tagged w/ Marijuana Growers
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Chris Bartkowicz, a Colorado man who ran a medical marijuana growing operation from the basement of his home, was sentenced Friday morning to five years in federal prison.
Bartkowicz pleaded guilty in October to federal drug charges, which vengeful Drug Enforcement Administration agents raided within hours after Chris showed the grow operation to a TV news team.
Under his plea agreement, Bartkowicz and federal prosecutors settled on a prison term of five years, and federal District Court Judge Philip Brimmer chose to accept that deal, reports John Ingold at The Denver Post. His release will be followed by eight years of supervised probation. Under federal sentencing rules, Chris must serve at least 85 percent of his sentence, which means, like the case of Marc Emery, a minimum of 51 months in prison.
"Five years is a long time," Assistant U.S. Attorney M.J. Menendez said during the hearing. "It's going to allow him time to get treatment and it's going to give him time to reflect on what brought him here today."
"Get treatment" for what, Attorney Menendez? Medical marijuana was his treatment. "Reflect on" what, Menendez? That the federal government can send you away for five years -- for attempting to help sick people? That's something worthy of reflection, for damn sure.
Chris will be forced to take part in mandatory "drug abuse" and "mental health" programs while he's in federal prison, reports William Breathes at Denver Westword.
Bartkowicz will be the first person in Colorado to serve federal prison time for actions he says were legal under the state's medical marijuana law.
Agents confiscated more than 100 plants from Bartkowicz's house. According to Chris, he was a medical marijuana caregiver to several patients and sold the rest to legal dispensaries.
"This all seems like a script written by Lewis Carroll," said Bartkowicz's attorney, Joseph Saint-Veltri, during the hearing, referring to the Alice In Wonderland author.
"Hundreds of [marijuana] plants are being cultivated within a mile radius of this building as we speak, and they will continue to be cultivated... because the people of Colorado want that to happen," Saint-Veltri added later.
Federal agents claim they targeted Bartkowicz because they claim he was growing more plants than Colorado's medical marijuana law allowed, because he had prior state-legal drug convictions, and because his operation was about two blocks from a school. Judge Brimmer, handing down the sentence, echoed those concerns.
The judge said Bartkowicz "miserably failed" to follow Colorado law because of the number of plants he had and because he never met many of the patients who used his cannabis. That, Judge Brimmer claimed, means the case is not an example of the federal government oppressively interfering with state law, but rather fits with Bartkowicz's previous marijuana convictions.
"He's choosing to violate state law again, and he's cultivating marijuana," the self-righteous Judge Brimmer said.
Bartkowicz's bid to use a medical defense in his federal court case was denied. Because marijuana is illegal for any purpose under state law, Chris had few options but a strike a deal with prosecutors. Because of his prior convictions, Bartkowicz could have gotten 40 years under the charges he faced.
"It's the best that Mr. Bartkowicz can hope to achieve under these circumstances," Saint-Veltri said of the plea deal.
About 20 medical marijuana activists gathered outside the federal courthouse to protest the sentencing before the hearing began. They held signs bearing messages including "Cannabis Is Not Criminal." According to the activists, the DEA wanted to make an example of Bartkowicz in retaliation for the TV interview, which was conducted by local station 9News.
The protest was organized by Lannette Johnson, leader of the Denver chapter of Moms For Marijuana, who said she befriended Bartkowicz after his arrest.
"I think what happened to Chris is a huge injusitce," Johnson said. "Chris is a DEA scapegoat."
When he was given the chance, Bartkowicz did not try to sway Judge Brimmer during the sentencing hearing.
"I would actually decline to make any comments to the court," Chris said.
At the end of the hearing, Chris, wearing a yellow prisoner's jumpsuit, put his hands behind his back to be handcuffed.
He looked into the audience for a moment, where a number of friends and activists had gathered to support him.
