IV potsmoking & M&D

[Doug Millison]

On Aug 12, 2009, at 8:54 AM, Carvill John wrote:

>
> Good stuff, Doug, You sure seem to know your weed.

P-list oldtimers have heard all my stories about going up to Humboldt  
County to help with the harvest in September '79 - plants (Xmas-tree  
size) hanging upside down in the drying shed when I got there, then a  
couple of weeks trimming shake from bud, then the dealers driving up  
from San Francisco to buy the best and wisely bringing coke and even  
heroin to sell back to the growers after spending their cash on the  
buds.  New Year's Eve in Garberville was quite a celebration.  Then I   
stayed over for a couple of months more while the growers I was  
staying with took off on a selling trip.  I had a chance to indulge  
just about every single one of my marijuana fantasies during that time.

Back in Berkeley, in that 1980-82 era I had a friend who sold high- 
grade Humboldt sinsemilla, mushrooms, MDMA, and cocaine. He was one of  
the small army of dealers who kept Jerry Garcia supplied - my buddy  
had the tape of a radio interview he took part in along with the Dead,  
to prove this point when he had to confront doubters.  Quite a guy, my  
dealer friend. He started his day with Dexedrine that he bought with a  
prescription from a Marin County dentist that he kept supplied in  
coke. Then a series of lines at regular intervals during the day.  He  
used coke and pot to barter for everything he needed, including rent  
on his cottage over on Curtis in Berkeley, having his car repaired,  
etc.  Gary wound up murdered by some crazy clients one night, stabbed  
to death in his front yard, R.I.P.

I currently know a few growers who are part of the local pot club  
scene I described in a previous message, and you can keep up with the  
local medical marijuana scene through the local newspapers and  
speciality publications, and from talking with people who work in  
these clubs.  The father of one of my son's elementary school  
classmates is active in the politics and legalities around medical  
marijuana.

I drove up to Eureka with a friend last year, to check on a house he  
owns and rents there.  We didn't make it to Arcata, but the family who  
rents my friend's house (and don't grow pot) was giving me the skinny  
on the scene in that town.

>
>
> From Mason & Dixon:
>
>
> “In this Valley, plants,—Vegetables,—grow big,—very big. Big Corn.  
> Each Kernel’s more than a Man can lift. Big Turnip. Six-man crew to  
> dig out but one. Big Squash. Big enough for many families to eat  
> their way into, and then live inside all the Winter. Very big, BIG,— 
> Hemp-Plant.” The Mohawk is upon his feet, pretending to look in  
> Astonishment at something nearly straight overhead.…

That's the passage.  Perfect picture of a blooming cottage industry,  
don't you think?

I visited an urban pot garden a year ago - a dozen plants tucked away  
in a plot roughly 100 feet square, sativa hybrids from 6 to 10 feet  
tall, behind somebody's house in the East Bay Hills.  The grower  
hadn't spaced the plants quite  far enough apart, so the main stems  
stretched and grew into an canopy with few side branches.  We were  
able to get in under that canopy and meditate for awhile among what  
began to resemble a forest of green-barked trees -- some with "trunks"  
up to 2 inches or so in diameter -- beneath an umbrella of green.    
Had a chance to help with the Bubble Bags and trim, too, in a fun  
demonstration of cannabis geek tech, as described by Ed Rosenthal in  
his fine book, Marijuana Gold - Trash To Stash http://www.greenharvest.ca/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=22&products_id=65

This year, that same grower planted fewer "girls", 9 instead of a  
dozen. Remains to be seen what the final results will be - the buds  
are just now beginning to develop, a process that will continue  
through September and into October.  But this year, he's got bushy  
plants, lots of sticky side branches plus the canopy of colas above,  
and expects a greater yield than last year.