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Americans grow cannabis to beat the recession
guardian. ^ | 11 September 2009 | Ed Pilkington

Posted on 09/11/2009 9:56:37 AM PDT by JoeProBono

Some people cancel holidays abroad, others stage yard sales or start shopping at low-cost supermarkets. To that list must now be added a new way to get through economic hard times: grow cannabis. Law enforcers on the west coast of the US and in the middle states straddled by the foothills of the Appalachian mountains are reporting a common trend. It is boom time for marijuana cultivation, and much of the incentive they say is to beat the recession.

So far this year, police in parts of the country where cannabis is traditionally grown have chopped down plants with a street value of $12bn. The core growing area is in California, Washington and Oregon to the west, but the Appalachian states of Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia are also witnessing an explosion. More than 600,000 cannabis plants have been cut and burned in those states this summer, reversing a previous decline in production brought about by stringent law enforcement.

It is not only the quantity of crop that is on the rise, the nature of the growers is also changing.

Ed Shemelya, who leads the marijuana eradication programme in the Appalachia region, says a new type of grower is emerging wholly different to the family cartels that have cultivated the drug for generations. "We are seeing a lot more individuals who wouldn't normally be growing marijuana. They are not your professionals."

(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Gardening
KEYWORDS: cannabis; farmerleroy; illegalaliens; libertarians; medicalmarijuana; terencemckenna; wod
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To: JoeProBono

BTW, that plant needs to be pruned. It’ll grow more tops that way without getting too tall . . . That’s what I hear anyway . . . .


21 posted on 09/11/2009 10:49:25 AM PDT by jeffc (They're coming to take me away! Ha-ha, hey-hey, ho-ho!)
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To: GSWarrior
$40?! I put FIVE cheeses plus Prosciutto in my Lasagna.
22 posted on 09/11/2009 10:54:21 AM PDT by massgopguy (I owe everything to George Bailey)
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To: airborne
Just curious. Are Americans growing their own tobacco too?

Some of them are.
There are some FReepers that grow, cure, and smoke their own tobacco.

23 posted on 09/11/2009 10:55:29 AM PDT by Just another Joe (Warning: FReeping can be addictive and helpful to your mental health)
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To: jeffc

It looks like it nitrogen deficient too.


24 posted on 09/11/2009 11:25:56 AM PDT by Durus (The People have abdicated our duties and anxiously hopes for just two things, "Bread and Circuses")
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To: jeffc
No, no, FRiend, do not prune if you can avoid it. A far better tactic is to bend the tops over using twist ties or string (slowly over time tightening them so the tip bends over, but not so much you break it) so the the secondary budding sites can get direct sunlight. This stimulates the secondary buds to grow larger than they normally would, while leaving the primary bud intact and harvestable.

This bending strategy, called LST for Low Stress Training also has another boon: In the plant are chemicals that stimulate new growth. These chemicals generally travel up the plant from the roots to the (topmost)growing tip, and that's partially why the growing tip/primary budding site gets so much bigger than the other budding sites. By bending the top tip over you trick the plant into sending the chemicals to the secondary budding sites, which stimulates their growth. If done correctly, your yields will increase without ever having to trim or cut the plant.

Not that I would know anything about that, though. It's illegal.

25 posted on 09/11/2009 11:43:03 AM PDT by I Buried My Guns
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To: dalereed
Hire more DEA agents!!!!

BWAHAHA! No marijuana thread would be complete without a fedgov-slurping idiot!

26 posted on 09/11/2009 11:54:37 AM PDT by Ken H
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To: Ken H

Any user belongs in prison including one of my cousins!


27 posted on 09/11/2009 12:01:36 PM PDT by dalereed
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To: dalereed
So are you a Wickardista when it comes to interpreting the Commerce Clause, or do you even care about such inconveniences as the Tenth Amendment and the clause's original understanding?
28 posted on 09/11/2009 12:07:24 PM PDT by Ken H
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To: Ken H

Got nothing to do with commerce, it’s an illegal drug and a bad one!

I’ve fired over 20 people for using it and facillitated the arrest of more than a few!