Chris gave them a sad half-smile, then the U.S. Marshal took hold his arm and he disappeared behind a door.
http://www.tokeofthetown.com/2011/01/colorado_medical_grower_bartkowicz_gets_5_years_in.php#moreChris Bartkowicz, a Colorado man who ran a medical marijuana growing operation from... more
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Yorkshire cops have apologised after swooping on a suspected Bradford cannabis "hothouse", only to find a couple of pampered guinea pigs languishing by an electric heater.
Six officers in three vehicles descended on Pam Hardcastle's house after a police chopper's dope-busting camera picked up a suspicious infrared hotspot.
Yorkshire's finest also dispatched a plod to request that the 42-year-old primary school learning mentor return pronto from work. She told the Yorkshire Post: "The officer said they wanted me to go home. He said my garage lit up when the police helicopter was out and they believed I could be growing cannabis."
Back at the scene, meanwhile, Hardcastle's mum explained to the anti-drug SWAT team her daughter "had guinea pigs in the garage and would have a heater in there to keep them warm".
The coppers, however, pressed on with the operation, and having gained entry to the facility, "took one look at the guinea pigs, then left".
Hardcastle concluded: "My neighbours told me police were everywhere. Everybody was asking what I had done wrong. It is embarrassing."
West Yorkshire Police Inspector Darren Brown offered: "I would like to apologise for the distress this may have caused. However, I would point out that these tactics are essential in tackling drugs across the district."
He reassured: "I can also reassure the occupants that their details will not be kept on police records and I will be personally visiting them to discuss any concerns they may have."
The guinea pigs - named Simon and Kenny, the Sun helpfully notes - are apparently none the worse for their ordeal.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/01/12/guinea_pig_farm/Yorkshire cops have apologised after swooping on a suspected Bradford cannabis... more
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This does not surprise me at all.
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Peacey
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added this
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1 year ago
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You may have heard such terms as Beasters or beasty buds once or twice before, phrases referring to the thick, heavy sinsemilla grown in western Canada, in the Canadian province of British Columbia, or BC (hence the name). Over the years, the reputation of Beasters has climbed steadily as new varieties have been produced by BC breeders—strains that compete every year in the Cannabis Cup in Amsterdam, and whose seeds are now popular in seed banks in Canada and all over the world.
Not surprisingly, most of these strains are developed in, and well-suited to, outdoor climates. But you may be taken aback just a bit by precisely where and how some of these seed companies are doing it. As the New York City slickers from the HIGH TIMES cultivation department navigated our way from city to island, it quickly became evident that there was going to be a lot more here than we had previously expected.
For Starters
To begin with, growing in BC is done in an overly beastly climate that comprises the moist, mountainous rain forests of northern Vancouver Island. Shocked as we were, it’s true – Vancouver Island is, in fact, the northern-most rainforest (technically called a temperate rainforest biome) in the world. And rain it does.
Unfortunately, for bud growers, this can cause problems in the flowering stages and shorten the grow season by a few weeks, severely affecting yields. The good news, however, is that the climate – when all is going according to schedule – can create the perfect breeding grounds for seed production and strain stabilization.
Forget the fact that, when trekking through the forests to the isolated grow patches, you’ll enjoy some unbelievable scenery with thrilling opportunities to spy on bears or lick Jurassic-sized slugs (turns out this gives better visuals than licking frogs). And forget the fact that you can make the two-hour drive over a winding dirt road – traversing both cliffs and rivers – and never cross paths with another living soul. Forget these nice things, that is, because at the end of the day, this is about hard work in even harder terrain.
The grow sites afforded here are only accessible at certain times and simply cannot receive all the attention that these breeders would like to give their crops. Then again, this is outdoor growing in BC, where the question from season to season is: Do we grow for bud, or do we grow for seed? The answer depends not only on the long-term weather forecasts, but also on the current marijuana markets.
