MMJ Business Daily

After numerous delays and setbacks, Washington DC’s medical marijuana program made significant strides last spring when the city selected six cultivation and four dispensary finalists to move forward in the permitting process.

But the progress ended there and almost nothing has happened since, leaving the fledgling medical cannabis industry in the lurch. Local officials reportedly met with the finalists months ago. However, none of those entrepreneurs have received a permit yet, and it doesn’t appear that any are even close.

“The best way to describe the situation is that everything’s really stuck in the mud,” said Jason Klein, a medical marijuana attorney in the District. “I’m not optimistic. It’s not looking good at this point.”

In some areas of the country, strong resistance by public officials has held up MMJ programs (see: Arizona). In others, like New Jersey, the program has become bogged down by procedural and technical issues. In DC, however, the medical marijuana program just seems to have fallen completely off the map. Local officials haven’t addressed the issue in months or informed would-be dispensaries and growers what’s next, and the health department – which is supposed to oversee the program – inexplicably took down its medical marijuana page.

“There’s a lot of scrutiny on the District, and it seems we’ve lost all momentum and no one wants to touch this issue with a 10-foot pole,” Klein said. “The longer it takes, the more I fear it will never go forward.”

Several factors are at work. Washington DC Mayor Vincent Gray is under federal investigation, which reportedly has brought a lot of city business to a standstill. The head of the health department – and the main official overseeing the MMJ program – has also taken a one-year leave of absence, and the Obama administration’s crackdown on medical cannabis operations in other states has created a ton of uncertainty.

The two people charged with heading up the program for the time being told the Washingtonian in late July that they are still moving forward with medical marijuana, adding that they are encouraging everyone to “move as fast as they can” to get dispensaries up and running. For the MMJ community, it’s not fast enough.

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Make sure you are cultivating safely! Call weGrow Store for grow room expertise or visit our website to learn more about these services!

HuffingtonPost.com
A Miami-Dade home is scheduled for demolition after a hydroponic marijuana lab explosion turned it into an unsafe structure, CBS Miami reports.

The renters of the home fled in a Nissan Altima and an SUV after the explosion at 6355 S.W. 151 Place in southwest Miami-Dade, according to a release from Miami-Dade Police. They have not been located.

Police confirmed that there were marijuana plants inside the home, although they could not determine exactly how many because of the poor condition of the structure, according to the release.

“I felt the explosion,” neighbor Ana Egusquiza told NBC 6. “I was at home reading sitting down. The explosion felt like it was coming from the ground and the house shook. When I went outside the windows were blown out and everything was shattered. The front of the house was on the ground. Everything had crumbled.”

During the explosion, the roof lifted off the structure, according to CBS Miami.

Miami-Dade Police Det. Alvaro Zabaleta told NBC that the combination of vapors, stolen electricity and other unsafe features of grow houses is “just a formula for disaster.”

“When the wind shifts in a certain direction, you can definitely smell it. Yesterday morning it was a much stronger chemical smell,” Orlando Martinez told CBS Miami. “As the day went on it ended up being more of a marijuana smell and it was all over the place.”

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We have great news. Our new website is officially LIVE. In order to take the celebration to the next level, we are offering 20% off ALL website purchases through next Friday (the 21st). All you have to do is enter “wegrow20off” to save. Read on to discover our new website features.

Whether you are looking to start a weGrow, open a dispensary, learn how to grow or even just need general medical marijuana industry guidance, the new weGrow site has it all. Investments for breaking into the industry start as low as $14.95. Read on for specifics on our variety of services!

Open a weGrow: Open a weGrow franchise. Hydroponics is a rapidly growing industry and the future for crop production. weGrow gives you turnkey solutions to start your own hydroponics business. Franchising opportunities are available in over 40 states. Read more here.
Open a Dispensary: Open a medical marijuana dispensary. weGrow has helped individuals open marijuana dispensaries all over the country. Medical marijuana is a multi-billion dollar business. weGrow offers assistance for you to open a medical marijuana dispensary. Read more here.
Talk to a Consultant: Hire a medical marijuana consultant who has helped start successful marijuana grow rooms, marijuana dispensaries and other ancillary marijuana businesses. weGrow has some of the top medical marijuana experts in the country to assist you. Read more here.
Start a Grow Room: Start your own medical marijuana cultivation center or medical marijuana grow room. weGrow offers marijuana grow room design, build and operational support. We can help you build a start-of-the-art grow room that maximizes your harvest. Read more here.
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Post a picture of your most creative homemade bong or even your favorite bong by Sunday, August 5. Everyone who submits a picture gets a point! If you post a photo of a bong that incorporates the Team USA colors you will earn double points.  Good luck and pass that torch!

