Weed for Warriors Exchange

I've been busy this past week! Thank you for the help and suggestions. I am happy to say that I believe I can put all issues to rest now. My grow room is pretty much ready to go; I have everything that I need except a frame for a DIY press; i'm preparing my garden for planting; and have located two sources for seed and clones. Both will allow me (as a vet or patient) to purchase without the minimum requirement, but have some restrictive contracts. I'm cool with that though... It allows me to learn how to grow and provide meds for myself. Maybe even give me a source of retirement income if the opportunity presents itself in this new emerging economy in the state. I also have some pretty detailed resource material to read on the .3% THC content requirement. @Justcozz mentioned this in his response. If I am tested and the find my grow to be above .3% they will require me to destroy the crop and, if they feel it necessary, they can revoke my permit. The strains from one of the sources i've located provides very detailed grow records and estimates to help me along with that. I am required to keep a log and submit grow reports every year and I am subject to testing, but they evidently do not provide additional details on that. Guess I'll just have to wait for a call or a knock on the door. The other growers I am in touch with have not mentioned being inspected and I have not had a chance to ask them yet. As for the grow log required, the Virginia Department of Agriculture and others provide a "template" that one of the universities uses but they clearly state it is not a requirement to use it. So I believe they would except an online grow record as long as it provides the substance of the information they are looking for which is straightforward stuff. So now I have a ton of things to do since it looks like I will be able to get a crop in the ground this year after all!

I am a Veteran in Virginia that is retiring from professional life to focus on my health, which includes the use of Cannabis. Because it is still ILLEGAL (even CBD oil!) in Virginia, I went through the motions to obtain a permit to use CBD and THCA only to be told I couldn't get it yet... Since I also own a small farm, I found that I could now register to grow and process "Industrial Hemp" as long as the THC content is below .3 %, so I am now waiting on those permits and have also contacted the University of Virginia to participate in the only research program in Virginia I am aware of that is studying the medical aspects of Cannabis here. I have also built out a small grow and processing room. What I need now is Seed and/or Clones! I have found some local growers. However, I am finding that they all seem to require large purchases of 1000 or more clones or prices as high as $500 for a few seeds. My next step is to contact them individually to ask if they would make an exception in my case as I just want to keep a few mothers of particular strains that work well for PTSD, Anxiety, etc. But before I do that, I thought I would post here and get some suggestions since I am so new to the culture. I had hoped this would be as easy as buying regular cannabis seeds but it isn't nearly as straightforward with "hemp." So it looks like I will just have to grow and try several strains to find ones that work best. Anyone have knowledge in this area to help a guy out? Thanks very much!

I am awaiting my permit to grow and process Industrial Hemp in Virginia and have registered with the state to participate with several local universities that are conducting research. I can purchase strains from other registered growers in Virginia without issue- but I am hearing that they will require a minimum purchase of 1,000 clones, when I just want to grow and process my own meds, while hoping to sell off the "biomass" to pay for it all. Maybe in the future I might consider marketing extracts or something, but keeping it simple and just want to concentrate on getting the growing right- which I can with the help of the universities. The State of Virginia says that they can assist me with getting seed imported for my use through their DEA license. So I am now trying to find sources where I can obtain seeds advertised as "industrial hemp" and meeting the .3 or less THC requirement. I would appreciate any suggestions, contacts, or tips as I would really like to see this opportunity of a happy retirement succeed even though I am starting it off with a Walmart bought Rosin Press

The more I read about this the more I am convinced it is exactly what is going on with me. It's like my brain is lacking something that has caused me to seek relief that I have only found with Cannabis. It's difficult to explain the experience for me other than it seems to be different than others. If you have seen the video of the kid having an epileptic convulsion floating around that was relieved with Cannabis- that is what it is like for me too only without the visual of the convulsion. But the same thing applies to people who are having anxiety or panic attacks. I now realize this and thank God for it.

@Sacred Plant Warrior I really appreciate your comments and feedback about the web site. It will help me to improve it. I love teamwork!

