Nevada Burning Man Festival Sees Giant Aerial Marijuana Bud Banner That Protests...

Nevada Burning Man Festival Sees Giant Aerial Marijuana Bud Banner That
Protests Hydroponics Hijacking
Hydroponics Company Flies Marijuana Bud Banner at Nevada Burning Man Festival



SEATTLE, Sept. 4 /PRNewswire/ -- On the day that the Man burns at the
legendary Nevada Burning Man event this year in the Black Rock Desert,
partiers will see a giant marijuana bud banner flying overhead.

The huge banner, which has already flown over Seattle Hempfest and San
Francisco, features a glistening marijuana flower, along with lettering that
asks the question "Want Big, Sugary Buds?"

The controversial banner is the brainchild of Michael "Big Mike" Straumietis,
co-founder of international hydroponics nutrients manufacturer Advanced
Nutrients.

"We fly this banner to protest the hydroponic hijacking of our industry by a
cadre of good old boys who ration information, goods and services to
orchestrate a takeover of hydroponics commerce that hurts growers, retailers
and vendors," says Straumietis.

Ever since he went public with his protests, Straumietis has drawn widespread
applause for his documented claim that five hydroponics companies (Hydrofarm,
Sunlight Supply, General Hydroponics, Botanicare and Technaflora) have used
waste and abuse to interfere with the free flow of hydroponics information,
goods and services.

Straumietis notes that Americans spend hundreds of millions of dollars per
year on hydroponic equipment and supplies and the majority of those materials
grow medical marijuana.

"I hear serious complaints about the good old boys hydroponics hijacking,"
Straumietis says. "From sick and dying medical marijuana patients discouraged
from growing their own medicine because the good old boys ration and deny
access to hydroponics information. From hydroponics retailers sick of the good
old boys interfering with the open market. From hydroponics inventors and
manufacturers indignant about the good old boys blockading access to the
hydroponics marketplace."

Unlike the Burning Man Project, in which tens of thousands of people show up
to co-create a desert democracy community every year, the good old boys'
hydroponics hijacking runs the hydroponics industry like a medieval kingdom,
Straumietis charges.

"These powerful hydroponics companies and distributors act like brutal
dictators," Straumietis says. "Medical marijuana is legal in 13 states, but
the good old boys refuse to test or design their products for marijuana, which
limits the effectiveness of marijuana medicine. They won't let customers,
hydroponics stores or hydroponics magazines discuss marijuana. They deny
information and access to growers, companies and vendors."