420SA

First Grow ever? Not bad they're looking good

Welcome Bluntman!!! Looking forward to your input and your grows!

How about a young update here Bird? 

An article by EWN - Was written about 2 months ago. Thought it might be worth a read

SHOULD SA LEGALISE MARIJUANA?

Nicotine is probably the most addictive recreational drug around. Just ask anyone who has ever tried to quit. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), tobacco is the single greatest cause of preventable death globally. The United States Center for Disease Control and Prevention describes tobacco as “the single most important preventable risk to human health and the most important cause of premature death worldwide”.

 

Yet, tobacco is legal.

 

Alcohol is not only unhealthy and addictive; it’s also tearing at the fabric of our society.  According to the Automobile Association of South Africa (AA), the majority of all fatal accidents are caused by drunk drivers, while the bulk of pedestrians and people who die in motor vehicle accidents were under the influence of alcohol.  A South African multi-centre study demonstrated that 78,9% of all patients at trauma units with violent injuries tested positive for alcohol. Of all homicides, more than 50% were alcohol-related.  In South Africa, as elsewhere, when people get drunk, death and destruction all too often reigns.

 

Yet, alcohol is legal.

 

The glaring absurdity of a ban on marijuana while the more harmful alcohol and tobacco are tolerated, as well as a host of other very strong policy arguments, has led many to clamour for legalisation.

 

“The benefits of legalisation exceed the disadvantages,” says Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of San Francisco’s Pro Legalisation Drug Policy Alliance. “We know that marijuana is available to anybody who wants it.”

 

The results of three surveys in the US over the last ten years reveal that young people said it was easier to buy marijuana than it was to buy alcohol.

 

“So this notion that somehow we’re protecting young people by keeping marijuana illegal for adults is a joke really,” says Nadelmann.

 

He says the question that South Africans have to ask is, “Do the costs of keeping marijuana illegal - throwing non-criminals in jail, eschewing enormous amounts of tax revenue, keeping it a black market industry powered by organised and unorganised criminals, no quality control, revenue collected by criminals rather than law-abiding entrepreneurs, etc - outweigh the benefits?”

 

“Should you not rather legalise and regulate more or less like you do with alcohol?  There are massive advantages in terms of taxation, regulation, undercutting the black market, putting fewer people in prison and reducing low level police corruption.

 

“The same arguments that are persuading people in my country will ultimately persuade people in your country as well.”

 

He adds that while legalisation might increase use “somewhat”, this will not be the case amongst young people.

 

“Young people already have such easy access to it. I think the principal increase you’ll see will be among older people. It will be people in their 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s. It will be people who find that having a little marijuana is better than taking a sleeping pill at the end of the night, or who find they prefer it to having that glass of alcohol, or that it helps with their diabetes or their arthritis. It’ll be the type of marijuana use that is somewhat recreational, somewhat medical, and lies in that in-between area.

 

“Quite frankly the risks of an increase in elderly people using marijuana compared to the potential benefits make it a non-issue,” says Nadelmann.

 

He mentions the wildly successful example of Colorado, which six months completely legalised the recreational use of marijuana.

 

“The sky did not fall. Those who used to buy marijuana on the black market are now buying it legally and paying taxes. Colorado is earning a fortune in tax revenue; in years to come it’ll amount to hundreds of millions of dollars. The funds from marijuana taxation are building schools and funding police departments.  There’s not much harm, but a lot of good and less crime.”

 

Israel is another model that South Africa can look to, says Nadelmann.

 

“Their Health Ministry runs the medical marijuana industry and they currently have about 15,000 patients. It’s all very well done. There are so many models for South Africa to look at.”

 

Marijuana was legal almost everywhere before widespread prohibition took hold in the late 1930s.  The tide, however, is turning rapidly, with many countries now mulling legalisation.

 

In 2013, following in the footsteps of the US states of Colorado and Washington, Uruguay became the first country in the world to legalise the sale, cultivation and distribution of marijuana.

 

Other countries that recently legalised the medicinal use of marijuana include Canada, the Czech Republic and Israel.

Podcast is here

An article from the Guardian dated 25/09/14 - http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2014/sep/25/hemp-wood-fibre-construction-climate-change

Welcome TK! Thanks for joining us!

Very surprising indeed and seeing as SABC is obviously a government entity, it makes it even better. Not to say that definitely shows high hopes but if a government controlled channel clearly leans on the side of legalisation we can be quietly confident

We all know whose side Eben(the host) is on Big ups to him as well! One could mistake him as a pro-cannabis lobbyist!