For breeders in BC, there’s certainly a higher passion involved. Up here, more emotion goes into a farm than it would some skeleton house with a blown-out hydro operation. As Mr. Danko and I set out with our hosts and tour guides from a couple of local seed companies, I sensed immediately that these were my kind of people. I looked on, watching families load into the trucks, talking harvest talk and hyping up hopes for the various strains of fungi that we might also encounter on our journey through the dense forests. Despite the rain, it was beginning to look like a beautiful day….
CONTINUED>>> http://hightimes.com/grow/nico/6307You may have heard such terms as Beasters or beasty buds once or twice before, phrases... more
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A pot-smoking parolee in Colorado faces criminal charges for allegedly offering a cash bribe to try to pass a drug test. Police said a 34-year-old man tried Jan. 3 to bribe a state worker to allow him to use a device called a "Whizzinator" to pass a drug test he had to take while on parole. The man allegedly said he had a medical marijuana card, though officials couldn't confirm whether that was true.
Colorado's medical marijuana law allows convicted criminals to get cards, but those on parole still must pass drug tests. State lawmakers are currently weighing new marijuana rules that would prevent people on parole from having the cards.
Prosecutors said the man offered a state worker $300 after the worker found him with the "Whizzinator," a device of tubing and heater packs attached to a prosthetic penis sold to cheat drug tests.
An arrest warrant affidavit reported by The (Grand Junction) Daily Sentinel Thursday said a caseworker became suspicious about his urine sample after he tried to block the worker's view while he was providing his sample.
When asked to raise his shirt and lower his pants, the man was seen wearing the "Whizzinator." The man allegedly offered the state worker $300, then $500, to throw away the device. The worker refused.
The caseworker took the device, and the man left.
That same day, the man called state parole officials and said he had panicked after smoking marijuana on New Year's Day, the anniversary of his father's death, saying he was "having a very hard time dealing with it."
The man now faces felony bribery charges and is being held in the Mesa County Jail. He was on parole for a 2007 menacing conviction.A pot-smoking parolee in Colorado faces criminal charges for allegedly offering a cash... more
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CANNABIS CULTURE - Master grower Subcool shows you how to transplant your babies and get them ready to grow!
Here's how it's done: Clones and new seeds are always placed into 1 gallon nursery pots without any Super Soil or added nutrients. Use only a good, balanced potting soil that won’t burn your baby plants. They will only stay in these smaller pots for a few weeks while the roots get established and you shape and top them.
It's very important to not procrastinate when it is time to transplant out of these smaller containers. If you get lazy and let your small plants sit around in their starter containers, it will slow the transition process after transplanting. I have seen first hand the huge difference when I gave some clones to a card holder. The day I transplanted I had 4 extra clones that I passed to him. Instead of transplanting right away he waited until they were root bound and looking poorly. I was able to harvest 30 days before him and the quality and quantity difference was hard to believe. My method is not for the lazy or procrastinating type; the more on top of each technique you become, the better each harvest will become as well.
When I'm ready to transplant into the final pots I use #10 nursery pots that will hold a full 7 gallons of liquid. Seven may not sound much bigger than a 5, but let me tell you these slanted #10 pots hold a bunch of soil! Make sure to lift properly using your legs and not your back when moving one that’s just been
I fill each pot 1/2 full with the Super Soil. I then fill the top half with plain potting soil. This buffers the roots and gives the plants time to get used to the hot soil I use.
I set up our pots on our trusty tarp, the same one I used in mixing this soil. We line all the pots up and place between 1/2 and 2/3 of a container of concentrate into the bottom of each container. Strains that have heavy nutrient requirements get more concentrate and short, slow Indicas that require less food get less concentrate.
Remember, it's better to under-feed and fade a bit too early than to over-feed and burn your plants up. Plants grown in this organic soil that fade early produce amazingly potent, smooth and tasty buds and the loss of yield is small. Some strains can grow fast and have heavy nutrient requirements. For these plants, top dressing half way through the flowering phase can be beneficial. We will discuss this more in a later blog post.
