The origins of Haze

British Hempire,

I’ve been told from an old school guy that Haze was a loosely term used to describe the best sativas available in some part of US during the 60’s and 70’s. Maybe that explains why Sam’s line is called “Original Haze” and not just Haze. Anyway, that would be a good question for Mr.Nice (Mr. Howard Marks), since he was with BOEL at the time and they loved to puff trippy sativas. It seams BOEL guys mainly used 3 medicines in the old days… LSD, mescaline (or peyote, I’m not sure) and Haze (LSD on a stick)… again, so I was told.

I’ve also been told ot1 Hazes have the distinct Haze smell if you rub on the steams. Not trying to generate controversy here, simply adding a note that might contribute to the topic.

Last but not least, Shantibaba owns ot1 Hazes as well as the ones from Neville. Again, as far as I was told they were offered to him. Meaning he has the ability of using them if ever felling the need. There’s no utility in any kind of controversy regarding those genetics since MNS owns them. It’s all good :D
 
I’ve only knew Howard was part of BOEL when i was googleing for their story and found his picture. Don’t know when he joined the group, but Mr. Nice seams to have been everywhere. And he should know what BOEL people were smoking at the time. Maybe someone who knows him or his member of his forum can ask? It could be a brilliant addiction to the Haze articles.

I think it wasn’t public a few years ago the fact of existing more than one Haze male (and possibly females) in Neville’s possession, and Shanti was offered 50 seeds in order to be able to produce pure seeds. Anyway, it’s an old story, have no idea how it ended. Probably in the fridge :D
 
Hi all

I don't really know if the term Haze was used before the Haze Bros came in , but if thats the case , then any line was sold under the 'Haze' name would be 'entitled' to use it in a sense. ...If not , then its pretty obvious that it would be a steal..
Since I have no clue , wasn't there back then (~60s) and I haven't seen any solid proof from old timers yet that backs up the story of the Haze term being used with different sativa lines pre-HazeBros, I wont really comment much on peoples' right to calling/selling 'Haze' lines till I see some written proof.

british_hempire said:
Yes, I have seen the list of people who were sent ot1 Haze and Shanti was sent some. I doubt Shanti would consider a small quantity of seeds (30 i think?) as suitable basis for selection,
As for Shantibaba having received ot1 Haze seeds , I clearly remember them being offered to him by Gant over CW , and like Buddhadreams says it was 50 seeds , though I m not sure either if Shanti finally accepted the offer and got to receive them.
 
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You know i never heard the tearm haze here or any other term other than sativa or the name of origin or the sativas name like columbine or pan red and so on.

The only time i heard a name added to a sativa line that was unknown was in 79 and that was tripping weed or tripping heads called by others.

At the time you could basicly get an oz bag of top shelf seedless sativa flowers for $30 dollors but the tripping heads went for $20 or $30 for a dime bag with say around 2 grams so i belive this was haze it was oily looking and very leafy looking flowers nothing to look at but it was lsd in plant matter.


Buddhadreams

I think it wasn’t public a few years ago the fact of existing more than one Haze male (and possibly females) in Neville’s possession, and Shanti was offered 50 seeds in order to be able to produce pure seeds. Anyway, it’s an old story, have no idea how it ended. Probably in the fridge


Hi Buddhadreams shanti has posted about the haze lines he and nev use since 2000 i belive when he first posted at cw and possibly before at other boards / sites i dont know if before cw best asking him.

They hold pure haze and i belive its the oldest haze line wich dates back to 69 there haze came from seed neville got him self.


Heres something i find od and no one has commented on it that is no ones haze has shown purple plants not mr nice haze or sams haze.


Ot1 line he calls haze has thrown purple plants and so has tom hills and were did toms haze come from ?.
 
Regarding Haze aromas ,
from my experiences with mrnice haze hybrids I 'd say the mrNice hazes give aromas that include :
incense/catpiss/spicy/peppery/pine/floral/carrot/fruity/citrus/metallic/fuel/paint/thinner/glue , I ve seen people also mention sandalwood and cardamon.

