Beware of M.M.C.S. (Medical Marijuana Cultivation Syndrome)
One of the top beaches in Southern California is the north end of Ocean Beach, San Diego. Someone unfamiliar with that beach scene might presume it to be a surfer’s haven, clothing optional sun bathing, or just a freak fest. Nope, not even close, it’s Dog Beach. People, oceanic beauty, canines, and love all rolled into one. This example is merely a microcosm of intensity between other living non-humans, and their relationship.
Medical Marijuana cultivation is all about a garden of living plants, dependent on you for everything- just like your pets or children. You will take an embryonic seed all the way to harvest, with a myriad of emotions in between. When you prep your grow area by trimming ivy, raking, turning soil, composting, fertilizing, and weeding- that’s just like painting the nursery pink, or putting bedding in the new dog house. You are about to celebrate new life.
Pot farmers, as they affectionately refer to themselves, call their plants “babies”, and they do this until full maturity, just like I’m still my mom’s baby at 57. Getting down in the deep, moist, dirty soil is akin to changing diapers, especially if you treat your plants with fish emulsion food supplements. This is what catches most newbies off-guard, the living aspect of your garden of Medical Marijuana. Yes, it’s great that you’ll benefit in a medicinal way, exhibiting pride in your accomplishments along the journey, but the intensity and catharsis from cultivation- could easily push your new found passion, into a syndrome.
One trap that’s easy to fall into is the one of exclusion. In many States cultivation is still illegal, even for medicinal reasons, and those that are approved, the patient needs an I.D. This means that some Medical Marijuana cultivators may have a stigma attached to their gardening endeavor, thus keeping it on the “down-low”. This bunker mentality may keep you and your “babies” isolated for a while, where you sleep-work-and tend garden. It’s very easy to spend a few hours among your plants, even on a daily basis. Weekends will involve trips to the local plant nursery, Doctors and Nurses will sneak out blood by- products from the hospitals to feed their plants, and Encarsia Formosa strips will be ordered to keep Whitefly pests away. If you have a spouse or significant other, include them in your new hobby to defer their wrath.
Security is yet another umbilical cord that will be difficult to cut. The older your plants become, the greater your concern and intensity. Watching these Sativas or Indicas mature, keeping them pest free, and making sure low life rip-off artists don’t get hold of them, is just like waiting at the bus stop- ‘til your kids are safely off to school. A good watch dog, motion sensor lights, and booby traps (be creative) are mild panaceas at best. Better yet, just hang-out with your babies 24/7, thus the M.M.C.S. strengthens.
The mix of earth, climate, beautiful plants, and nurturing of life- is very encompassing. Your end product offers therapeutic relief of an ailment, but the come down after your garden expires, may take your psyche to a place you’ve never been. If you feel totally bummed out after harvest, find some more seeds and dig in again. Remember, grow American!
Joyce
Joyce embraces the “Cannabis Culture” at http://www.cali9.com
email [email protected]