Your chance to win weGrow Swag! All you have to do is “Like” weGrow Phoenix, upload or email your heady buds to Info@weGrowStore.com and tell us why your buds are the best for your chance to win a $500 grow room setup!

Winner announced March 20 via Facebook!

With the exception of vaporizers, smoking pot is bad for your health, brah. Yeah! I know – we’re never supposed to admit it, but the truth is that smoking anything exposes our lungs to harsh conditions that hurt us over time! That’s why vaporizers are so great. All of the THC with none of the afterproduct. Well, there’s another, pain-stakingly obvious way to get high that many people have never even tried despite years of smoking. What, pray-tell is it? Eating THC cooked in baked goods or recipes that call for butter. Despite the proof that highs after eating food prepared with ganja butter lasts much longer than a normal stoned sensation after smoking and is much better for the health of the person getting high, many folks are skeptical about eating pot. Let’s analyze why.

Why People Are Hesitant to Make Baked Pot Goods

People fear what they don’t know. Think about it this way: if you just bought a new phone, and I told you that I could hack it to get you free stuff but there’s risk that it would break the phone, wouldn’t you hesitate if that phone just cost $300? Yeah. So people with an ounce of good pot aren’t about to dump it into a cooking pan and hope to get lucky by guessing at what they’re doing. Who else could be reluctant and holding out against eating THC products? Could it be the people who were misled to believe that literally eating marijuana straight would get them stoned? More than likely. To those, we apologize that you wasted your bag and ingested it without first processing it in butter. Had you done it correctly, you would know that eating pot versus smoking it will get you much more ripped.

Why You Should Eat Pot More than You Smoke It

As stated, eating is a preferred method of ingestion for the body 1,000 times over smoking. Most every form of ingestion aside from smoking is better than smoking. The reason is because as the flame heats the plant material, more than just THC vapors are released. Kick-back from lighter ignition can pump butane into your lungs and sparks of flint can get caught in the bowl, sucked down and into your throat should you be unlucky enough to get airplaned, (when the red, hot embers of the remains of a bowl get sucked through a non-water piece and into the back of your throat). All of these nasty side effects of smoking can cause cancer, even though THC itself is a cancer-fighting agent! Smoke maple leafs for a decade and again, there’ll be tar in your lungs as a result of the carbonization process when flame burns organic material. End case.

When you eat something, however, your body is thorough at digestion, as we’ve had roughly a few hundred millennia to perfect a system that keeps most things we eat from killing us. As people have grown and evolved, our pallets have come to accept things that they otherwise would not. We grow as people and adapt to different foods. Some people can’t take spicy food – just like some people can’t take cannabis. Either way, if you can take cannabis, eating it will fuel you with roughly the same type of baked starches that you’d get from eating a bun of a sandwich at a fast food restaurant or the slices of bread on a sandwich (with the added benefit of getting really stoned). The butter is necessary for the dough of the cookies so that is a bit fattening but overall eating pot is healthier than smoking it. As long as you’re not eating Canna-cookies or ganja brownies daily, you won’t suffer from congestive heart failure due to cholesterol build up. If THC must be ingested daily, it’s arguable as to whether smoking it or eating is best. However, for the recreational user, eating far surpasses smoking in terms of being healthy and in the intensity of the experience.

The Obvious Reason

Most importantly out of all arguments out there about whether eating cannabis is worth it, is whether it gets you more stoned. Because you do drop a lot more pot in making a batch of ganja butter than you may have if you smoked over a period of time, not everyone is willing to part with their bag under the presumption that eating a brownie will get them more high than hitting a pipe. Well, the rumor is true: ingesting pot is scientifically found to get people more high and higher for a longer period of time.