I would take a guess and say that Haze C is responsible for the catpiss aroma , a smell which I found to be more common with SSH which has only Haze C in the makeup unlike MH and NH. I also think HzC is more Thai leaning than HazeA and than the female pure Haze , cause SSH's leaves resembled Thais , thin and huge/long blades , some of the longest/biggest sat leaves I ve seen , at least in comparison to the rest MNS Hazes or to most hybrids and pure sats I ve grown/seen. Also other MNS HazeC hybrids seem to have Thai looking phenos which makes me think of that.
Regarding the Haze peppery smell I had asked Shanti about the Nevs , specifically why the ones I had sampled before I grew it where more peppery (more spicy / less incence like) and if I remember correctly, he had said that the peppery smell comes from the mother ( NL#5 x Haze A ) and so the NH samples I had tried before must have been more close to the mom . Regarding the female pure Haze from La Nina that was responsible for the fuel scent of the Hazy pheno I had grown , If not mistaken again , when sampled by Shanti he had mentioned that the smell is like its mom , and it was similar to Acapulco/Mexican .
I had fuely MangoHaze plants as well as peppery ones but most were more on the sweet side of things (but its 50%haze so the sweetness could bve due to SK), the Neville's I grew was quite spicy/ bit fuely and very incence like. MH had many different Haze smells (speaking about the Haze dominant phenos) , my Hazy LaNina was very fuely/paint solvent vapor like , bit fruity-sweet too.

To conclude with , I wouldnt really say that the Haze aromas from MNS were fruity or citrus like (though there were undertones) , they were more like incence & catpiss like and quite fuely in general.


hi there mate,
hempy said:
Heres something i find od and no one has commented on it that is no ones haze has shown purple plants not mr nice haze or sams haze.

Ot1 line he calls haze has thrown purple plants and so has tom hills and were did toms haze come from ?.
Thats a valid point hempy. Thats one thing that had stuck some time ago when I sampled Ot1 hazes , it was that not only there were purple phenos in ot1's line but there were many more color variations of the flowers as well , similar to Sams descriptions on the Haze Bros' Haze. And there were aromas in the ot1 line that matched Sams description of Haze Bros Hazes' different aromas as well.

I haven't seen mrnice Hazes with those variations in color or with such variation in aromas to match Sams descriptions. So like BHempire said I guess that the mns Hazes were selected towards specific pheno/s and thus no such variated expressions show up in the hybrids we grow.
 
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What a crock, Positronics did not even have any Haze until I gave it
to them after the mid 1980's. They crossed Haze with a local Pars
Purple outdoor variety that was weak shit pot that had a nice color.
FYI, Purple Haze was sold in the early 1970's by the Haze Brothers
in Santa Cruz, I should know I smoked it back then every day for
years....
BTW, some of the Purple Haze needed cold to turn purple, others did
not need cold and were purple even if never cold. Purple Haze was
pure Original Haze, and the purple color was not dominate, so easy to
lose.

I also like the Silver Blue, and Lime Green Haze better then the
Purple Haze, because they were more up, clear, and energetic in the
high. But the Purple may have been the strongest Haze and got the top
prices. It also looked great.

Did eneyone ever hear the band the Original Haze? Jerry Miller from
the Moby Grape started the group in the 70's after smoking the
Original Haze in Santa Cruz. He loved the Haze and bought a lot!!!

SamS





I passed on the Purple Haze from Positronics, but Posi was the source
of my Haze pictured, Positronics "Original Haze". Their "Purple Haze"
was a hybrid i believe w/maybe purple#1?.
You'll have to check with
Sam Skunkman as to what the other component in the Purple Haze was,
he was doing the breeding for them at the time. What folks really
want is the pure haze, but they just can't get that song out of their
heads

Best Regards,
Tom
 
If a south american line was going to go purple it would be the flowers not the leaf.
 
Well i dont think posi could make pure haze as they only got clones from sam wich i would say were females becouse they had to x it to other plants and there lines flowering times were what you would expect from a 50% haze line also.

A lot say toms haze looks just like the purple ot1 plants and toms haze is not pure even he says that and so does sam.

They crossed Haze with a local Pars
Purple outdoor variety that was weak shit pot that had a nice color.


Their "Purple Haze"
was a hybrid i believe w/maybe purple#1?.


Also the purple phinos in ot1 line is not as potent as the green sed even by those that sell it yet sam says here.

But the Purple may have been the strongest Haze and got the top
prices. It also looked great.


I have seen true purple flowering sativas that were very potent rear aparently and started to purple soon after they showed sex but leaf stayed green i had a line i found in the erly 80s from seeds from imported unknow lines it was stronger than any sk line i ever smoked i have also 2 other lines that will go purple only in flower in cold temps in flower only but the first sat line would go purple even in very warm conditions wish i had that line still.

