cannabisnews.com: A 'Growing Like Weeds', Indeed!





A 'Growing Like Weeds', Indeed!
Posted by CN Staff on January 16, 2004 at 20:54:48 PT
By Keeble McFarlane
Source: Jamaica Observer 
If you think ganja production is a growth industry" limited only to places like Jamaica, think again. Just last weekend, a police team drawn from several forces in the Canadian province of Ontario raided a former brewery about an hour's drive north of Toronto and uncovered the biggest ganja operation anyone has ever heard of. Acting on a tip, the police swooped down on the huge building, right adjacent to one of the busiest highways in Canada and found an extremely sophisticated operation they estimate could produce Cdn$100-million a year. The discovery shocked many people, especially the 100,000 citizens of the pleasant lakeside city of Barrie. Television and newspaper reports featured police pictures of row upon row of healthy plants growing under powerful lights.
For many years the brewing giant, Molson, operated the huge brewery which is a kind of landmark for those driving along Highway 400 from Toronto towards their homes in Barrie or to points further north. In a consolidation of its business, the beer company shut down the brewery about four years ago, and sold it to a firm which has rented out the premises to several businesses. But for more than a year, the police say, no one driving past the well-known site suspected what was going on inside the plant. Neither did any of the other tenants.It was ideal for this kind of operation: the site has the highway on one side and parkland and trees around the rest of it, so there was very little risk that someone would detect the unusual odours the operation produced. And since the building had indoor as well as outdoor loading docks,shipping supplies and the end product in and out of the plant by truck was no problem. One of the other tenants in the building had a coffee-roasting business, which would further cover up any tell-tale smells.Inside the windowless building, the police found a computer-controlled hydroponic system which allowed the operators to fine-tune the growth of the rows of plants inside 25 enormous vats once used to age beer. The vats, which once produced some of Canada's most popular brands of beer, were rigged up with heating vents, rows of lights, fans, thermostats and computer controls, connected by many kilometres of wire. The vats provided an ideal environment for the plants, as the operators could precisely control the temperature, humidity, amount of light as well as the chemical medium feeding the plants. The Barrie police chief said the wiring and ventilation system was so sophisticated it must have been designed by engineers.There were areas to nurture plants to flower and produce seed, which would be started in nursery beds and then transferred to the growing areas for finishing. The chemical bath was fine-tuned to allow the plants to produce the maximum amount of THC, or tetra-hydra-cannabinol, the ingredient that gives the weed its potent kick. A typical crop would take about three months, after which the plants were dried on racks in rooms where the temperature and humidity could also be closely controlled. The growing operation was monitored round the clock, 365 days a year, and this meant people had to be there all the time. To facilitate this, they had fixed up a dormitory which could sleep as many as 50, and a cafeteria with refrigerators, cooking facilities, and even television.This operation is only the largest and most sophisticated the police have found, but it's by no means unusual. In recent years, police across Canada have raided similar operations in old factories, warehouses and industrial buildings. But there are still seasonal farms growing plants outside, and many people are also growing ganja in houses both in inner cities and in the suburbs. In those cases, police usually find out from unusual increases in the amount of water and electricity used, as well as the lack of activities normal to dwellings. In some cases, the operators use timers to switch the lights on and off in random patterns, as well as to open and close drapes; they remove mail and newspapers in order to camouflage the activities. Police have even found a few instances in which people have engaged in the dangerous practice of bypassing the electric meters by tapping into power lines to avoid detection because of the large amount of power used to feed the powerful lights as well as the pumps and fans.Call it marijuana, pot, weed, ganja or any of the other popular descriptions, the weed has become a very lucrative business in Canada, which has become one of the world's leading exporters. Growing the weed used to be an amateur activity, pursued originally by hippies and others outside the mainstream of society. The city of Vancouver, and other parts of forested British Columbia, used to be the centre of ganja-growing in Canada. Small