As the digestive tract is slow to absorb molecules released during digestion, the bloodstream quickly filters out THC when it is introduced through the lungs and pumped throughout the body. This means that while you may get the usual high from smoking your pot, a whole new world emerges when you eat things infused with the total THC of your entire bag. Think of it as a shot of pot rather than a beer or wine. The reason to eat things made with ganja butter is clear: it gets you a more notably intoxicated, altered or attuned feeling and that is a major reason why people love smoking pot.

LED lights may be expensive but they’re all the rage for a number of reasons. Small area grows are virtually undetectable using LED’s. There is zero risk of fire with LED lights. LED’s can be programmed to represent varying color spectrums to accommodate different strains in their ideal lighting scenario. All of these are amazing but LED’s are also completely silent when running, they can operate on low voltage and they’re safe within an inch of your plants. Is it any wonder why LED’s have made such a difference on the market? No. It’s quite obvious.

LED Pricing

Considering that a single 1.3 Watt LED light runs roughly 2 dollars retail, and you’ll be getting dozens upon dozens in rows when you invest in your grow op LED lighting system, the pricing works out to be fair. Factor in the additional security of knowing that your operation will never overheat and catch fire or set off any alarms saying, “this guy’s using an awful lot of power”, you can expect anywhere from a couple hundred bucks for a cheap 14 – 24 Watt system to in the thousands for up to 240 Watt grow kits. A great in between option with TONS of lumens for your budding beauties is the Stealth Grow 602.

The Stealth Grow 602 usually ranges between $1,400 – $1,600 but you can expect it to yield as well as a 1,000 Watt HPS bulb. As HPS bulbs “pop” roughly every 4-8 months under heavy use, the SG 602 will pay for itself in lifespan. It’s also now 25% brighter! Find LED lights like this and much more at weGrow!

Resale of LED Lights

When investing in a set up to grow anything in, especially marijuana, it’s important to know that your investment will retain its value. With LED lights versus any other type of light, you’ll get a very long-lasting bulb life (1-2 years+). This cuts down on maintenance: something every investor dreads. LED lights hold their value because they last longer and because set ups are generally more difficult. Winding connections for hundreds of small, LED lights in housings certainly takes more effort than screwing in a bulb into a pre-manufactured casing! Though because of the intricate work put into these systems, they will last in your set up for years without interruption. They won’t cause fires and they don’t suck up a lot of electricity, either. Clearly, the light of the future is the LED. A lot of folks have hesitated because of price, anticipating a drop. While the price seems high compared to fluorescent or HPS and MH set ups, the longevity is where the initial cost is offset.

If you’re looking to sell off a system with LED lights versus MH or HPS, you’re looking at at least $1,000 more than the equivalent in comparable lights. The reason is simply because LED setups hold their value. They’re also preferred by serious flower growers because they can be manipulated across any color spectrum necessary for the specific flowers being grown to thrive. Regardless of whether you resell a LED system back to a marijuana grower or a flower nut, you’re definitely in it to get a good deal. Don’t settle for less and you’ll still find that your unit sells quickly!

Conclusion

If you’re a first time grower and you don’t have a lot of capital to throw around, sure, it may be unreasonable to go with a LED system to fuel your plants with light. If you have saved over time and are prepared and interested in getting the highest return out of your light system, LED’s are the clear choice. If you’re a mid-sized grower looking to expand in some way, upgrading to LED’s will result in greater harvest sizes and lower electric costs, monthly. Invest wisely: research and find out how often you have to replace other bulbs and you’ll see why LED’s make the most sense over time.

When people have concerns about smoking because it is a health hazard while also craving to experience the intoxicating effects of marijuana, making baked goods is a great option. While you still experience the ridiculous highs, most times even longer than if you had smoked, you also keep your lungs from turning into dried piles of crusty black lung butter (ew, ganja butter is much better than lung butter, I assure you). So without further delay, let’s get down to making ganja butter!

INGREDIENTS

Shake, stems, seeds and buds (as desired) –

Generally people say that if you use an ounce of buds to 2 sticks of butter, you’ll be enormously stoned every time you cook with your butter.

For more concentrated batches, half the butter.