After the first steps, layer some plain commercial potting soil on top of the concentrate - about 2" worth. Use your hand or a small trowel to lightly mix the two layers. This allows the plant to be buffered as it hits the hot soil on bottom. Make sure the roots do not touch direct super soil use your hand to mix the plain potting soil around with the super soil. Then go ahead and fill the container with plain potting soil, leaving a small hole in the center.
It’s important to water the plants well before transplanting. This helps prevent shock. A nice damp root ball will make a happy plant. Gently flip the plant upside down. Wack the bottom with the palm of your hand to loosen the root ball. Support the plant by placing your hand on the pot allowing the stem to protrude though your fingers. Remove from the pot and support the base. Flip upright and place in the hole made into the soil making sure the root ball is even with the top of the soil. Gently pack the soil level and don’t forget your label.
Subcool is an expert grower and breeder, and author of Dank: The Quest for the Very Best Marijuana, published by Ed Rosenthal's Quick Trading Company. He and is a regular contributor to Cannabis Culture and other marijuana magazines. Read Subcool's Blog.
http://www.cannabisculture.com/v2/content/transplanting-101CANNABIS CULTURE - Master grower Subcool shows you how to transplant your babies and... more
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Want to know how to get larger yields and bigger buds with only the cost of some string and some of your time? Would you like to fill the same amount of stash jars using less plants and taking less clones? Of course you do - so let's explore the science of plant canopy management.
It is amazing what can be accomplished using plant bondage (or LST - Low Stress Training) and canopy management. These can be very useful in medical gardens where the number of plants is limited, but everyone can benefit using this technique by achieving larger yields per plant. I get amazing results with much larger plants using simple topping and spreading the plant open and using string or floral wire to tie her down. This method can help in many areas.
First we want to top our plants very early and close to the soil so they have multiple heads and they're left in the vegetative phase for long enough to form a large bush with a height of about 24-36”. Once the plants leave the vegetive area and enter the flowering room, tie them down so that their overall height is much shorter and the plants are wider. This allows your lights to be a bit lower - maximizing lumen efficiency. With taller grows, sometimes the lights can be so high that the overall lumens reaching the shorter plants have diminished so much that those plants end up with poor yields. This method also allows you to fill a rather large area with far less plants and it requires fewer plants to be cloned.
The second thing this training of the plant allows is more light to the second level buds - or lower shelf, as I like to call it. Before we employed this method our tops were huge but the lowers were airy and mainly fluff. This trick assures large buds even at the lower levels.
Last and most importantly, it increases yields per plant. Many state medical programs have strict plant limits, so yield can be extremely important. With larger-topped plants tied up to maximize yields and manage the canopy height we get a good four ounces per plant minimum, and on some strains we get 5 and 6 ounces per plant. That’s enough to last and make enough cookies for our patients and other friends who have cards.
My setup: I run two grow rooms - one for the vegetative phase (Metal Halide) and one for the budding phase (High Pressure Sodium). I grow the plants in my own mix of concentrated super soil containing worm castings, bat guano, bone meal, Epsom salts, lime, and other organic ingredients including endo/ecto mycorrihizae, which I find extremely beneficial to young plants. I start rooted seedlings and rooted clones in straight high-quality potting soil so the super soil concentrate doesn’t burn the fragile babies. The clones are started into rapid rooters and then they are transplanted into 1-gallon pots, and when they're firmly established I top the meristem (Main Stem) nice and low so the plant develops a nice short bush-shape with 3 to 4 growing heads. As long as I leave two sets of fan leaves, the plant always recovers well and gets a great start.
