WILDWEED

Hi I'm new to the forums and read a thread where one said it isn't a good idea to drive your own car to the grow store. I'm etremely paranoid now cause I did just that.Is it possible that some stores are run by the police?

Guerilla-Grower

No stores are run by the cops. Its just a precation. I drive my own car to buy soil etc. b/c the risk is low that they are going to follow you or mark you or anything. The cops probably won't even see you there. Don't worry to much.

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"Time is never wasted when you're wasted all the time."

Plantgrower420

If your turly worried like that, then just to be sure, get your wife, or girlfriend to go in and buy what you need.

PsychedelicMess

ummmmmmm I think that having your wife go in if you're paranoid would do no good considering that odds are you live in the same house *lol*
or are you implying that women are less suspicious looking than men?

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~the stoner also known as MissMess

lurkapup

Id agree its always preferable to have your partner and loved ones picked up for questioning by the police instead of you!

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There is something of the marvelous in all things of nature.
Aristotle 384-322BC, Parts of Animals

PsychedelicMess

*falls over laughing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!*

thank you....glad I wasn't the only one that saw that too....

__________________

~the stoner also known as MissMess

THCinthings

unless you're buying a crapload of indoor grow stuff, then i wouldn't worry about being watched or followed.

lurkapup

well it did kinda stand out ...

Im curious though .. as a woman should you be sending your husband or partner down?

or would you be less dodgy cause of your lack of testicles?

__________________
There is something of the marvelous in all things of nature.
Aristotle 384-322BC, Parts of Animals

smokinrav

Hydro Depot customers beware!

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From Benricelaw.com

It's the place to see and be seen-and busted, according to a few unlucky pot growers and their attorneys.
That would be Hydro Depot,the hydroponics supply store on Soquel Drive. Attorneys Ben Rice and Peter Leeming allege that the sheriff's Marijuana Enforcement Team is staking out the store that specializes in the nutrients, water delivery systems and artificial lights necessary for indoor gardening.
Leeming says that he's had half a dozen clients in the last six months who claim a common thread-the Hydro Depot. Clients report being followed from the store, and both attorneys find striking similarities in the police reports detailing surveillance and the alleged pot growers' recollections of where they were those days.

Rice points to an expense report produced by the Santa Cruz sheriff's deputies for one of his clients that claims hours for ¨ground surveillance¨ on the same day his client dropped by the grow shop, as its known, to pick up supplies for his 99 marijauana plants.

¨You can put two and two together,¨ says Leeming. ¨Any (new client) who walks in I ask, 'have you been to the grow shop?'¨

The snug little shop tucked between a floral store and a bible bookshop seems an unlikely meeting ground for cops and growers. The soothing sound of water gently bubbling through demonstration irragation pipes provides background to a cheery room full of plants and how to magazines like Growing Edge. There's nary a bong pipe or High Times in sight, and owner Slawek Michalak plans to keep it that way.

Reached by phone at his store in Sonoma, Michalak makes it clear that he will ¨absolutely not¨ sell to wacky tabbacky farmers.

¨If anybody asks,¨ he says, ¨I tell them to leave.¨

His sentiments are echoed by Santa Cruz store manager Heidi Held. She points to signs posted throughout the store stating its policy of not selling to anyone engaged in ¨illegal cultivation.¨ Their focus, they say is on schools, businesses, greenhouse growers and orchid enthusiasts.

Both Held and Michalak have heard complaints from customers about being tailed when they left the premises-and its no wonder. Rice says that for sheriffs, staking out Hydro Depot is ¨like shooting fish in a barrel.¨

Leeming says police reports indicate that sheriffs run the license plates of Hydro Depot customers, then subpoena PG&E records to see if there has been a spike in electrical usage. If there has, sheriffs use that as evidence to obtain a search warrant.

Leeming recounts one unfortunate episode in which suspicious activities by a friend of a former employee triggered a subpoena of the PG&E records on New Age author and guru John Robbins. A subsequent search of the Robbins' home revealed not a clandestine growing operation but an old refrigerator.

¨We felt violated,¨ recalls Robbins. ¨We had nothing to hide, but it's not fun to have armed police show up at our door.¨

Sheriff spokesperson Kim Allyn says he can't confirm reports that as many as 20 investigations were under way centering on customers of the Hydro Shop, but he defends the strategy.

¨We utilize many modalities of investigative techniques in order to supress crime and keep the community safe,¨ read Allyn from a prepared statement. ¨The recent report released by the Grand Jury and the United Way youth survey clearly shows a dramatic increase in drugs by juveniles, most motably marijuana. Any effort on our behalf to keep drugs out of the hands of children is worth the cost of controversy by the select few who now find themselves in criminal court for breaking laws...So far, we have not caught anyone growing tomatoes.¨

Sound like confirmation to us.

Note from Ben Rice
I am aware of 30 plus pot busts that have resulted from this operation. This operation has resulted in a number of raids and arrests of people whose growing were clearly for personal use or to share with close friends- not big dealers. I suspect that legal growers have been raided though not arrested.
I have one client who was raided due to higher PG&E bills that occurred due to ventilation equipment for his recording studio. Unfortunately, he had pot in his house! I have long thought that "Bull****" should be an accepted trial objection. This term of art thoroughly applies to this operation in my view. People who could secure medical approval for their use of pot should secure their scripts. The courts have not allowed the med marijuana defense when people obtain post arrest medical approval. See my Links page for medical marijuana information.

One Santa Cruz man with no record is currently in Federal court for cultivation of 300 plants. He is facing 30 years in prison with judges who no longer have discretion to reduce sentences. (Under the Federal sentencing guidelines- every growing plant irrespective of how small they are calculate out as one pound of pot. 300 lbs. = 30 years in Federal custody!)

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Smokin

Plantgrower420

yes i was applying that in general women wont be the type to grow mj, and it looks like your wife, or girlfriend is planting roses or something....and no a man in a gardening place picking up certain kinds of fertilizer, and certian item that can be used to grow mj.