[Meag]

Hi, my name is Meag and I am writing a research paper arguing that cannabis growing can be classified as its own subculture. If anyone has any expertise in this area it would help my research immensely if you could answer a short questionnaire in which you will remain completely anonymous:

1)Have you ever grown cannabis before? If so, for how long?
2) Do you feel that the art of growing cannabis is its own field, separate from weed culture itself?
3) What does a typical day look like for you?
4) Do you feel, or have you ever felt prejudiced for your interests in growing cannabis?
5) What are some of the struggles you face every day?

Thank you again for participating in this questionnaire, all feedback is important.

[Douglas.Curtis]

Happy to answer and anon is not something I care about.

1. Yes, 15 years.

2. Yes. I do not "Identify" with the majority of people I use cannabis with, nor the 'weed' stereotypes society is familiar with. I find High Times and other mainstream 'weed' publications to be rather worthless, as far as growing information. In my opinion, most users of cannabis are rather limited in their experience and understanding of cannabis.

3. It varies. I'm a personal medical grower and I only grow for myself and my wife, so we only have about 1400w's of gardening going on. A small veg area and a 4x4 tent for flowering. I'm also currently growing some hydroponic beet greens (which my kid loves) lol.

The short days are when I only have to top off reservoirs and make a note of pH/ppm changes in each. All of about 15 minutes? Love those days. I've been reversing a plant, this last month, and she added a few minutes to my day.

Moderate days are 3-4 hours and can consist of trimming vegging plants, dumping and re-filling reservoirs. I don't have pumps, so it's all 5 gallon bucket hauls. lol 45g and a 12g res. Sometimes I'll be changing the grow room around and it will take 3-4 hours in a day.

Full days are when I'm setting up a new grow, harvesting & trimming, maintaining the drying area or when surprises happen (usually equipment failures or plant issues).

4. My interest in cannabis has excluded me from a great many things in life. It has cost me a lot of good paying jobs and alienated me from a great many people, including my 6 siblings and (until recently) my parents. I recently helped my father include cannabis for his health issues and this has completely changed my parents views on cannabis. After 30+ years of attitude about my cannabis use, things are good between us. Hooray for change.

5. #1 is paying my bills, which goes back to the job discrimination thing. #2 is affording the equipment I need to produce the quality of cannabis I prefer. Right now I need a dehuey, for the first time in my growing experience. (never lived in a place this wet before. *sigh*)

Since the grow is at my house, instead of some other location, my wife is not able to keep plants in the house as she likes. I rarely use pesticides of any kind and prefer to not use any, which means we restrict the frequency of visitors to our house. I find non-growers to have serious difficulty understanding the reasons why we behave the way we do.

Keeping my grows un-infected is a daily and unending task of awareness. I look forward to having an actual grow facility. One where I can shower and change into a clean jumpsuit, and then change back when I leave.