Culumbine lines were not the only sativas to have purple flowering sativas also could be found in some thia lines to.
 
posies spec for haze used to be:-
Mostly Mexican and Colombian some southern Indian and Thai A pure breeding stabilised hybrid pure sativa appearance many slim flowers can be lime green, dark green, silver blue or purple smell/taste Incredible sticky sweet. almost sweet and sour smell high very potent, clear up, energetic high
height 2 -3 metres
yield med - high
harvest date Netherlands natural photo period - end December
12 hr exposure to harvest 12 to 16 weeks
 
posies spec for haze used to be:-
Mostly Mexican and Colombian some southern Indian and Thai A pure breeding stabilised hybrid pure sativa appearance many slim flowers can be lime green, dark green, silver blue or purple smell/taste Incredible sticky sweet. almost sweet and sour smell high very potent, clear up, energetic high
height 2 -3 metres
yield med - high
harvest date Netherlands natural photo period - end December
12 hr exposure to harvest 12 to 16 weeks

hi mate no that is from posi haze info/specs.
 
Resuming, what do we really know at this point?

Sam (or Watson) claimed the following:

1. He gave Neville his worst Haze male
2. He gave Neville a selected Haze female
3. He gave Neville seeds

I don’t think a source who claims 3 different things to be true can be qualified as honest. It doesn’t matter if it was the guy supplying the Haze brothers with genetics, or even if he was the one stabilizing the Pure Hazes. It’s my belief he wants the credits for the Pure Hazes and he has them, but there’s no reason to trash Neville or Shantibaba’s work because of it.

Neville and Shantibaba claim to have received Pure Haze seeds from the Haze Brothers stock. It’s hard to prove but I’m inclined to believe it because there are different Haze parents being used in their work. They don’t have a reason to lie because they don’t sell Pure Haze.

Ot1 claimed to have collected the genetics in California in the 70’s, not from the Haze Brothers, and call them Hazes. He supposedly had 3 different Pure Haze lines, being the remaining the only one left after the old seeds being distributed around the world. He doesn’t sell seeds and was only interested in storing the genetics again in the fridge (and he wanted them bad) being the profits of the seed sell donated for the creation of a fund to be used in preservation projects done by the Spanish troupes. To verify this story we MUST discover if indeed Haze was a loosely term used to describe the best long flowering sativas existing in California during the 60’s and 70’s in the hippie community. Again, he doesn’t sell seeds or claims any credits, witch reinforces his position of honesty.

Tom Hill claims his Hazes came from Positronics stock. But we can’t at this point say for sure who placed the genetics there. Was it Sam? Was it the Old Ed? Somebody else? We also don’t know if they have received seeds or clones from the Haze Brothers stock. What we know for sure was that Positronics crossed Pure Haze with a purple strain and created a hybrid called Purple Haze. I don’t know if Tom sells seeds or if he’s looking for any credits, but I saw a picture of one of his Hazes in Veg and it looked like having indica blood inside. Rest to say we are looking for pure sativas, and Haze never took 12 weeks to flower as it was announced by Positronics and btw, by today’s TFD.

Now, am I missing something?
 
Hi All

well been a little relaxed designing a hectare of gardens for the Gili Trawangan project which will be called Eco Villas Trawangan...a green experience.So sorry for the limited attention to the MNS family but appreciate all your understanding for taking time out over the Xmas New Year period with the family...

As for this thread, most of you know the versions about the Haze myths. There are always a few sides to coin, as you all know. I do not feel to keep regurgitating the side we believe is the truth, but it is the truth for Nev, myself and Howard.

I think most of your versions lead you to the MNS forum for the right reasons and in the end we must all work out a view on life based on the characters involved and their integrity.

My personal opinion is since so many growers/breeders/travelers existed in the 60s and 70s and alot of small pockets grew into legends like Mullumbimby in Australia, Mendocino in the USA, and so on...access to good Colombian strains, Panama strains, Indian, Thai, Afghani, Lebanon etc...versions of Haze were being made without the labels of Haze till they came into the hands of those who made it their passion to find and refine Sativa dominant hybrids. I have smoked plants in Australia that have been grown from landraces and inbreed for decades that are so close to Nev`s Haze A, Haze C and pure female Haze characteristics that it does not surprise me that confusion exists.So what ever you make of the facts as you know them , it is possible someone else was working on similar lines in opposite corners of the world at the same time...We all rely on stories from those who were there, but before them things were going on too, and from who did they come from....so as you see we are all just the hands of mother nature in the end and egos and stories are just that. Truth is in the genetics, the closer you get to a good start is by trusting other growers over time, and your own experiences.