So I may enter again? As my passion is designing digital arts! So I'll come up with more than epix logo

You can enter here Poison no problem. Submit as many diffent designs as you see fit

Ok guys the poll has officially closed . In all honestly I don't think the poll was too effective with a lot of potential for voter recruiting. We will continue to run the poll but the ability for us to decide in the end will always be an option.

So... the winner will be decided by us....

Deciding factors this month were the overall beauty of the plant and how much care has been taken with the plant. Some plants displayed deficiencies and some displayed toxicities.

It was quite tight between the 2 but in the end Totemic's plant walks away the victor

Very close in 2nd place is Birdflu's plant

Please Private Message me your addresses and contact details guys and I will pass it onto Hydro Herb Africa. I will keep you guys posted on the delivery of your prizes. Congratulations guys!!

Many thanks to Hydro Herb Africa for sponsoring these great prizes!!!

To the others, there's always next month! You can enter the same plant next month if you wish.

First post and the only thing you add is GTH advertising? 

I actually PMed toker just before he made that post about his inactivity. Said he's going to intro himself this evening.

My honest opinion...add R500 and buy the 80 x 80 x 160 tent from Greenthumb Hydro.  I have two (1 for flower...1 for veg) and cannot begin to even rave about the tents or as a matter of fact anything you get from GTHydro

How many plants can you fit in there and in what size pots?

Hey Bud

 

Ok so the size is good... but.... does it have ventilation holes? and are you happy to trust it to hold up your reflectors/ fans etc?

 

I mean I would try it just to see, who knows you might have just found the perfect DIY tent.

 

Another thing.. is it light proof?

It has vents but those large zip up one's. My thoughts are to make my own. The bottom isn't sealed because its a shower. There's mesh material at the bottom but I reckon I could seal that.

I tested the strength at the top by pulling on it and it feels strong enough to me. I mean it's designed to hold buckets of water at the top.

The material doesn't look fully lightproof to me so I may need to line the inside with something, like paint, not too sure.

Was in Makro today and spotted this tent that is almost exactly the size that I want to make my tent

It's meant to be a camping shower but doubles as a pretty decent grow tent IMO. It's pretty dam sturdy and supports quite a lot of weight at the top, definitely the weight of my reflector.

Let me know your guys thoughts on using this as a grow tent. It's 700 bucks....not bad...

Either I paint the interior white or I line it with Mylar or sisalation...

Will announce the winner this evening guys! Will also close the poll this evening so there's still time to vote for those of you who haven't.

how soon can you start to fertilise your trees once its started to sprout and grow?

Usually about 3 weeks after the seedlings first emerge from the growing medium. Depends what you're growing in.

Welcom Mino & Smokie!!!

Thanks for joining!

Coming together beautifully Tote. Nice!!!!

Where do you get your 220v fans and how much are they?

Ok guys as a last ditch attempt to keep Blunt Of The Month alive, I've decided to run this comp for September and October. The current entries still apply.

Also Nug of the month's prize has been moved here.

I recently bought one of these oscillating fans http://www.bidorbuy.co.za/item/161058923/Elektra_Desk_Fan.html

It's fairly small at 23cm, oscillates and produces a very strong breeze, and only draws 25 watts max. Just a thought as a replacement to your big logic fan.

Do you have a reflector Fire?

Hi Poison

Ok firstly Indica, Sativa & Ruderalis are Species of the cannabis plant. Strains are the various varieties of those we're familiar with such as Durban Poison.

Lets use Durban Poison as an example. The strain is Durban Poison and the species is Sativa. It's a pure Sativa meaning that it carries no indica genetics.

Then you get crosses/hybrids. There are very few pure strains out there and the majority of strains around are hybrids.... such as White Widow. White Widow is a cross between a Brazilian pure Sativa and a South Indian pure Indica. That gives it a mix of sativa and indica genetics. The result of the cross was a 60% Indica and a 40% Sativa ratio. They then bred that Hybrid and it became a strain of its own.

Then you get hybrids crossed with Hybrids and so new strain names keep popping up over time.

Ruderalis is commonly used for Hemp and I have heard that Ruderalis has been crossed with the other species to create autoflowering strains.

That's my chip in....