For sticks, stems, seeds and shake, the amount needs to compound significantly. For instance, if you grew a harvest of two pounds this season, you’ll have enough stems, shake and trimmings to make butter that’ll last you roughly a half dozen batches of brownies (all figures are estimated).

When it comes down to it, the quantity of pot material necessary for good ganja butter really boils out to whether you use THC rich buds or THC low stems and trimmings.

1 – 4 sticks of butter (depending on desired potency)

DIRECTIONS

In a large pot, grind your ounce of buds or several ounces of seeds, stems and trimmings. When the entire ounce is ground up, Add the desired amount of butter depending on how stoned you want people to get when they eat your brownies. Turn the heat up, boil the butter once, then turn the heat down to a simmer and let the pot sit, covered, for at least six hours. After six hours, separate the liquid butter into a glass bowl through a strainer to catch the ground marijuana. Put this in the fridge and use it when you want to make something that calls for butter in the recipe next time: you’ll be amazed at the results!

Why It Works

The reason that pot needs to be processed through butter before it gets you stoned is because pot is lipidic, (it bonds quickly to fatty substances). As you heat the bud and the butter over a long period of time, the THC and other compounds in the marijuana begin to loosen from the plant material and infuse within the butter. This means that all properties of intoxication are transferred through, into the butter and eventually into the meal you will prepare. Brownies work wonderfully but pasta dishes and cookies work fine as well.

What to Expect

Warning to those who are faint of heart – ingesting pot rather than smoking it can intensify effects and prolong them! If you’re not a pro at getting stoned, eat brownies for the first time in a complacent environment with good people. Paranoia can be a real ***** when you’re high for four hours. Due to the slow ingestion process versus the smoking process, which gets absorbed into the bloodstream quicker but also processed quicker, the effects of the weed when through the esophagus, stomach and bowels is intense to say the least. Especially with seriously high-grade pot, you can expect to be high six hours before you come down. With that in mind – line up the movie marathon, get slews of Doritos in advance and be prepared because eating weed will creep up on you and put you under before you realized what happened.

Remember – the higher the fat content of the butter, the better it’s going to take in the THC from the pot. Check different local grocery stores for different brands if you really want to maximize your intake of psychoactive ingredients after straining your butter!

If you happen to be starting a garden, or if you already have one, there are few more profitable plants than the marijuana plant. Unfortunately, some strains can take over two months to grow to maturity, leaving growers waiting hard on cash before their plant buds and yields a harvest. Luckily, there are tons of strains out there, and if you’re looking for some that grow quickly, you’re in luck.

These are eighteen of the quickest growing strains of marijuana. At weGrow, we know that every garden is going to have its own special needs and schedule. If you decide on any of the below listed strains for your next harvest and you need advice or supplies to ensure that you achieve the maximum possible yield, visit any of our local branch stores or online at www.weGrowstore.com. We’ve got everything from low watt / high lumen light setups so you never set up any flags at the electric company but we’ve also got the nutrients necessary to ensure that every short step of your quick-growing plant’s life, it has what it takes to thrive.

18 Phenomenally Fast-Growing Strains

B52 – Flowers in 7 weeks – B52 is a top variety for commercially available skunk.

Grape Punch - Flowers in roughly 6 weeks – A cross of Lifesavor / Bogglegum rich and full-bodied smoke, with a distinctive punch. Potent!

Jack Flash – Flowers in roughly 6 weeks – A Jack Herer 1/2 hybrid that is simple to grow and already a classic amongst all that know it!

Amsterdam Gold – Flowers in 6 weeks – Amsterdam Gold is an Indica created in California during the 1970’s and it has been grown in Holland since the early ‘80’s. Its smoke is soft with a citrus-y fragrance and it always yields a good high. Amsterdam Gold is easy for growing, and it yields long, resinous, dense buds.

Blue Velvet – Flowers in 6-7 weeks – Blue Velvet was developed from genetic development procedures unique to Europe. Blue Velvet is not alone: Blueberry and Flo are developed from these new genetic practices. These varieties are of the highest imaginable quality. It is an Indica/Sativa mix (straight 50/50 split). The leaves and buds show hues like reds and light purples, usually on the underside of leaves. Blue Velvet produces an intense, active, “cerebral high”.

