EagleEyeHamThrust
Active Member
The first trip to the grow store can be intimidating for first timers, and on rare occasions, inexperience can lead to getting harassed by police or even arrested. There are some obvious steps you can take to keep your profile low and maintain your growing habits. Most of this is common sense, but every time I go to the grow store, I can see red flags all over them that would make a cop likely to follow you.
In a lot of states, especially ones that don't allow medical MJ growers, hydroponic supplies and high-end fertilizers can be pretty hard to come buy. Ordering online leaves an electronic record of where you ordered from and is tied to a shipping address and a credit card. One of the most convenient and safe ways to do your shopping for supplies is to buy from your local grow shop.
Grow shops come in quite a few varieties, however where I'm from (a large city) there are only two shops that can supply us with a full spectrum of high-quality hydro supplies. A lot of cities are like this as well, and the police do all they can to try and muscle the stores out of business. They park outside the grow stores to survey who comes and goes which scares away business leading to a shutdown. Eventually there are only a handful of stores. This may sound pretty scary, but not to worry. If you exercise some common sense, you'll be fine.
1. Do some research and have a story ready. Grow shop owners typically know the score, and as long as you just say you're growing tomatoes, herbs, spices, flowers, chilis, whatever, they'll point you in the right direction for MJ. It never hurts to have a story ready for a cop if they ask you what you're doing either. Our grow shop knows what's up. When I put cash down for a special order, they never ask for personal info and give me a claim ticket with no business name on it. Perfect.
2. Dress neatly, keep your hair / beard neat, and if it's long tuck it under a cap. Don't show any piercings or tats. Look like an upstanding member of society and you'll avoid cops by appearing as either a longshot bust or like a buddy getting supplies for a friend. Officers profile all the time, and if you look like someone who does drugs, you're drawing unwanted attention. I see guys with jailhouse tats, ratty beards, long unkempt hair, hippies, and even guys who are blazed rocking some 3rd degree red-eye. If you want to be profiled, but if you're serious about growing and staying out of jail, clean up.
3. Cops will randomly run plates, so watch what you drive. Never drive a care linked to your grow address! Even a family member's car is better than yours because it will require more investigation giving you a better chance of them dropping it, or you seeing it coming because they raided your sister's house. If you have any kind of record, take a car that has no legal connection to you. Hook a buddy up with some extra weed in exchange for using their care. They're perfectly safe if they don't grow. If they pull up a possession of MJ charge from your plates, they'll definately follow up on you seeing as how hydro stores are almost exclusively used for MJ. If you're clean, just keep an eye out for Johnny Law in your rear view mirror on the way home.
4. If you're car is registered to your grow and you're obviously getting followed, it's game over. Destroy everything that's illegal and lay low. If you get followed, but you're in a clean car, then go anywhere but home / your grow. Drop by a safe (no grows going on) friend's house, go shopping, see a movie. Do anything that makes the cops get lazy and forget about you. Cops let shit slide all the time, and many would rather just go home than follow someone around into overtime.
5. Make several small purchases rather than one big one every few months. A guy walking out of a grow store with a gallon or two of fertilizer is too small time for the cops to bother with. Also it's easier to blend in with other customers and get lost in the crowed. On the other hand, if someone is loading 20 gallons of nutes, 10 bags of hydroton, 6 600W HPS lights and an 800 CFM fan/can filter combo into their van, any cops monitoring will follow him home in a heartbeat because they know in a couple of months they'll have a huge bust. I go to the grow store every couple of weeks and keep my stocks healthy. If there's too many cops around, I can always come back next week.
6. Go during a busy time of the day / week. A good example is a grow shop right by a busy market area. The farther away you can park, the better. If there's a crowd you can disappear into, that's the best. Do some other shopping, or browse around a bit. Grab lunch. Enjoy your trip and you'll be more natural.
7. Be white. Better yet, be a woman. Ok, there's not much you can do about that, but what if you look like a thug / drug dealer and you don't want to compromise your image? Simple. You can get a clean-cut white woman friend to do your shopping for you and hook her up with free weed in exchange. At the worst, they try and bust her, which hopefully gets you a tip-off to shut down before the heat shows up. Just like that song, "Everyone's a Little Bit Racist", cops are prejudiced just like the rest of us. They will make judgments based off of appearance. If you're hispanic or black, then you're probably screwed. The cops are going to be thinking "criminal" from the start, no matter how nicely you're dressed. It's unfair, it sucks, but that's the way it is. Being white in America is actually pretty bad ass in an unfair racist way. Side note, if you are a minority, but you talk with a white dialect, you can sometimes get some latitude with racist cops. You might think I'm joking, but no, people really are that shallow.