Hi Guys

To those of you in desperate need of Medicinal Cannabis in South Africa, it is possible to get a prescription for it. Although the process is apparently long and arduous.

The Dagga Party have been passing on this prescription application form recently so I decided to place it up for download. Just click on the Attachment link below and the Form will download.

Many thanks to the Dagga Party!

Good luck!

Section_21_Application_Form_MCC.pdf

An article from the Huffington Post - 15/09/14

New York Could Legalize Recreational Marijuana In 2015

The state of New York could legalize marijuana for recreational use as early as 2015.

 

State Sen. Liz Krueger (D) will reintroduce the Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act during the next legislative session, which begins in January, her office confirmed to The Huffington Post on Monday.

 

"We're definitely introducing the bill next session," Brad Usher, Krueger's chief of staff, told HuffPost. "We've received a variety of feedback since we first introduced it last December and we're working on amending it, so we're looking to see what we can learn from Colorado and Washington when we reintroduce it."

 

Krueger's bill would permit the opening of retail marijuana dispensaries, which would be regulated by the State Liquor Authority. The bill would establish an excise tax on all marijuana sales, and adults would legally be able to possess up to two ounces of marijuana and grow up to six marijuana plants at home for personal use. Krueger introduced a similar bill in 2013 that also aimed to legalize the possession, use and sale of limited amounts of recreational marijuana, but the bill never made it out of committee.

 

Usher said that many of the changes to the measure for reintroduction in 2015 relate to how the tax is structured, as well as clarifying who would be able to work in the state's marijuana industry.

 

New York is not a referendum state, which means that if next year's measure gets through the legislature and is signed into law, it will immediately go into effect and will not require a vote by New Yorkers. Colorado and Washington, both of which legalized recreational marijuana in 2012, did so through voter-approved ballot measures.

 

"In some ways, not having a referendum makes it harder," Usher said. "With referendum, you only need 50.1 percent support to win, but getting a bill through to law will probably require broader support to address the risk-averse character of some elected officials."

 

One such official might be Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D), who has not made it clear whether he would support a bill that legalizes marijuana for recreational use. In January, Cuomo said that Colorado-style legalization in New York is "a nonstarter for me."

 

Earlier this summer, New York became the 23rd state in the country to legalize medical marijuana. Moreover, the state decriminalized the possession of up to 25 grams of marijuana more than 30 years ago. Even so, New York, and especially New York City, remain plagued by an inordinate number of low-level marijuana arrests.

 

That's because the decriminalization law passed in 1977 has a loophole: Anyone arrested for "private" possession is issued a violation, while anyone arrested for "public" possession is charged with a criminal misdemeanor. So if -- during one of the hundreds of thousands of stop-and-frisk searches the New York City police perform each year -- an officer asks a person to empty their pockets, and marijuana comes out, the drug is suddenly considered to be "in public view." The officer is then allowed to make an arrest.

 

Since 2010, New York City has averaged between 30,000 and 50,000 marijuana arrests each year. And during the period between 2002 and 2012, 87 percent of the people arrested for marijuana possession in the city were black or Latino, despite evidence suggesting that whites use marijuana at about the same rate as either group.

 

So inconsistent is the enforcement of New York's current marijuana laws that a bill attempting to equalize the consequences for all residents of the state was introduced during the last legislative session.

 

"The real motivation [for Krueger's upcoming bill] came from the disparate impacts of the drug war on different communities, how communities of color -- especially in New York City -- are facing large amounts of marijuana arrests based on these interpretations of existing law," Usher told HuffPost.

 

"While Krueger doesn't smoke pot and doesn't think anyone else should, she doesn't think the policy of prohibition has been successful in controlling marijuana use, and [thinks] that it should be treated more as a public health issue," Usher went on. "She doesn't think you should drink either, but making alcohol illegal didn't really work, and we should have learned that about marijuana as well."

 

To date, only Colorado and Washington have legalized cannabis for recreational use. In November, Oregon and Alaska voters will decide if they also want to legalize recreational marijuana for adults.

Link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/15/new-york-recreational-marijuana_n_5825086.html

Where to vote?

The poll is at the top of this topic. Please note that Tapatalk doesn't support Polls so you'll need to either log on with a PC, or log on to the site through your phone's mobile browser and not Tapatalk to submit your vote.

Ok guys Entries are officially closed! Time to get voting!

The nominees are the 5 entrants:

tokin'daily

BirdFlu

ash

Totemic

Maxwell