growers favoured clear-cut patches left behind by the timber companies on Crown land, since it would be impossible for the police to trace the grower through ownership, and anyone suspected could easily deny knowledge of the crop. In years gone past, car dealers on Vancouver Island, just off the west coast, used to credit four-wheel-drive vehicles to people in the spring, knowing that in the autumn the owners would come in and pay off their debts in cash. Vancouver was also where the practice of breeding the plants to increase the THC content took off. Naturally-occurring ganja would contain perhaps three per cent THC, but even 15 years ago ganja sold on the street in Vancouver would easily top 15% THC!Although much is still grown there, marijuana growing has spread right across Canada. A senior office of the Ontario Provincial Police says growing the weed has become a billion-dollar business in Ontario. According to the official, it has taken on "epidemic proportions", and there just aren't enough people in the province to consume all the ganja grown here. A lot of it goes to the United States, and the Customs people along the border have heightened their vigilance.Apart from the fact that this business provides enormous profits for relatively modest outlays, the leniency of the courts in Canada also makes it attractive. Police say most people arrested for growing ganja get off with a fine, while the same offense would draw sentences of three to seven years in the US. Of course, we'll never stamp out ganja smoking, and the best the authorities can expect is to conduct raids such as this big one from time to time, as well as seize shipments crossing the border.The 19th century American philosopher and poet, Ralph Waldo Emerson, once described a weed as a plant whose virtues have not been discovered. However, based on what's happening in this field, it seems that, for some people at least, we can no longer describe the plant known to scientists as cannabis a 'weed'."Weeds are not supposed to grow, but by degreesSome achieve a flower, although no one sees."- English poet Philip LarkinSource: Jamaica Observer (Jamaica)Author: Keeble McFarlanePublished: Saturday, January 17, 2004Copyright: 2004 The Jamaica Observer Ltd.Contact: editorial jamaicaobserver.comWebsite: http://www.jamaicaobserver.comRelated Articles:Huge Marijuana Factory Was One Strange Jointhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread18131.shtmlPot Bust Worth $30-million, Police Sayhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread18130.shtmlOPP High on Big Brewery Busthttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread18129.shtml 
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Comment #23 posted by gloovins on January 17, 2004 at 15:32:15 PT
Hemp pasta 
Hi all, this is an informative thread! I want to say that for the record pure grain alcohol is illegal in Michigan as far a I know, people driving thru Indiana I used to know would sometimes pick some up, but it is legal in Calif, they sell it at a west L.A. 7-11! It's truly the crack of alcohol, no doubt.Here though is a personal favorite recipe I know:Cook any type of pasta, let sit in strainer, take 1/4 to 1/3 stick of butter, about 3-4 tablespoons olive oil & put them into pan on low heat. I put oregeno, dill weed, majoram, garlic powder too this mix. Put desired amount of cannabis (usually about 2 grams) in coffee grinder and put into oil/butter in pan & cook for 3-4 min on low heat (don't go over 212!) It'll look like a green oily soup...Place pasta back in pan, add sauce if desired. Serve with buttered (from pot) bread and Lambrusco red wine. Delicious meal with a kick! Cheers all
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Comment #22 posted by Virgil on January 17, 2004 at 15:06:10 PT
Thanks EJ
Now if I only had something to decarboxylate. One of these days I may be a good decarboxylater or a decarboxylationist specialist and now that I have my remedial lesson. Now if I only had something to decarboxylate.
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Comment #21 posted by E_Johnson on January 17, 2004 at 12:43:30 PT
Virgil about cooking
Baked goods contain water. They don't reach the actual oven temperature until all of the moisture has been evaporated. At that point they are burned. For example, think of cooking a roast chicken. You set the oven temperature at 350 F.The chicken is done when the interior meat reaches the temperature of 180 F.If you try and cook that chicken until the interior temperature is also 350 F, you'll have a dried shriveled horrible looking inedible thing in your oven.The same thing with brownies, although cooks aren't taught to judge doneness by internal temperature.At about 180 F, the proteins congeal, just like the meat becomes cooked at that temperature, and you have a baked good that is ready to eat. It never gets anywhere close to 300 F if you take it out when it's still moist and tasty.