My web site building skills and the time to update it has been lagging with so much on my plate. I should probably take it down until I can get to it... Matter of fact, I think I will do that today and spend some time on it if possible. I agree with you 100%. No question about it. Plus, the idea is still evolving to large extant. Thanks for pointing it out. Thanks for the book. I had actually just purchased several online yesterday :-)

Since WWE is a veterans initiative, the "qualification" of membership is that members be veterans, while all others would technically be supporters, donors and sponsors if names have to be assigned to anything... So basically it is just veteran members helping other members with volunteers helping them. I guess I run it technically, but everyone keeps it running. Members can connect in a variety of ways. Toby came out of his surgery yesterday fine and will likely be home tonight minus a rear leg. Thankfully, we had pet insurance that covered it and the chemo treatments he'll get moving forward. We know this will improve his quality of life, but hard to say how long or how well he'll do, but I think he'll be fine and has a good bit of life left in him at age 8. We'll see... The pig in the picture is (was) our Kune Kune Bore, Porkchop. He's fixed now so no more piglets running around... I appreciate the warning and I understand the risks. At the moment, all I'm doing mostly is leg work and trying to learn. But like I said, in the eyes of the law, I have already broken the law by just using CBD oil anyway.

Speaking of "not needing Cannabis that bad..." Here is one of my more interesting stories that set me on FIRE for using Cannabis and provides additional background on what I hope is a story that will change some minds and attitudes. In a sense, I want to become a "new face" of Cannabis- the veteran user- and illuminate our issues. My First experience with a Dab: Symptoms of OCD and PTSD are bad enough due to avoidance issues, anxiety, etc. They make it difficult for me to communicate and maintain relationships; but the medicines, while helpful, hurt in other ways. I am dizzy as hell every day, don't sleep well, and other issues going on that it became hard to work- hence my reasons for trying CBD and initial smoking flower, as they relieve my Anxiety instantly when I have a flair up. But I was having to drive 2 hours to get it and high prices! The drive to DC alone with PTSD and traffic and idiots on the road would normally be enough to keep me at home. That's how much Cannabis is worth it for me... I had been using the delivery services- but they are far from punctual and after driving for 2 hours or more the last thing I want to do is sit impatiently waiting and wondering if they'll show up at all and what i'll get when they do (I'm strain hunting cause I don't know what works yet). And, other than a 10% discount (that is appreciated very much!), I'm paying top dollar when I'd just assume smoke the crap they throw away, believing even that would help me! On a recent trip I decided to try something different and go to one of the "popups" in town. For those unfamiliar, it's basically an advertisement on social media about a meetup to "gift" and "donate" weed. So I carry myself and all my OCD/PTSD baggage with me to this thing to meet a DC local by the name of Phone Homie that I got an invite from. I'm greeted at the door by two very large black men that were all business asking me for my invitation. While I'm thinking I've entered into a James Bond flick and fumbling for my phone, they start patting me down and telling me what I have isn't the magic invitation I need. But I mention Phone Homie and they give me a choice between an edible and a blunt, then point me on my way. I go up several flights of stairs in a narrow row-housing kind of stairway, past closed doors and couple of obviously high people on their way down. Get to the top and enter a large open room with music pumping, tables of Cannabis products everywhere and small groups of people hovering over them, taking rips off pipes of different kinds and also doing DABS. I meet Homie, but he soon sends me on my way to meet up with another Veteran and I meet the guys from Terpy Dabber who offer me my first Dab of some Lemon Haze shatter. I hadn't been there for more than 10 minutes and this was the only fun I had while I was there because I had a two hour drive home. I took three good rips on their rig after they warned me I would cough. But I didn't cough. I know it's an exaggeration to say the clouds parted and a light from heaven descended upon me- but it was damn close to that. Remember, I have OCD and PTSD, so I my Anxiety was through the roof before I even got there. But all of that instantly melted away and I became the guy I used to be again. I enjoyed myself. I laughed and had fun. I was able to talk with people who seemed to enjoy talking with me. It was freaking beautiful. I thank God for it. But now I just had something else to learn on my own and I frankly have enough shit to learn and worry about as it is. But, if I'm going to do it, I'm going to make it worth my time and effort by ensuring it helps someone else in my shoes. I just have to figure out a way to communicate this effectively within the industry so that it has an impact. I believe that I have a reputation for achieving just that. Shit... this is an edit because I lost track of my story! When I returned home that night, after my Dab, I was still feeling pretty happy with life. It was late, so I went to bad after a hit or two of flower and slept really well. So well, in fact, that when I woke up in the morning I didn't have ANY of the normal dizziness I experience most of the day. After months of feeling like hell, I was suddenly feeling really good. Being a military guy, I am a morning person. Was always up by 4AM- even weekends- and was at my best. After starting the medications, I can barely function in the mornings and wobble around trying to find my balance... Now I know how to fix that shit! During Desert Storm, I was a weapons system operator that detected a new