Seedlings are a bit different, and you must allow the seedling to develop and have at least 4-5 internodes before topping. If you top a seedling too early the shock will slow the plant down, wasting a tremendous amount of time. Clones and seedlings grow under a 18/6 light cycle until I can see roots in the lower drain holes. They then get transplanted again into large 7-gallon lowboy pots, using my super soil in bottom 2/3 of pot and straight premium potting soil in the top 1/3 and placed back in 18/6 under the same 1000-watt MH. Once the plants have been in veg for almost 60 days, almost everything is finishing up in the bud room and harvest time is approaching. After everything is trimmed-up and the old pots moved out and the soil recycled, it’s time to clean everything well, washing the floor and tarps with bleach and making sure everything is mold-free. Clean off the glass in the vented hoods with glass cleaner. A clean room is the sign of a good grower! The plants are now placed in main bud room that measures 10x5 with 2 1000-watt HPS Hortilux bulbs.
Then we clean up our plants, removing any smaller shoots that are still shaded. This way, the energy that would have gone to produce fluff and added time to trimming can instead go to the upper buds that are actually in the light. This also allows more air to circulate under the canopy so that O2 doesn’t stratify. This in itself will increase the yields and make your trimming a bit easier. I'm not sure everyone will understand this analogy but the plant looking up should kinda look like broccoli, with everything up top.
Tie your mother down!
Using a small drill, I make 4 holes directly beside each main branch. I use floral wire and secure the branch about halfway up and then gently pull that branch down - opening and exposing the center of the plant to allow more light to penetrate the canopy. As discussed, this also makes the plant shorter and can allow more veg time and a larger base stem - all things that can increase your yields. Don’t be so quick to bud your plants as a few extra days can make a huge difference in how long your medicine holds out. 'Super cropping' is the next technique I want to cover here. In layman's terms super cropping is bending or pinching the stem to cause slight damage. The plant repairs this damage, making a stronger stem that creates much larger buds. Some people completely break their stems and then repair them using bandages or splits - we don’t need no stinking bandages! Try treating a room of plants and not a garden and get in touch with each strain or hybrid you grow to determine how much it will stretch and whether it does best topped or (like a rare few) better untopped.
Try some of these techniques on your plants and you will be amazed at the outcome.
http://www.cannabisculture.com/v2/content/tie-herWant to know how to get larger yields and bigger buds with only the cost of some... more
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not just for some, but for everyone of us !
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Since 2007, Oaksterdam University has been teaching marijuana law and cultivation. The school trains people to operate within the industry in a safe and responsible manner.
On the forefront of a new industry, students are trained to work in a dispensary, start their own business or work at changing the laws for marijuanaSince 2007, Oaksterdam University has been teaching marijuana law and cultivation. The... more
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CANNABIS CULTURE - Master grower Subcool on trichome production, THC levels, and the best time to harvest your blossoming buds.
So you have worked hard for 8 weeks! You have invested money into equipment and possibly genetics; you have invested time and dedication to get to this point. How can you tell when it’s time to harvest your gooey girls? Well 'fire one up' and let’s take a look at the best way to be sure you’re harvesting at peak potency. This article will help you understand what happens in the final weeks, so you can harvest for the specific type of high you prefer.
The harvest window is one aspect of the craft which, unfortunately, gets overlooked. As well, many growers simply don’t have the patience to wait-out the last few days to insure max THC content.
Some strains are better harvested before their peak THC production and some are better harvested after their peak THC production.
Robert Clark wrote about trichomes and what they tell us in his book “Marijuana Botany”;
“The elevated resin heads appear clear, since fresh resin is still being secreted, often being produced in the cellular head of the trichome. At this time THC acid production is at a peak and CBD acid levels remain stable as the molecules are rapidly converted to THC acids, THC acid synthesis has not been active long enough for a high level of CBN acid to build up from the degradation of THC acid by light and heat. Terpene production is also nearing a peak and the floral clusters are beautifully aromatic. Many cultivators prefer to pick some of their strains during this stage in order to produce marijuana with a clear, cerebral, psychoactive effect It is believed that, in peak floral clusters, the low levels of CBD and CBN allow the high level of THC to act without their sedative effects.”
What the hell does this mean?