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Comment #20 posted by Virgil on January 17, 2004 at 11:54:25 PT
decarboxylate
I have been look for that word for two months. It really is critical vocabulary. It makes me wonder if it is in Jack Herer's online version of his book.One reason I all the time say soup is because because most soups will have meat to provide fat. When people cook brownies and even make ganjabutter it seems that it would employee temperatures above 305 degress and you would be evaporating cannabinoids and they are quite expensive little things. With soup you are guaranteed not to go above 212 degrees.Now that I think about it, the coffee drink Miracle started when a waitress found it profitable to add enhanced cream to a customers coffee. Some people think that we call call enhanced cream added to coffee "Miracle" because it used extracts of the Miracle Plant and a Spiritual Miracle was an enhanced spirit that took advantage of the solvency powers of alcohol that could be made easily and provide a little juice to coffee. It just shows how ignorant people are. Of course anyone that says "Which came first the chicken or egg?" should not be trusted with an answer to which came first Miracle or Miracle Plant. Science tells us that all chickens came from an egg, but what laid the egg was not a chicken. It is simple evolution. Now that I have provided one level of credibility, I can positively say that Miracle Plant as used in common language to denote the Laughing Grass family not only came after the first Miracle and the coffeeshops it started in Holland, it also came after Spiritual Miracles became popular in Canada with American tourist. It was again a hung-over American tourist that asked a lowly wage earner serving him breakfast why his $5 cup of coffee was called a Miracle. She said "It is because it comes from a Miracle Plant," she replied. There is a plaque in the restaurant in Vancouver claiming fame for changing the image of laughing grass by calling it Miracle Plant. It is true. They also sparked a chain of coffeehouses in the US when they proved people would pay $5 Canadian for a cup of coffee. At least, that is the way I heard it. 
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Comment #19 posted by John Tyler on January 17, 2004 at 11:48:10 PT
Cannabis coffee creamer
What a great idea. Coffee or tea with cannabis cream and cookies made with canna butter. Available soon... LOL
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Comment #18 posted by FoM on January 17, 2004 at 10:40:30 PT
The GCW 
That is very good advice. Thanks! I don't write but it is important for those that do. It's a good article to write about too.
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Comment #17 posted by Max Flowers on January 17, 2004 at 10:40:03 PT
Hey guys, water?? Nope
Neat idea but I assure you, THC and other cannabinoids are totally NON water-soluble, it won't go into water at all. Trust me, I have stirred hash oil into tea many many times, and you need oil as in FAT (half and half or creamer) to dissolve it and quite a bit of it (THC is oil-soluble and alcohol soluble but water insoluble). And even then it beads on the surface. Think tree sap--that is the about the same physical property of cannabis resin. Tacky, gluey, and you need a solvent or alcohol to get it off your skin.
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Comment #16 posted by The GCW on January 17, 2004 at 10:34:36 PT
For writers,,, 
The Jamaica Observer has been publishing LTE's.
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Comment #15 posted by TroutMask on January 17, 2004 at 09:52:22 PT
Pot Booze
One thing I think of as a problem with "pot booze" is that it'd be better to heat the weed beforehand to decarboxylate the less-active cannabinoids to their more-active cousins.For the same reason that you should cook with pot (not pop fresh buds into your mouth like popcorn), you would also want to heat the pot before making pot booze. I'm not saying it doesn't work without heat (a close friend knows otherwise from experience), just that it would be better to heat it first.-TM
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Comment #14 posted by FoM on January 17, 2004 at 09:03:48 PT
Oh Demon Alcohol!
Sad thing is I can't type! LOL!I couldn't resist saying that. You all are so great! 