Keep up the good beginning to the 2009 year and I wish you all the best Sb
i
 
Dear Master,

Thank you for taking time from your holiday to warm us up a little bit. This “little” community is so NICE that even a Pure Haze debate can be conducted in a civilized manner.

Keep us in your heart…. for sure we’re keeping you in ours :)
 
Hey guys :)
This particular thread topic is being discussed over at Icmag, and has received quite a bit of attention in recent weeks over the discovery of a translated article Shanti wrote for an Italian magazine.

The article touches on a number of subjects, all of which merit their own individual threads to discuss the information contained within, but of particular interest is the information surrounding Sam the Skunkman.

Now to clear up the story and myths that go around, due mainly to people in the industry(other seed companies) who are more interested in making money than giving information that is correct. Haze brothers worked on the Haze’s and they did get to Sam and Nevil(owner of THE SEEDBANK…and then Ben Dronkers retailed Nevils strains under the label of SENSI SEEDBANK after Nevil had some jail time in Australia .Nevil was the first Seed Bank or company to exist in Holland so his legendary strains such as Northern lights 5, Ultra skunk , Nl5 Haze, Early pearl , Early girl, Shiva Skunk….and so on became the basis for a lot of offspring seed companies that followed in the 90s.

In fact companies like Dutch passion and Nirvana began by copying Nevils seeds from the F1 seed…but most of them would never say so as they are Dutch business men who see dollars first and not genetics….Sam and Nevil use to work a bit on strains together but when it was revealed that Sam and his crew of Americans in Holland all were part of informants for the DEA in America on a radio program in Holland they split to the UK to do other things. Sam never started or owned a seed company so his claim to all the strains that became famous years ago are not really warranted. He did however do a lot of work on Skunk and shared some seed with Nevil, but as you know for breeding you cannot just take any plant and make a strain like Greenhouse does nowadays.

http://www.overgrow-italy.nl/forum/archive/index.php/t-1588.html

These allegations have been circulating privately for quite sometime now, however the topic has eluded the public forums attention up until recently because so few have been willing to take a step forward on the subject; for (obvious) whatever reasons.

Previously, the first time I had read anything publically about the subject was from a haze thread in the strains and hybridization forum at Icmag, from Shanti whom like a few of us was taking exception to the libertys Sam the Skunkman was having with the truth.

There is alot of passed history of all individuals that only each of them will know to be truth or fiction. There are radio reports from Holland where questions of how certain companies acquired licenses while other native companies could not, and of course very few people have untainted passed history. The biggest differences are down to personality, and since i know both Sam, Rob Clark, Neville and so on and still are in contact with alot of them to this day, i believe should say thanks to all of them for all their hardwork.

Even with this vague statement, at this point a few of us were already aware of the rumors surrounding the Skunkman; however still it remained a skeleton in the closet nobody wanted to touch. So with the recent revelations at Icmag, there has been a few interesting stages of progression from the community.

1. Denial and Isolation.
2. Anger.
3. Bargaining.
4. Depression.
5. Acceptance.

Up until recently, the Skunkman and his particular versions of events surrounding the history of haze had found a bastion at Icmag; which is perhaps the largest online marijuana community on the internet today. So it was a rather hostile environment to walk into and present a different version of events than the conventionally accepted forum view.
 
And below is an article from Steven Hager of High Times magazine; discussing Nevil and The Seed Bank.


by Steven Hager

I first visited the Netherlands in 1987 to write an article on the founder of Holland's first cannabis-seed company. Titled "The King of Cannabis," the article described how an Australian named Nevil established a mail-order company in Holland. He lived in a mansion filled with growrooms that I dubbed "Cannabis Castle." While working on the article, I met the founders of Cultivators Choice, an almost defunct American cannabis-seed company. They told me about the spectacular California harvest festivals of the '70s. That's when I got the idea of holding a cannabis harvest festival in Amsterdam.

In January, our former grow guru Dr. Indoors, a photographer and I flew over as the only three judges. Four seed companies entered: Super Sativa Seed Club, Sensi Seed Club, the Seed Bank and a late entry, Cultivators Choice, who won the Cup. However, Nevil had already purchased all the Cultivators Choice strains, including Skunk #1, Haze and Pollyanna. Cultivators Choice soon disbanded, and Nevil dominated the event for the next few years using their stock.

