Growing & Eradication
Friday, April 6, 2012
Oaksterdam University's Richard Lee: "It’s Time for Others to Take Over."
Growing & Eradication David Downs — Fri, Apr 6, 2012 at 9:32 AM
The Los Angeles Times reported last night that Richard Lee will transfer his businesses like Oaksterdam University and Coffee Shop Blue Sky to others and step down.
"I’ve been doing this for a long time. Over twenty years.... I kind of feel like I’ve done my time,” Lee said Thursday. “It’s time for others to take over.”
"He plans to transfer the businesses to new operators but said he will shut down his marijuana nursery because his stock of mother plants, which he had nurtured for years, was confiscated," the Times reports.
"Lee acknowledged that he was worried he could face major federal drug charges."
Thursday, March 29, 2012
CSU Full? UC, No Way? Oaksterdam Is Wide Open
Growing & Eradication David Downs — Thu, Mar 29, 2012 at 11:37 AM
The Sacramento Bee's Peter Hecht comes to town and catches up with Oaksterdam founder Rich Lee, painting a picture of growing pot that is less luminous than the one painted by the Los Angeles Times the day before.
"Oaksterdam once ran seven classes, each with 70 students paying $700 to $800 a semester. Now, it has one class of 50. Introductory two-day weekend programs and advanced seminars in how to run dispensaries draw about half the peak attendance of 120 students."
Part of it is the federal crackdown, which has touched Lee's businesses. There are also many, many more cannabis colleges today than when Lee began, he told us - a fact he said he was happy with.
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Wired's Illustrated Price of Pot Map Arrives in Mailboxes
Growing & Eradication David Downs — Tue, Aug 23, 2011 at 9:19 AM
In another testament to the mainstreaming of maryjane, High Times now has competitors publishing weed prices in the U.S. Using data from PriceofWeed.com, a collection of geographers called Floatingsheep have designed a groovy map of the price of sticky icky across America. Wired magazine writer Cameron Bird covers the results in the September issue of the print magazine, coming out now.
Thursday, August 18, 2011
The Roundup: Pot Farmer Joins Napa Farm Bureau
Growing & Eradication David Downs — Thu, Aug 18, 2011 at 9:14 AM
Here's your headlines: 1) CA. Sen Mark Leno's hemp bill 676 — which would authorize a pilot project to grow fields of the plant, which can damage pot crops — moves out of Assembly appropriations on a 11-3 vote.
2) Berkeley Patients Group gets a counter-lawsuit after their attempt to spin off a Maine business went bad.
3) The Fix discusses the sad reality — previously covered here — that "Uncle Sam wants to be your one and only dealer—on behalf of its supplier, Big Pharma."
4) Some guys claim to have mapped the cannabis genome, and say "regulation is going to come through genetics and fingerprinting of which strains are [federally] approved." (via RB)
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Mendocino's 'Full Court Press' on Marijuana Yields 132 Arrests
Growing & Eradication David Downs — Tue, Aug 9, 2011 at 11:02 AM
The huge weed-whacking operation in Mendocino is over, just three weeks after it started.
"Full Court Press" included more than 300 personnel from 25 local, state, and federal agencies, who flew in to cut down marijuana on public lands in six counties while manning roadblocks to catch fleeing ganja farmers. And according to the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office, the operation led to the seizure of 632,058 marijuana plants, 1,986 pounds of processed marijuana, $28,031 in cash, 38 weapons and 20 vehicles — and to 132 arrests.
Monday, August 1, 2011
The Roundup: Half-Million Plants Seized in Mendo County; Alcohol Withdrawal Killed Amy Winehouse
Growing & Eradication David Downs — Mon, Aug 1, 2011 at 10:47 AM
Here's your headlines: 1) "Full Court Press" — the massive marijuana raid effort recently undertaken by federal and local officials in Mendocino County — has tallied 101 arrests, 460,000 plants, and tons of garbage pulled from the Mendocino National Forest (LAT). Writer Kym Kemp notes locals connected to the grows might be next. More news after the jump.
Friday, July 29, 2011
Weed-Eradication Funds Raided in New State Budget
Growing & Eradication David Downs — Fri, Jul 29, 2011 at 10:17 AM
Each year Californians chip in about $1 million for police to go pull weeds out of our national forests. This Sisyphean effort goes by the name of the Campaign Against Marijuana Planting or CAMP, and according to The Bay Citizen/New York Times' Zusha Ellinson: it might be going away.
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Bin Laden's Abbottabad Compound Had A Pot Patch
Growing & Eradication David Downs — Thu, May 5, 2011 at 4:00 AM
Because the most important story of the last decade was bound to have a weed angle:
"Osama bin Laden's Abbottabad compound may have appeared no different from any other nondescript house in the middle-class neighborhood of Bilal Town, except for the high cement walls topped with barbed wire — and a few other distinguishing factors. Along with rows of cabbages and potatoes on the border wall of the compound, for instance, CNN's Nic Robertson discovered rows of marijuana plants."Take it away, Vulture via Daily Mail UK.
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Indoor Pot Equals 1% U.S. Electricity Use
Growing & Eradication David Downs — Tue, Apr 12, 2011 at 10:10 AM
While nuclear power plant radiation decays in our soil, and the globe warms, it's poetic to know American drug policy took a solar-powered plant — cannabis — and put it on the filthy coal and nuclear grid.
For several months groups like Grow It In The Sun have been saying that the rise of indoor pot farming contradicts the eco-friendly agenda of the marijuana community. Now, an indoor pot farming energy analysis we linked to yesterday is getting picked up by the New York Times, and it'll probably be a highly cited figure by Earth Day April 22. Some more highlights:
Monday, April 11, 2011
The Roundup: The High Cost of Indoor Pot, and a Pretty Good Album from Snoop Dogg
Growing & Eradication David Downs — Mon, Apr 11, 2011 at 9:24 AM
Headlines this week: 1) Marijuana stores still violate federal law, another U.S. Attorney writes.
2) Full Spectrum Labs of Colorado — testers for the Denver High Times Medical Cannabis Cup last week — release a rare commercial pot lab validation document.
3) Just in time for Earth Day, a Lawrence Berkeley National Lab energy analyst working independently estimates the immense carbon cost of indoor-grown marijuana: “The emissions associated with one kilogram of processed Cannabis are equivalent to those of driving across country 5 times in a 44-mpg car (3,000 kilograms of CO2 emissions)." Meanwhile, many California cities have banned, or are working to ban, outdoor.