When growing Indica hybrids, unless you want to end up on the couch, it’s best to harvest when the trichome heads are fully formed but before they start to cloud over and turn amber. This could take as little as five days or as long as two weeks, depending on the maturation time of the specific strain. If you allow an Indica to go too long, you can dramatically affect the taste and high. Fortunately, going too long is not a real problem for most people.
I like to study close-up photos taken with a high resolution digital camera; however an inexpensive hand-held microscope works wonders. It almost looks like you are in an alien world when looking at resonated buds using fifty-times-power.
With the Sativa-dominant hybrids, you want to make sure that all the trichome heads are fully formed and also about thirty percent amber. Letting a plant mature beyond this point will risk flavor and the finished smoke may be harsh with very little "high". There are exceptions; Haze has three different harvest windows, all being very late into flower. It is every grower’s job to learn what he or his patients prefer in the terms of "high".
This article will not address yields: if you are at the third stage of floral maturity with fully-formed trichomes, we can assume most strains have packed on all their final weight.
Use the guidelines spelled out below to help gauge the best harvest window for your plants based on the trichomes.
1. Fully-formed but still clear will provide a cleaner 'up' high with less sedative effect; this is the best window for heavy Indicas.
2. Fully-formed and turning slightly cloudy or milky; this is probably the best time to pick most hybrids available today.
3. Fully formed completely cloudy or milky with at least 30% of the heads turning amber; this is usually best window for the late maturing Sativa’s such as Haze. This is also a good window when using the plant primarily for Hash production.
Take for instance the Jacks Cleaner, harvested at 56 days; all trichomes are still visibly clear with very few turning cloudy. At this point it has a very 'up' high and CONTINUED>>>CANNABIS CULTURE - Master grower Subcool on trichome production, THC levels, and the... more
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Limited legalization of marijuana has put more of a hurt on Mexican drug gangs than all the law enforcement expenditure on arrests and interdiction.Limited legalization of marijuana has put more of a hurt on Mexican drug gangs than... more
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juicie
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added this
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2 years ago
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As the Senior Editor of High Times Magazine, David Bienenstock has traveled the world writing about marijuana. He has interviewed everyone from growers to dealers to prisoners to politicians, which means he knows just about everything there is to know about pot.
Check out www.revelinnewyork.com for more videos and for David's personalized city and culture guide to New York.As the Senior Editor of High Times Magazine, David Bienenstock has traveled the world... more
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Jeanne Merserve from CNN takes a look at the only legal marijuana grow house in the U.S.
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There's a push by students at Florida State University to legalize marijuana.
Students are gathering petitions for a constitutional amendment. They'll need almost 700,000 to get it on the ballot next year.
Kim Russell is one of the organizers and says it could help her father with Parkinson's disease avoid surgery.
"It's a pain reducer. It's a neuro-protector, meaning it protects the brain. It has anti-oxidant properties. There's many medicinal purposes for it".There's a push by students at Florida State University to legalize marijuana.... more
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LOKAL 420 Founder Unkle Mike explains why he is going to prison for 3 years.
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Slate posted a letter from John Conyers Jr., chairman of the House judiciary committee, to the DEA's acting administrator Michele Leonhart about the agency's "dramatically intensified … frequency of paramilitary-style enforcement raids" on legal cannabis users and dispensaries.
Conyers asked for an accounting of the agency's costs for these measures against "individuals who suffer from severe or chronic illness" and for its rationale for threatening landlords of licensed dispensaries with "arrest and forfeiture of their property." Meanwhile, the California State Legislature is considering a measure that would allow state and local law enforcement agencies to refuse cooperation with the DEA.
http://www.slate.com/id/2192062/entry/2192063/
Slate posted a letter from John Conyers Jr., chairman of the House judiciary... more
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This is the story of the birth of Gainesville Green, a strand of marijuana that spurred a movement.This is the story of the birth of Gainesville Green, a strand of marijuana that... more
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Despite the threat of police raids destroying their crops, farmers say the financial returns justify the risk.Despite the threat of police raids destroying their crops, farmers say the financial... more
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