Surprisingly, there wasn't a lot of support for the Cup inside High Times. Someone branded it a scheme for me to disappear with my friends and consume cannabis for a week. Stung by this criticism, I decided not to attend the vastly underfunded event for a while. Instead, I pondered a return in the distant future.

The 2nd Cup had the same four seed companies, but more samples and six judges, including Ed Rosenthal and Patty Collins. An awards dinner was held at the Yum-Yum restaurant, and the Seed Bank swept all awards.

The 3rd Cup's judges included Furry Freak Brothers artists Gilbert Shelton and Paul Mavrides, as well as the founders of the Provos, the most famous Dutch activists from the ‘60s. The Seed Bank won again; Shelton and Mavrides became the first world-class artists to create official artwork; and the Provos staged a demonstration at the Awards Show objecting to forced sex habits of plants, a protest against sinsemilla!

Unfortunately, a few weeks later the DEA launched an operation designed to shut down the Seed Bank and High Times. A prosecutor in New Orleans claimed the Seed Bank was a secret division of HT. The Dutch government refused to extradite Nevil, who was forced into hiding to prevent a DEA kidnapping. He was eventually nabbed while visiting his family in Australia, jumped bail and disappeared.


http://hightimes.com/cancup/hager/29
 
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Something that caught my eye was the information contained with Steven Hagers article for High Times and Shantis translated article from the Italian Magazine.

Sam and Nevil use to work a bit on strains together but when it was revealed that Sam and his crew of Americans in Holland all were part of informants for the DEA in America on a radio program in Holland they split to the UK to do other things. Sam never started or owned a seed company so his claim to all the strains that became famous years ago are not really warranted.

by Steven Hager


Unfortunately, a few weeks later the DEA launched an operation designed to shut down the Seed Bank and High Times. A prosecutor in New Orleans claimed the Seed Bank was a secret division of HT. The Dutch government refused to extradite Nevil, who was forced into hiding to prevent a DEA kidnapping. He was eventually nabbed while visiting his family in Australia, jumped bail and disappeared.
 
And as an illustration for those of you reading at home of just how serious all of this realy was, hundreds, thousands, if not tens of thousands of lives have been ruined by Operation Green Merchant. Nevil himself faced a possible life sentence if convicted.

OPERATION GREEN MERCHANT: AN OVERVIEW

by Peter Gorman

During the 1980s, indoor marijuana production in the US blossomed, in part because of the government’s efforts to seal America’s national borders, and in part because growers and smokers wanted more consistent, exotic strains of pot. Among the keys to the success of the burgeoning industry were advanced hydroponics and lighting systems. The primary sources of information on the latest techniques and equipment were the pages of both HIGH TIMES and Sensimilla Tips magazines. Which didn’t go unnoticed by the government.

Green Merchant was the name given the federal operation which sought to shut down the industry. It began in 1988, became public in 1989, and, though it has officially been discontinued, the words Green Merchant continue to come to mind when one thinks of people who get busted because they’ve purchased indoor gardening equipment.
HIGH TIMES, one of the focal points of Green Merchant, covered the operation in a series of more than a dozen news stories over a two-year period. The following are excerpts from several of those stories.


INSIDE OPERATION GREEN MERCHANT: WHO GOT HIT AND HOW THEY'RE FIGHTING BACK
(Jan. ‘90 HT)

On Thursday, October 26, 1989, the Drug Enforcement Agency conducted raids on retail stores and warehouses specializing in indoor garden supplies in 46 states, in an attempt to shut down the indoor production of marijuana in this country. The raids were the culmination of a DEA plan, dubbed “Operation Green Merchant,” which began in 1987 as the brainchild of DEA agent Jim Stewart.

Described by NORML as “a publicity stunt,” the Black Thursday raids resulted in the confiscation of books, merchandise and records from more than three dozen stores and the padlocking of several others. Eleven store owners were arrested and more arrests were anticipated, the DEA announced in a press release issued that day.

According to U.S. News & World Report, Stewart, who was unavailable for comment to HIGH TIMES, conceived Operation Green Merchant while thumbing through a copy of this magazine. Struck by the number of ads for both indoor gardening supplies and marijuana seed banks, he began mapping out a plan for undercover agents to visit garden centers and request information regarding the growing of pot. The responses of the store owners or their employees were, in some cases, revealing enough to give the DEA the legal authority to “subpoena United Parcel Service records from 29 of the equipment firms,” U.S. News & World Report said. The records produced more than 20,000 names of customers who had done business with those supply stores.