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Comment #13 posted by goneposthole on January 17, 2004 at 07:16:40 PT
I'm too drunk
I can't add. I realized my mistake soon after I posted it. This was meant to correct it. thnx
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Comment #12 posted by Virgil on January 17, 2004 at 06:46:30 PT
Breeze
I have e-mailed both my Senators and the dumb twit that represented me in the House to say they failed my litmus test on good sense. I have emailed two people that represent me in North Carolina government and said I would not vote for them. My position was they were no longer acceptable of my approval- period. When I write send e-mails I do not preach on why I am for legalizatio, I just for the same reasons as everyone else.They have heard it all before. I do not write them to intellectually convince them of anything. I write them to be part of the wind. Most of them actually know the WOD is bad policy, but they are locked into to maintain party support for the most part. That would be especially true of the Republican Party where they somehow mysterously can vote almost unanamously on anything in Congress. They tow the party line and half of anyone in state legislatures has consumed and a good chance a quarter of them consume a little all along.I surely am not afraid to put my name on what I have written them. We are talking about freedom being corrupted by powerful forces. The answer is not in the details you write, the answer is just to join the wind.The best inroads you are going to make are with people you know. People do not have an understanding of how we got in this situation, why we are in this situation, or even what the situation is for that matter. I was spelling it out for one guy and when I mentioned coffeehouses in Holland, I had to stop and fill the blank in for what was a coffeehouse. If I mention Marc Emery I have to explain who he is. Almost nobody would know who Walters is even if we know his first name and middle inititial and that he tells some big lies and flies evertwhere with all kinds of guards and his nephew got busted.My strategy now if given opportunity is to say we have been lied to our whole lives and that it should have never been illegal in the first place. That is why it is important to know that story because it is the beginning- http://www.druglibrary.org/olsen/DPF/whitebread.htmlIt is also important to know what is going on now. The story of Spain is uplifting. It is important to know things because people are not going to want to be preached to. If they have curiosity and you have answers, we have a match. You can then reduce the ignorance that has us in this situation. The time to talk about the cannabis laws is while the peace pipe is going because they are the ones that should be the most curious. I agree we are the choir. I have also said people need to perform solo. We are fighting ignorance and letting the incumbents that continue this prohibition stay entrenched. As long as they get re-elected they do not care to change anything even when they know it is wrong.It is about voting and learning and writing and teaching and just doing something. Join the wind, Breeze.
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Comment #11 posted by BGreen on January 17, 2004 at 06:36:57 PT
190 proof, double the percentage
Geesh, I can't get it right even when I'm reading the label. :)The Reverend Bud Green
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Comment #10 posted by BGreen on January 17, 2004 at 06:34:37 PT
goneposthole
Grain alcohol is 95% alcohol and 180 proof. I have a bottle that I use as a solvent instead of isopropyl or rubbing alcohol.The Reverend Bud Green
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Comment #9 posted by goneposthole on January 17, 2004 at 06:20:35 PT
Grain alcohol
Isn't it 190 proof? 90 percent alcohol, I believe. The crack of alcohol, I guess. In a way, this cannabis growing operation was too small. If a growop like this can be successfull, then why can't millions of acres or hectares be successfull? Think about it. Twenty million unemployed Americans could have jobs growing hemp from coast to coast. There is a lot of potential and even more hope for hemp.It's an idea worth considering. Legalize, for fun and profit. Otherwise, there really isn't much hope.At the risk of being redundant, it's just a plant. It also happens to be a plant cultivated by humans for a long time, now. In case you didn't know.
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Comment #8 posted by breeze on January 17, 2004 at 05:58:19 PT
Almost forgot- regarding alcohol
Here is a link of interest;Why alcohol should not be prohibited....http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/library/studies/cu/CU33.html
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Comment #7 posted by breeze on January 17, 2004 at 05:47:59 PT
Question
I have a question. If one is afraid to write to their own state representatives, or because of another non-related issue, would it hurt to write letters to representatives in OTHER states?