capability that later became quite a big deal in the defense industry. But at the time, nobody believed it while I was convinced. I pissed people off with my persistence and they destroyed my otherwise stellar career. So I left the military and struggled for several years to adjust before landing a job with an new Internet Service Provider (ISP) named MINDSPRING where in 1996 I became a manager in the network operations department where I was allowed to build a "world class" center that helped the company achieve JD Power awards year after year for providing the best customer service and reliability for an ISP. After 15-18 hour days for several years, I burned out at Mindspring and, believing that my future was in the defense industry doing something similar to the job I loved, would be better. So I packed up and moved to Virginia after being offered a job with a large defense contractor that offered me a job in a program I knew very well to have serious problems that I believed I could fix. I soon learned that the problems were unrelated to the people tasked with the work. The problems were within the management and in government. Issues designed specifically with my OCD in mind! So, I set out to make the changes necessary and when management or government got in the way, I found a way around them. Evidently, it is very difficult to fire an employee that has truth on their side, but they managed to find a way to declare me "unable to remain objective on the contract" and fired me on 26 December 2012- the day after Christmas. You'd think I would have learned my lesson this time, but I didn't. Having only a GED and some very specialized military skills, my prospects seemed hopeless. My wife was convinced we would lose it all. My specialized skills allowed me to provide her with the farm of her dreams and security. Now I had screwed it all up simply because work mattered to me so much that I couldn't let it go out the door knowing it was inadequate and flawed. She still hasn't forgiven me. I tried to find work in networking again but I didn't have any certifications (Mindspring was before cert's evolved in the industry); and I had been black-listed in the defense industry in the area. But after only six months of unemployment, I was able to recover by not only landing a good job with a future but at nearly twice the salary of the job I had been fired from six months before. 3 months into this job at the Washington Navy Yard, there was an active shooter in the building that killed many people. I was on the 2nd floor with four other's (2 elderly women secretaries) in an office. Our only defense was a pair of scissors that I held in my hand with an office door that locked, but was surrounded by glass. Both ladies had to urinate in coffee cups while we sheltered in place in a cramped office... The only privacy I could offer was to stand in front of the glass to block the view for them. Yeah... [let me take a rip here] In the military, this is what would be called "a sob story" I suppose. But it's really not. It's a story of achievement and success. At least, that is what I want others to take from it. Because, as I see it, I was able to leave a mark on history in two careers to this point. Most are lucky to leave a mark at one! God continued to bless and lead me after the shooting as he did before it. As a result of the building be shut down for an extended period of time to remodel it, I was transferred closer to home- and for the first time in over a year, my daily 5-hour commute's in DC traffic ended! Life got better for a while in my new profession [I obtained my CISSP for example], but then I saw the same type of trouble in the program that I had seen before. Problems that are known, but left unresolved; lots of paperwork without much attention on systems; a wide variety of issues for my OCD to laser in on that I had to solve and cause "problems" for people who had allowed them to continue that way for years on end... So, you can likely see the inevitable, right? Yeah... Well, I haven't been fired and I am continuing to make the effort. But everyone seems to realize it is time for me to go- and I am praying they will allow me to retire early gracefully and allow me to become a Southern Gentleman Farmer that I would be very much honored to become. How's that for dreaming? Hope someone enjoyed. I appreciate the opportunity to vent every now and then. Thanks and please consider being a Weed for Warriors supporter where you live by just thinking about them every now and then. Give them a good growing tip. Say thanks. Give the homeless guy with the Vietnam hat a joint. Shake their hand. Throw a freebie in their bag, whatever. Do something. If I feel that I owe it to them, please allow me to suggest that you might to. Wherever you live. A soldier likely died or suffered for it. What other thanks do we give them besides a holiday, maybe a free meal or discount some place. But we've taken or ruined most of their benefits already and Congress will take more if we let them. Somebody someplace is going to hate the fact that I'm retiring.

I wasn't actually living on the streets! I just would have been. I don't need Cannabis that bad. lol But knowing that even I couldn't afford it while I was working a good job, made me think about all those guys sitting next to me. You get talking to them and you know it must seem hopeless for them. While you're right that growing it isn't cheap either, my setup will pay for itself after one successful grow and provide me with all the weed I'll need with enough to share- which is what WWE is all about. Not profiting. Just veterans and others sharing knowledge and resources or just providing a chill place to hang out when needed. These things would go VERY FAR in someone's life.

LoL... Did I leave out my flower bill? That was up to $250-$300, so with the CBD oil, I was living in the streets! Forgot your question... I am just starting to make some contacts locally. Organizing is difficult and slow, but the need is great. All that I talk to like the idea, but expect immediate results! Roman wasn't built in a day!