Treating each customer as a potential marijuana grower, the DEA followed several hundred of those “leads” and arrested more than a hundred indoor growers. Those growers’ illegal use of garden equipment provided the legal leverage necessary to conduct raids on the stores themselves. In addition, all customer records, mailing lists and shipping invoices were seized from every store raided. Those lists have produced tens of thousands of additional “leads” for the DEA and local authorities to follow.
Aside from the untold damage done to the raided businesses—both in terms of financial loss and damage to their reputations—Operation Green Merchant has raised several legal issues, first and foremost of which is whether the government has the right to seize records from legal businesses for the purpose of investigating customers whose names appear on said records.

Secondly, since nearly all of the stores involved in both the initial investigation and the subsequent raids advertised in either HIGH TIMES or Sinsemilla Tips, there is the question of First Amendment infringement. The gardening equipment at the root of the operation can, after all, be purchased from literally thousands of nurseries, garden supply centers and electrical supply outlets throughout the country, yet apparently none of these businesses were targeted in any stage of Operation Green Merchant. While the DEA officially denies the allegation that one of the main motives of the operation was to close down HIGH TIMES and Sinsemilla Tips, when reached at the Justice Department in Washington, the DEA operator responded to this reporter's announcement that he was with HIGH TIMES by saying, “What? Are you still in business over there?”

Thirdly, hundreds of people whose names appeared on the various confiscated lists have been contacted by either the DEA or local authorities and asked to consent to searches of their homes for the purpose of investigating whether or not marijuana is being grown on their premises. HIGH TIMES contacted several of these people; nearly all of them were too frightened to speak with us. However, several admitted that they had consented to “gentle” searches by the authorities, rather than forcing them to get search warrants, which would have lead to much more thorough searches of their homes.
Beyond the legal questions arising from this operation, several moral questions must be addressed as well. For the authorities to arrest the shop owners or padlock shop doors, effectively shutting them down by seizing merchandise and business records for an indefinite period of time, is government whimsy at its most outrageous. (At presstime, the store owners had no idea when their confiscated material would be returned.) And for the government to suspect that everyone doing business with a particular type of store is involved in illegal activity—when the store itself deals exclusively in legal products—is McCarthy-style witch-hunting at its worst.

It is too early to project what the outcome of the legal questions regarding Operation Green Merchant will be. Several of the store owners contacted were planning legal action and others have already begun proceedings. NORML, which is acting as a clearinghouse for all affidavits and warrants connected to the raids and arrests made on October 26, hopes to prove that there was an illegal pattern in the way this operation was and continues to be carried out. The American Civil Liberties Union is also investigating the matter, according to Lauren Siegal at the ACLU’s national headquarters in New York. “We're looking into this as a civil liberties case,” he said. “The way this raid was apparently conducted raises very serious civil liberties questions.”
Below are comments made by some of the store owners and others affected by this operation. HIGH TIMES will continue to investigate Operation Green Merchant as it unfolds.

UNIDENTIFIED EMPLOYEE—WORM'S WAY, BLOOMINGTON, INDIANA:

“Well, they came in here that Thursday and the owner, Martin Heydt, was alone. They came into the store, his home and into the basement of the store simultaneously. They had a subpeona which indicated that they could remove all business and employee records. While in the house, they searched Martin's daughter's room and dresser drawers. But no one was arrested. They just confiscated the records. Martin has a lawyer filing a petition to retrieve those records. We’re still open for business and plan to stay that way until they tell us that we can't.
“Some of our customers have even had visitors from the DEA, who asked whether they did business with Worm's Way and if they could look around. Some said yes, some said no.”

JOSEPH HOBERMAN, ORCHID GROWER—RALEIGH,
NORTH CAROLINA:

“The State Bureau of Investigation came to my home. They said they had evidence that I was growing marijuana and asked for a consent search to see whether it was true. I told them they were welcome to come in and look around; they were very polite, not touching anything, and then they left.
“When it was over I thought about the whole thing, particularly the implied threat that if I let them in they would be nice, but that if I made them get a warrant—regardless of whether I was guilty or not—they were going to destroy my home. That was the impression I had and they didn't do anything to dispel that belief. This implied threat changes the ground rules: if you stand up, you deserve to have your house wrecked, whether you're a criminal or not.
“At first I thought I was being set up, so I called the DEA and was told that it wasn't true. It turned out that I'd had three shipments from Applied Hydroponics—all for a defective light meter which was being exchanged—and they'd gotten my name from a mailing list. I had joined the American Orchid Society at the beginning of the year and got their ad (Applied Hydroponics’) from the American Orchid Society bulletin. So the issue here isn’t marijuana at all; it’s Fourth Amendment stuff, consent searches. And this experience has sort of activated me. I've often felt that I should be more active in trying to get marijuana legalized, but I just kept quiet. This experience has made me decide to take a public stand.”