I have read that handwritten letters are also very effective, is this true?
If there are concerns about anonmynity, is there any possible route around having to use ones own address, say using a PO Box or some other relevant situation?
Any links for this subject would be greatly appreciated.
I ask these questions even though they have possibly been covered before, but also because the need for letters to editors, representatives,other organizations is even greater than before,And as activists , we all need tools at our disposal.
We have some terrific writers here, and since it seems that we are obviously preaching to the choir on some subjects, we need to get the message out there to those who DO make changes, because I seriously doubt they are going to come to us.
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Comment #6 posted by Virgil on January 17, 2004 at 05:39:01 PT
It's a Miracle
One day in Amsterdam, an American tourist was out for breakfast after a big night of drinking. His face was a giveaway for a rough night of partying and he said he needed to get something on his belly to help his body recover. He said he really tied on one and what he needed was a miracle. So the young waitress had some enhanced water and new it would help the poor-feeling American and slipped some into his coffee along with the cream and sugar. Well, he started feeling better by half way through his meal and he said he would like some more of that coffee. The waitress had already explained that the coffee was a special concoction that would help his recovering body and that it was as expensive as his entree. He said it was worth it for a miracle. That is how we got the name of the special coffee and that is how the coffeeshop became so popular and got copied throughout Holland. Then some brilliant guy decided that enhanced alcohol could be used and when he added it to his coffee, he called it a Spiritual Miracle. That is the way I heard it anyway.
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Comment #5 posted by Ethan Russo MD on January 17, 2004 at 04:17:25 PT
Alcohol
There is not enough alcohol in Sativex to affect people. I believe that Muslim people have religious exemption to employ such medicine.
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Comment #4 posted by Virgil on January 16, 2004 at 22:44:30 PT
I am not finished yet
I came to a punch line and had to stop. Once cannabinoids are extracted to alcohol a person could add it to water and evaporate the alcohol off. The alcohol would evaporate before boiling but even if it reached 212 degrees that should still leave the cannabinoids in a water solution. But that raises a question about the extracts that GW will make. Now I do not know how to spell carbolyze correctly, but it has to do with the body being able to digest the cannabinoids more efficiently when in a fat solution. That makes me wonder about GW extracts. Now they will extract the cannabinoids with alcohol but a lot of people will not want alcohol. They must combine it with oil and evaporate the alcohol. It seems like that subject would have come up by now.Well, I know if you added water to a cannabis extract and evaporated the alcohol off what you would have. You would have enhanced water. Is two ounces of enhanced water a misdemeanor or a felony in California?
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Comment #3 posted by FoM on January 16, 2004 at 22:15:53 PT
 Virgil
I don't drink but it sounds like a good idea. 
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Comment #2 posted by Virgil on January 16, 2004 at 22:11:24 PT
The devil's brew
GW gets their extracts using ethyl alcohol. Common drinks have traditional garnishes. A martini has an olive, with some people having to be different and have a cocktail onion. A Bloody Mary generally comes with a celery stick or possibly lime. So there could come a drink with a bud of miracle plant going into a martini and being named a Vancouver martini. But the reason I really mention this is because alcohol is absorbed directly out of the stomach and is taken into the blood system very rapidly. Of course you could have really stong concentrations of extracts in grain alcohol and add to any fluid. It just seems like a thing that will happen. An alcohol extract would be very simple and it would eliminate a mold problem with storage and it could be added to hemp beer. A shot of whiskey and a beer is a boilermaker? Kind of makes you wonder what a beer and miracle plant extract would be called. What would a hemp beer and a small amount of extract be called? I don't know what I would call it in Canada, but in the US I think it should be called 20 years. "It has been a rough day barkeep. How about 20 years." 
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Comment #1 posted by FoM on January 16, 2004 at 21:41:00 PT
This Story Is Reaching Far
I'm surprised that they did an article from Jamaica on the big bust but they did.
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