Why did I want to grow my own Cannabis and what drove me to break the Law?

There are a numerous logical reasons:

No control over harvest timing, consequently no control over the THC/CBD oxidation so having no control over desired effect. I like to time my harvest earlier than that of Cannabis you would find on the street, so to avoid any sedative effects granted by commercially produced Cannabis that’s “over-ripe”.

I need a reliable and consistent supply of the same grade and type of Cannabis to treat my condition on a consistent basis; this isn’t possible if I am reliant on other people.

I wish to know exactly what I am using for health reasons. I care about health. My own Cannabis isn’t contaminated, mouldy etc.

I have no desire to fund illegal activity by giving criminals my money.

I am private person who doesn’t like having to chase around to find Cannabis.

I resent being ripped off.

I cannot afford to buy Cannabis at street prices. I can produce it at cheaply at home.

To prevent any of the above scenarios I grew out seeds I imported from California, Spain and Canada where the medical cannabis industry is well advanced. I could legally use Cannabis as I see fit in various states of America, Canada, Holland, Switzerland and Spain to name a few places.

It seemed prudent to start my search for Bi-Polar friendly cannabis in countries where it has been established medically. There are many honest and reliable medical friendly seed-banks who have done the groundwork for me. I grew out a lot of strains of Cannabis both Sativa, Indica and mixed types. None of which were "skunk" plants, we see so often mentioned by ill reported anti-Cannabis propaganda spread within the red rag newspapers of Britain.

I tested each plant I had grown individually for effect, mading detailed notes on them, by using a scientific approach and working systematically to find a cure for the symptoms of my own individual strain of Bi-polar. Rather like the Cannabis plant Bi-Polar affects each person differently.

From a process of testing 100 potential female parents I found 12 worth keeping. Females produce the flower heads that give the Cannabis medicine; males just produce pollen which is of no use bar to breed with.

I kept 24 plants at this stage, males and females of all the strains selected should I wish to breed them further. I had intended to go through another stage and get down to 6 female strains. I could get down 6 strains by crossing of 6 remaining males with 6 remaining females, so to make the 12 individual strains into 6 combined strains. I intended to consult my notes on the effects of each plant and chose which to cross/breed together based on a system of previous experience.

Sadly I due to my own stupidity I was caught by the police before I had got to the end of growing out my 12 final females. I was tying to grow 10years worth of medicine in one exercise. I estimated around 2.5kilos worth. I don’t smoke huge amounts. My intention was not having to grow again for a long time, this is due to the fact I become hyper-fixated on tasks/work and the Cannabis project had taken over my life. I was going to be glad to see the back of it.

This took 12months of detailed and organised work to get to this final stage, the final crop of the 12 selected strains. Back breaking work in small grow-room, I had to crawl around as I didn’t have the room to stand up. The best part of a 16months was wasted working at this, if you include building the grow-room.

Being a bit obsessive is another trait of mine, driven by hypo-mania. The prosecution and courts will look down upon people like me for our basic human nature, being a smart guy with a Midas touch looks professional. Traits that would be held in esteem during any legal activity, thus held against you in an illegal one. Sadly I am too smart for my own good a lot of the time, being intelligent and articulate makes you look like a professional criminal, as do my good crop results.

I certainly would not have gone to this effort just to make some cash selling drugs? I'd simply have grown a load of industrial Dutch barn strains that gave far higher yields and had the job done within a few months. Instead I laboured for many days and nights in the pursuit of the cure for my personal problems.

I invested heavily in the proper equipment to do the job right, although small the room had 2400watts of lighting, heating, smell control equipment, fans, ducting and intake filters, humidity control and anything else needed. Using every piece of information I could find on the internet I researched endlessly in order get the best results I could. It was a complex undertaking, both building and maintaining the perfect artificial environment that is needed to grow Cannabis correctly.

I grew in soil and hand watered the plants to get the best taste. I cured the Cannabis I had already produced in Jars for some months, so to improve the smoothness, taste and potency before vacuum packing it for long-term storage.

I harvested the Cannabis at exactly the right moment using a microscope to inspect the colour and opacity of the small resin glands that produce the psychoactive elements of Cannabis. You can tailor the effect of each plant by timing its harvest, so to be more or less energising / relaxing or calming. You do this by inspecting the THC/CBD glands and harvesting the plants at exactly the right moment, this is based on your own experience of what suits you best.

I found it gave me immense feelings of well being, a harmony with the world, growing, nurturing and caring for my own plants. It touched on a part of the human psyche that is difficult to engage with in the modern hollow consumer world. At the start the workload was endless, I was learning something new every moment that I spent with the plants, learning how to water correctly, feed, train and nurture them as best I could. Through the pure natural enjoyment of this hobby my general mood and interaction with the world improved immeasurably. Having finally secured a reliable supply of the correct types of cannabis I needed, I was gaining the upper hand over my Bi-Polar disorder.

I’d been depression free for the entire period of this project. I was motivated to hone the whole exercise to absolute perfection. The detail involved in my artificial environment was calculated mathematically and scientifically, the correct fan sizes, light level per square foot, humidity and different temperatures from night to day. I had aced it, the plants looked perfect. I was sat on 12 lovingly selected cannabis plants that gave me everything I needed to stave off manic depression. At last I was happy, happy with my breeding programme and the freedom it gave me from Bi-polar.

Then the police turned up returning me to miserable depression and costly tax-payer expenditure, removing all my hard work and effort, removed an enjoyable and harmless hobby that gave me relief from a life threatening mental illness.