8. Never panic. The first time you see the cops outside the grow store, you'll probably get that same adrenaline rush you got the first time you got pulled over when you knew were doing something wrong. Act casual and take comfort in the fact that you're not doing anything illegal until you get back to the privacy of your own home. As long as you don't lead anyone there, you can relax. The more you learn to enjoy your trips, the less you'll worry about police. If there are police there, just ignore them like you would anyone else. Don't crane your neck to look at the cops when arriving / leaving.
9. The bigger the store, the better. If you can get your hydro supplies at a big busy nursery where 100s of people come and go every day, that's way better than a tiny store labeled, "HYDROPONICS!" that only gets a few customers an hour. Find places to blend into.
10. Go sober. I've seen it several times, some pinkeyed jackass wearing a head-shop ensemble that looked like he rolled out of bed right before he left for the grow store. You may think you look casual when you're high. You may think you function better when you're high. All I know is that 9/10 people that say they don't look high, look high. They also smell like what they just smoked for hours to someone who has a good sense of smell. Also MJ is not conducive to anything requiring an attention span, like watching for cars following you or talking to cops. Let's put it this way: nobody says, "I can't study for this exam unless I can get baked!". Don't fuck around when it comes to potential jail time. Bring your A-game, be crisp and celebrate your harvest where it's safe.
11. Have NOTHING that links you to pot in your car. Grow supplies + paraphernalia / the smallest amount of pot = search warrant for your home where they convict you of cultivation. Feel comfortable allowing a search of your car if the cops request it. If you deny the right to search, they're going to get suspicious and they're going to bust out a canine unit. If the dog doesn't smell anything, they'll get it to false alert, so that they have grounds to search your car. Something as innocuous as rolling papers can be considered paraphernalia, and that plus fertilizer could be enough to get a warrant in some localities.
12. Unload your supplies from inside a garage or after dark. Nosey neighbors shouldn't be able to spot you with suspicous stuff in your driveway. Hydro nutes, grow lights, can filters, etc. All are pretty suspicious items and will draw unwanted attention. If you do unload after dark, do it early in the evening. You just don't want them to be able to make out what it is you're unloading. Unloading anything at 3AM will draw attention.
13. Don't be afraid to know the shopkeepers. The more you ask questions, the better informed you'll be of sales and new products. They know you're growing pot and they want you to keep growing pot because you'll be spending hundreds of dollars a year maintaining your garden with the high-end products they supply. Any good grow store will let you special order with cash and not ask questions.
Hopefully this helps a few people who feel nervous about heading to the grow store. Aside from dealing, this is where you're most vulnerable as a grower. It's something that should always be taken seriously, but if done correctly, can actually be enjoyable and safe. Good luck!
In a lot of states, especially ones that don't allow medical MJ growers, hydroponic supplies and high-end fertilizers can be pretty hard to come buy. Ordering online leaves an electronic record of where you ordered from and is tied to a shipping address and a credit card. One of the most convenient and safe ways to do your shopping for supplies is to buy from your local grow shop.
Grow shops come in quite a few varieties, however where I'm from (a large city) there are only two shops that can supply us with a full spectrum of high-quality hydro supplies. A lot of cities are like this as well, and the police do all they can to try and muscle the stores out of business. They park outside the grow stores to survey who comes and goes which scares away business leading to a shutdown. Eventually there are only a handful of stores. This may sound pretty scary, but not to worry. If you exercise some common sense, you'll be fine.
1. Do some research and have a story ready. Grow shop owners typically know the score, and as long as you just say you're growing tomatoes, herbs, spices, flowers, chilis, whatever, they'll point you in the right direction for MJ. It never hurts to have a story ready for a cop if they ask you what you're doing either. Our grow shop knows what's up. When I put cash down for a special order, they never ask for personal info and give me a claim ticket with no business name on it. Perfect.
2. Dress neatly, keep your hair / beard neat, and if it's long tuck it under a cap. Don't show any piercings or tats. Look like an upstanding member of society and you'll avoid cops by appearing as either a longshot bust or like a buddy getting supplies for a friend. Officers profile all the time, and if you look like someone who does drugs, you're drawing unwanted attention. I see guys with jailhouse tats, ratty beards, long unkempt hair, hippies, and even guys who are blazed rocking some 3rd degree red-eye. If you want to be profiled, but if you're serious about growing and staying out of jail, clean up.
3. Cops will randomly run plates, so watch what you drive. Never drive a care linked to your grow address! Even a family member's car is better than yours because it will require more investigation giving you a better chance of them dropping it, or you seeing it coming because they raided your sister's house. If you have any kind of record, take a car that has no legal connection to you. Hook a buddy up with some extra weed in exchange for using their care. They're perfectly safe if they don't grow. If they pull up a possession of MJ charge from your plates, they'll definately follow up on you seeing as how hydro stores are almost exclusively used for MJ. If you're clean, just keep an eye out for Johnny Law in your rear view mirror on the way home.