Blueberry – Flowers in 6-7 weeks – Blueberry is mostly an Indica (80% Indica, 20% Sativa), and it has been grown since the late 1970′s. This strain blooms with a lot of weight when grown in ideal circumstances. Blueberry is dense and stout. It has red, purple and blue hues that usually change when cured to a light purplish-blue. Expect a very fruity aroma and the taste of, (go figure) blueberry. It produces a pleasant and euphoric high that lasts.

Flo - FLowers in 6-7 weeks – The original “Flo” is a Sativa/Indica cross at 60% Sativa and 40% Indica w that matures early. The big, dense, spear-shaped buds consist of small tightly packed purple calyxes. They’re usually taller plants and will branch out. Indoors, the buds are entirely matured by the end of the sixth week. Outdoors, the plant is a wonderful producer especially if multi-harvested over a set period. Expect buds to be ripe about the third week in September. Every ten days after the initial harvest, new buds will continue to form and can be harvested throughout the end of November, (if the plant can be kept alive that long). Because of this, “Flo” is ideal for growing in a greenhouse. The motivational “high” you get after smoking “Flo” is extraordinary.

Mango – Flowers in 6-7 weeks – Mango is a 100% Indica variety. It is an F-1 hybrid of KC-33 and Afghani. Expect high yields and some plants to mature very early before the rest.

Night Queen – Flowers in 6-8 weeks – Night Queen is a 1197 upgraded strain. It exhibits early flowering and is a more productive strain than the average. Night Queen is a Sativa/Indica cross that yields big, fat buds. The scent is sweet and it gets you a familiar Sativa high.

Northern Lights #1 – Flowers in roughly 6 weeks – Northern Lights #1 was created in Seattle and perfected in Holland. Northern Lights has become the “industry standard” indoor plant.

Northern Lights #5 – Flowers in roughly 6 weeks – This Indica is the product of over twenty years of select inbreeding among the best in Northern Lights. It was bred for quick growth, high yields and of course an unforgettable high. #5 is a must for growers that prefer shorter, bushier plants. The buds look like they’re sugar frosted, they’re resinous in appearance and the yield of buds is high.

Purple High – Flowers in 6-7 weeks – Originally a Dutch outdoor variety, Purple High is a strong strain. Almost every plant turns a deep purple color and the whole plant is sticky with T.H.C. Purple High is very simple to get started. It is 100% Indica, yet it has an unusually fragrant smell. The taste has been described as subtly “rough around the edges”, but it delivers a crystal clear and focused high.

Purple Star – Flowers in 6-7 weeks – Purple Star is extremely strong and really simple to grow. The buds come in resinous, featuring a heavy, perfumed aroma. The smell is a bit overpowering, but this strain produces an incredibly strong high. Roughly fifty percent of Purple Star plants actually turn purple.

Twighlight – Flowers in roughly 6 weeks – Twighlight is a gorgeous purple variety (meaning all Indica) with good yields and an afghan taste. Expect heavy buds and a heavy high.

AK-48 – Flowers in roughly 6 weeks – Starting in the mid 90′s, the “AK” strains have been increasing in popularity. AK-48 is among the strongest finishing strains available, period. AK-48 yields compact buds with a potent, penetrating aroma. AK-48 is a Indica/Sativa hybrid yet the high is reminiscent of a Sativa high.

Bogglegum – Flowers in 6 weeks – This gum will never lose its flavor! It supposedly tastes like grape bubblegum, hence the name. Expect Bogglegum to flower in just 40-44 days. It grows compact, so it’s ideal for indoor growing. This strain is delicious with a soft smoke and a “CREEPER STONED” sure to please.

California Sunrise – Flowers in roughly 6 weeks – You need to see it to believe the the gilded glow of this hybrid. It smells sweet and sour and get you very high. Expect flowering starting at roughly seven weeks. Yields and timing are convenient for the commercial grower.