29 posted on 09/11/2009 12:09:25 PM PDT by dalereed
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To: JoeProBono

Nice bud. I’m too much of a coward to grow marijuana. I treasure my nursing license!


30 posted on 09/11/2009 12:11:51 PM PDT by cyborg (I love the elderly.)
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To: Fester Chugabrew

heh


31 posted on 09/11/2009 12:12:30 PM PDT by cyborg (I love the elderly.)
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To: JoeProBono

Well my name’s John Lee Pettimore
Same as my daddy and his daddy before
You hardly ever saw Grandaddy down here
He only came to town about twice a year
He’d buy a hundred pounds of yeast and some copper line
Everybody knew that he made moonshine
Now the revenue man wanted Grandaddy bad
He headed up the holler with everything he had
It’s before my time but I’ve been told
He never came back from Copperhead Road

Now Daddy ran the whiskey in a big block Dodge
Bought it at an auction at the Mason’s Lodge
Johnson County Sheriff painted on the side
Just shot a coat of primer then he looked inside
Well him and my uncle tore that engine down
I still remember that rumblin’ sound
Well the sheriff came around in the middle of the night
Heard mama cryin’, knew something wasn’t right
He was headed down to Knoxville with the weekly load
You could smell the whiskey burnin’ down Copperhead Road

I volunteered for the Army on my birthday
They draft the white trash first,’round here anyway
I done two tours of duty in Vietnam
And I came home with a brand new plan
I take the seed from Colombia and Mexico
I plant it up the holler down Copperhead Road
Well the D.E.A.’s got a chopper in the air
I wake up screaming like I’m back over there
I learned a thing or two from ol’ Charlie don’t you know
You better stay away from Copperhead Road

Copperhead Road
Copperhead Road
Copperhead Road


32 posted on 09/11/2009 12:13:17 PM PDT by Just another Joe (Warning: FReeping can be addictive and helpful to your mental health)
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To: Lady Jag; stylecouncilor

That’s cute.


33 posted on 09/11/2009 12:36:49 PM PDT by windcliff
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To: jeffc
pot can grow on the side of the road next to the dandelions and poison ivy!

Put that way and considering LEO continuing efforts to kill weed, it must have cost billions! They've been doing it since, what, 1937, day in and day out.

They should either spend less or spend more... imagine what they'd do for the job market if they hired more people to pick dope.

34 posted on 09/11/2009 12:45:31 PM PDT by Lady Jag (Double your income. Fire the government)
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To: I Buried My Guns

That’s wild. Wonder would it work on tomatoes.


35 posted on 09/11/2009 12:49:45 PM PDT by Lady Jag (Double your income. Fire the government)
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To: windcliff
Cats often make things look cute, don't they.

Except maybe Garfield.


36 posted on 09/11/2009 12:56:33 PM PDT by Lady Jag (Double your income. Fire the government)
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To: Lady Jag
I think tomatoes are more of a vine-y plant but the part about direct sunlight is valid for all direct-sunlight annual plants: The more light you give it, the more fuel it has to create food (on a cellular level).

Pot plants grow straight up and often create a canopy of leaves that block sunlight from the lower areas of the plant. This retards the development of those parts. For a person looking to increse yield, it's a cheap way to do so: all you need is kabob sticks and the little twist ties from loaves of bread.

37 posted on 09/11/2009 1:26:00 PM PDT by I Buried My Guns
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To: I Buried My Guns

Again: Not that I would know anything about that.


38 posted on 09/11/2009 1:28:37 PM PDT by I Buried My Guns
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To: dalereed
Got nothing to do with commerce, it's an illegal drug and a bad one!

The fedgov war on marijuana depends on the New Deal view of the Commerce Clause. So yes, it has everything to do with the Commerce Clause and the Tenth Amendment, Mr. Fedgov Slurper.

39 posted on 09/11/2009 1:55:29 PM PDT by Ken H
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To: I Buried My Guns

Looking at the plant above, it appears to be cone-shaped like many evergreens, and bending the top shouldn’t provide a whole lot more light.


40 posted on 09/11/2009 2:14:34 PM PDT by Lady Jag (Double your income. Fire the government)
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