In Chicago, goofy dudes spray their marijuana with formaldehyde. This kills insects and fungi, but at a price. The treated weed, known as AMP, causes anoxia and psychomotor retardation when smoked (Spector). According to _Newsweek_ (Jan. 20, 1986), a few ill-intentioned dealers dipped marijuana in rat poison or insecticides like Black Flag or Raid. They called this product "WAC." Indeed. Have a nice day.
Thanks for finding this High Times article Kupunakane! Stories like these are what made me want to grow my own! When it came to harvesting drying trimming and curing when I first started out as a hobby grower, I had already read similar articles like this in my High Times and Cannabis Culture magazines before my first harvest and boiled down all the info into a simple procedure for my 4 plants:
1. When my Buds were ready to harvest I’d flush the soil with a daily pure watering for a week.
2. During the “flush week” I’d hand pick all the leaves off the stalks, stems and branches leaving the Buds and their sugar leaves.
3. Then I’d just pull the Buds and dry them under the lights of my Veg room with my other vegging plants turning the Buds daily on old newspaper. Took about 3-5 days for them to dry. I’d store the dried Buds in old clean coffee cans. I hated buying an ounce that wasn’t dry—I was getting ripped off, just paying for water! I’d have to dry the **** out of them to roll and smoke without the joints going out all the time. My first crop I dried totally so they were ready to break up, roll and smoke. Never trimmed and smoked the Bud sugar leaves with the Bud. Never had to worry about contaminants and excess water ruining the smoke.
When I decided to go “commercial” I had to trim many plants and decided to save time with a trimming machine. I’d pull the whole plant and hang it to dry in my custom-made dry room after bucking the stems and stalk for Bubble Hash leaves. The waste I’d feed to my horses. Then just snap off the dried Buds and throw them in my new auto-trimmer, called a “Green Broz”. Can remember how impressed I was with the job—looking hand-trimmed but eventually I’d have to waste time cleaning the machine so it wouldn’t jam but it did anyway—I don’t know how when the blades were clean! Then I realized all the resin I was wasting in the blade cleaning process anyway.
I went through several expensive brands until I found a “Blade-less” trimmer. It never needed cleaning or maintenance cause it didn’t have blades! It was called a, “Toms Tumble Trimmer” and since it worked beautifully and never broke down, I got more as my operation got bigger!
So, to make a long story longer, I’ve never had mould or rotting problems on my organically grown Buds cause they were all dried properly first and that’s all you have to worry about—if the Buds are dried right, curing is no big deal.