JEFF EDWARDS—HOME HARVEST GARDEN SUPPLY, WOODBRIDGE, VIRGINIA:

“Our main focus here has always been food production. We saw what people were doing with other plants, but there's a limited number of those people gardening. In the gardening population in general, there's well over 40 million people who garden as a hobby, and another 15 million who would garden if they had a place to garden. Our focus is to give those 15 million people the avenue to actually produce food and flowers in their home all year round.

“The reason we weren't visited is that we run a very clean shop here. If you ask me about something you shouldn't, I ask you to leave. It hasn't happened often, but it has happened. I'm sure that we were checked out at some point during Green Merchant, but we run a very legit operation here.”

BILL ROSS—EAST COAST HYDROPONICS, STATEN ISLAND,
NEW YORK:

“Four DEA officers came into my store with a Federal search warrant. They searched my store for marijuana and took my records and invoices. They were professional. They didn’t point guns at me. I was very happy about that.

“As to how they happened to come here, well, I know they had the UPS records before they came. I know that because they went to my sister’s house before they ever came to the store. She’s the white sheep of the family. I’d sent her some fertilizer several months ago—via UPS—and when they showed up at her place, they asked her if she was growing pot. They tried to get into her house without a search warrant, but she wouldn’t let them in.

“Anyway, I guess they'd visited my store at some point and I'd told them how to grow tomatoes. Supposedly, another DEA man from out of town told these guys that tomatoes are a word for dope. So order a bacon, lettuce and dope sandwich. As to the closing of some stores, there were a few bad apples, obviously. I'm mad at the guys that were doing things wrong. They put a bad shadow on our whole industry. It's a shame it happened; the industry was just coming out of its infancy. I go into this business so people could grow their own food, so they could eat food without any chemicals in it.

“But I didn’t do anything wrong, goddamn it! And now they've got my records, and when I ask why, they say they're holding them for evidence. I say evidence for what? I didn't do anything! I think they're just trying to force me out of business. ”

J.P. JONES — PARADISE HYDROPONICS, EUREKA, CALIFORNIA

“About 15 of them served me with a warrant to search my store. They seized any books and videotapes related to marijuana as well as my business records and customer mailing lists. While the search was going on here, they said they also had a warrant for my house and told me to give them the keys or they'd break the door down. I told them my 15-year-old daughter was home alone after school and not to do anything to traumatize her. Then I gave them the keys and they completely searched my house.
“They took my records, my computer and my mailing lists. They also took Ed Rosenthal's and Jorge Cervantes' books, and another book which had nothing at all to do with marijuana. The Constitution says you can have these books, but the FBI says no, so they come in and seize them.

“They also had the press here with them—a local TV crew and a local newspaper. The newspaper wrote that no one comes into this store except marijuana growers. They must not have known that the local university, the local high school, the library, retired couples and nursery schools all buy things here. I have one old couple who called up to find out if they had anything illegal in their home by having a single unit. That's how scary the newspaper story was.

“It's just a big publicity thing and it worked for what they wanted. They've scared customers away. But they found nothing illegal. I have never told anybody how to grow marijuana.”

THOMAS WILLIAM, GROWER—SPRINGFIELD, MISSOURI

“On Thursday, November 2, at about 3:30 PM, several unmarked cars drove up to my house. My wife started to close the door, but they told her not to, that they had a search warrant. She asked to read it; they told her to open the door or they'd kick it in.
“About eight or ten of them—only two from the DEA, the rest local—entered the house and immediately handcuffed my wife. Then called me at work and asked whether I'd like to come home. As soon as I did, they arrested me.

“I had some plants growing in the basement. I had four mother plants about 1-1/2-feet high and some seeds in cups which hadn't germinated yet. The newspaper account said I had 19 plants, so I guess they counted the seeds. I also had a little personal stash in the refrigerator. Altogether, I guess it came to less than an ounce.

“They totally trashed my house. They pulled dresser drawers out and dumped them, they turned the couch over; they stapled their cards to my woodwork and kicked in walls I’d just built to finish the basement. They threw my family photos on the floor!
“They charged my wife and me with cultivation of marijuana. It cost me $4,000 to get us out of jail; I won't get that back. But I think the DEA was disappointed to see there wasn't much here. They did seem thrilled to find some copies of HIGH TIMES and the Seed Bank Catalog.

