa varieties generally give you a more cerebral, energetic high.  They have longer, skinnier leaves.