4. If you're car is registered to your grow and you're obviously getting followed, it's game over. Destroy everything that's illegal and lay low. If you get followed, but you're in a clean car, then go anywhere but home / your grow. Drop by a safe (no grows going on) friend's house, go shopping, see a movie. Do anything that makes the cops get lazy and forget about you. Cops let shit slide all the time, and many would rather just go home than follow someone around into overtime.
5. Make several small purchases rather than one big one every few months. A guy walking out of a grow store with a gallon or two of fertilizer is too small time for the cops to bother with. Also it's easier to blend in with other customers and get lost in the crowed. On the other hand, if someone is loading 20 gallons of nutes, 10 bags of hydroton, 6 600W HPS lights and an 800 CFM fan/can filter combo into their van, any cops monitoring will follow him home in a heartbeat because they know in a couple of months they'll have a huge bust. I go to the grow store every couple of weeks and keep my stocks healthy. If there's too many cops around, I can always come back next week.
6. Go during a busy time of the day / week. A good example is a grow shop right by a busy market area. The farther away you can park, the better. If there's a crowd you can disappear into, that's the best. Do some other shopping, or browse around a bit. Grab lunch. Enjoy your trip and you'll be more natural.
7. Be white. Better yet, be a woman. Ok, there's not much you can do about that, but what if you look like a thug / drug dealer and you don't want to compromise your image? Simple. You can get a clean-cut white woman friend to do your shopping for you and hook her up with free weed in exchange. At the worst, they try and bust her, which hopefully gets you a tip-off to shut down before the heat shows up. Just like that song, "Everyone's a Little Bit Racist", cops are prejudiced just like the rest of us. They will make judgments based off of appearance. If you're hispanic or black, then you're probably screwed. The cops are going to be thinking "criminal" from the start, no matter how nicely you're dressed. It's unfair, it sucks, but that's the way it is. Being white in America is actually pretty bad ass in an unfair racist way. Side note, if you are a minority, but you talk with a white dialect, you can sometimes get some latitude with racist cops. You might think I'm joking, but no, people really are that shallow.
8. Never panic. The first time you see the cops outside the grow store, you'll probably get that same adrenaline rush you got the first time you got pulled over when you knew were doing something wrong. Act casual and take comfort in the fact that you're not doing anything illegal until you get back to the privacy of your own home. As long as you don't lead anyone there, you can relax. The more you learn to enjoy your trips, the less you'll worry about police. If there are police there, just ignore them like you would anyone else. Don't crane your neck to look at the cops when arriving / leaving.
9. The bigger the store, the better. If you can get your hydro supplies at a big busy nursery where 100s of people come and go every day, that's way better than a tiny store labeled, "HYDROPONICS!" that only gets a few customers an hour. Find places to blend into.
10. Go sober. I've seen it several times, some pinkeyed jackass wearing a head-shop ensemble that looked like he rolled out of bed right before he left for the grow store. You may think you look casual when you're high. You may think you function better when you're high. All I know is that 9/10 people that say they don't look high, look high. They also smell like what they just smoked for hours to someone who has a good sense of smell. Also MJ is not conducive to anything requiring an attention span, like watching for cars following you or talking to cops. Let's put it this way: nobody says, "I can't study for this exam unless I can get baked!". Don't fuck around when it comes to potential jail time. Bring your A-game, be crisp and celebrate your harvest where it's safe.
11. Have NOTHING that links you to pot in your car. Grow supplies + paraphernalia / the smallest amount of pot = search warrant for your home where they convict you of cultivation. Feel comfortable allowing a search of your car if the cops request it. If you deny the right to search, they're going to get suspicious and they're going to bust out a canine unit. If the dog doesn't smell anything, they'll get it to false alert, so that they have grounds to search your car. Something as innocuous as rolling papers can be considered paraphernalia, and that plus fertilizer could be enough to get a warrant in some localities.
12. Unload your supplies from inside a garage or after dark. Nosey neighbors shouldn't be able to spot you with suspicous stuff in your driveway. Hydro nutes, grow lights, can filters, etc. All are pretty suspicious items and will draw unwanted attention. If you do unload after dark, do it early in the evening. You just don't want them to be able to make out what it is you're unloading. Unloading anything at 3AM will draw attention.
13. Don't be afraid to know the shopkeepers. The more you ask questions, the better informed you'll be of sales and new products. They know you're growing pot and they want you to keep growing pot because you'll be spending hundreds of dollars a year maintaining your garden with the high-end products they supply. Any good grow store will let you special order with cash and not ask questions.
Hopefully this helps a few people who feel nervous about heading to the grow store. Aside from dealing, this is where you're most vulnerable as a grower. It's something that should always be taken seriously, but if done correctly, can actually be enjoyable and safe. Good luck!