Double Gum – Flowers in roughly 6 weeks – Between the remarkable qualities of Double Gum is the extra sweet flavor. At  best, Double Gum has the taste and smell of pink “Double Bubble” bubblegum (again, hence the name). This is a versatile plant that does well indoors or in a greenhouse> If you’re growing outside, keep Double Gum in a warm environment. It doesn’t spout up much and the compact growth pattern makes it pretty simple to grow and keep concealed.

Whether you’ve bought headies for too high a price or shwag that doesn’t get you high, all marijuana starts in one form: the seed.

While it’s extremely difficult to tell what strain a seed is unless you buy the seeds directly from a reputable seed dealer, there are two basic types of marijuana that your seed could be.

Two Types of Marijuana: Sativa and Indica

Indica and Sativa are like the yin and yang of marijuana; gently blending from a mental/ cranial high that sativa is known for and moving into the full, lazy, “stoned” body hit of the indica. These are crucial differences between the two that may lead you to want to purchase seeds directly rather than picking them out of a bag. If you do grow on potluck, maybe you’ll be better able to identify your crop using these characteristics as guides.

INDICA

These plants typically grow short and will be densely branched. They’re great to grow in temperate climates. Dips in weather down to around sixty Fahrenheit won’t upset these girls too badly. Expect to fee a great body hit from indica plants without as much of a head high.

SATIVA

The sativa plant is naturally a taller plant than it’s buddy the indica, with fewer branches, and thinner stalks. Sativa plants can be finicky regarding the weather depending on the strain with which you’re working.

It can be tough to tell what seeds you’re getting if you don’t invest directly from a seed distributor. If you need sativa that’ll grow in temperate zones, check a reputable seed plant and you’ll find descriptions of strains they offer along with their propensity to grow in your area.

Sativa smoke usually yields a much more cranial high that can lead to foggy thoughts or pure clarity depending on your reaction to the different strains. You will not feel as encumbered as when smoking indica. One way to tell indicas apart from sativas is that on sativas, the leaves are typically broader.

Though these strains are inherently different, under prime growing conditions they’ll both yield sticky, crystal-packed buds. That is dependent entirely on how well they are grown.

Pot with Seeds? You’ve got Man Problems

If you’ve ever gotten mids or shwag, you know that there are plenty of seeds and stems floating around in nugget that people smoke on a regular basis. For purposes of consumption, seedy weed is nowhere near as potent or flavorful as nuggets containing no seeds. There’s a reason for this.

You can tell the gender of the plant depending on whether or not small pistils form at the intersection of branches to the main stem. If you see pistils, the plant is female. If you do not, the plant is male and should be removed IMMEDIATELY if you aren’t breeding your plants.

By removing the male plants, you eliminate the risk that their pollen will reach the females before they start to bud. This is important: if pollen gets to the female plants, your buds are going to contain seeds. If you remove the male plants and do not let the female plants get pollinated, instead of seeds forming inside of the buds, THC content of the buds rises and the buds are more dense with flowers and crystals than seeds and stems.

Voila – by taking care of the “man problem” in your garden, you’ll effectively improve the quality of your chronic by leaps and bounds!

There’s No Such Thing as an Impotent Strain

There is no strain of marijuana that doesn’t contain THC. Even the male plants have trace amounts of THC – don’t count on getting high smoking hemp, though. The female plants have the high levels of THC that are desirable for recreational smokers. If you’re planning on growing a plant that gets you more stoned per gram of buds, you’re going to need to take good care of your plants with great growing technique. However, when you clone, clone, and  clone again you can get genetic drift which reduces all the characteristics of the plant.

A few options that you can consider if you’ve yet to implement them:

• Try growing hydroponically. Hydro systems automate much of the process and allow you greater control over the variables such as nutrients, light exposure and ventilation.

• Only use seeds if your interested starting up your own breeding program and creating a gene pool

• If you’re growing inside, use the right light sequences!

• If growing outside, you MUST plant in the summer to harvest in the fall. Without the right lighting, either the pot plants won’t grow to their correct size before budding or they’ll never bud because they’re stuck in a vegetative light cycle!  Also, never plant clones before the summer equinox  because they will automatically flower.

• Correct cycles are 16-18 hours of light on / 6-8 hours off for vegetative then 12 on/ 12 off for flowering.

For all things hydro visit weGrowStore.com or stop into one of our stores!