“I don’t know where they got my name. They said I'll find out at my preliminary hearing. I order legitimate supplies. I don’t know what the probable cause would be for this. And the way they trashed this place for less than an ounce of pot? Man, they didn’t have to do that!”

DANIEL KATZ—WILLIAM BENNETT'S OFFICE:

“The first thing I’m going to say is that most of your information will come from the DEA. They carried out that operation and we, as a policy office, don’t deal with operations. My knowledge of this (Operation Green Merchant) is limited to what I’ve read in the papers.

“We develop a national direction on thinking about drugs, a national strategy, but we don’t suggest the operations. In answer to the question of whether this was part of the Bennett drug policy, it’s not. As I understand it, this operation was done as part of the DEA mission, which is to combat drug violations, and that’s what this is.
“We don’t offer specific opinions on specific operations which we have nothing to do with. The DEA doesn't go around commenting on our work and we don't comment on theirs.”

LAUREN SIEGAL—ACLU:

“The fact that the government is apparently trying to get hold of the lists of people who buy from these kinds of stores on the apparent assumption that anybody who goes to a garden supply store might be growing pot in their closet—as opposed to radishes or tomatoes—harkens back to a McCarthyite way of looking at the drug problem.”
HOLLAND’S SEED BANK BUSTED

(Oct. ‘90 HT)

Nevil Martin Schoenmakers, operator of Holland’s Seed Bank, was arrested in Australia on July 24, at the request of the US government. At presstime, extradition proceedings were underway to transport Schoenmakers to Federal court in New Orleans, where he will face charges of violating the Controlled Substances Act.

The 44-count indictment alleges that Schoenmakers, “in concert with at least five other persons,” knowingly distributed, through the US Postal Service, a total of 1,921 seeds to DEA agents and marijuana growers in the New Orleans area from 1985 to 1990. The indictment also alleges that Schoenmakers, an Australian native who makes his home in Holland, “did knowingly...manufacture (grow) more than 1,000 marijuana plants, a Schedule 1 drug controlled substance.” If convicted on all counts, Schoenmakers (as well as a second, unnamed “co-conspirator”) faces a possible life sentence.
Schoenmakers’ indictment is closely tied to the ongoing grand jury investigation of HIGH TIMES being conducted by US District Attorney John Volz. The government has been seeking to determine whether or not conspiracy charges can be brought against the magazine for allowing advertisers to offer products through the mail which may later have been used in indoor-growing operations in the New Orleans area.

Both the indictment against Schoenmakers and the HIGH TIMES probe grew out of last year's Operation Green Merchant. That operation—aimed at shutting down the burgeoning indoor marijuana growing industry—used United Parcel Service records to trace deliveries of indoor growing equipment.

According to sources inside the Justice Department, the three key targets of Green Merchant were Sinsemilla Tips, the Seed Bank and HIGH TIMES. Sinsemilla Tips stopped publishing last January as part of a plea-bargain deal made with Tom Alexander, its publisher and editor. The Seed Bank has also recently closed down operation. HIGH TIMES remains the thorn in the government’s side.

UPDATE: THE SEED BANK

(Dec. ‘90 HT)

Nevil Schoenmakers, operator of Holland's Seed Bank, remains in an Australian jail as extradition proceedings which would bring him to the United States continue.
Schoenmakers’ lawyers are fighting the extradition on the grounds that marijuana seeds contain no cannabinoid substances and therefore should not be considered marijuana. Schoenmakers’ sister Vicky Ellers told HIGH TIMES from her home in Perth: “Since the whole case revolves around seeds, the lawyers are hopeful that we might be able to get the case thrown out of court here in Australia, which would prevent the extradition.”
Michael Kennedy, a New York attorney familiar with this area of the law, commented, “Seeds are legal in Holland. They’re not psychoactive until germinated. I don’t think (Schoenmakers) broke any laws.” About the extradition battle, Kennedy explained, “It’s primarily a political matter. The question is: will Australia back down?”
At presstime, Schoenmakers was awaiting a bail hearing on October 22. His immediate goal was to be released on bail until the extradition issue could be resolved.
Schoenmakers would be pleased to learn that HIGH TIMES readers have given him a commanding lead in the voting for Counterculture Hero of the Year.
Steve Bloom contributed to this story.

UPDATE: TOM ALEXANDER, Publisher of Sinsemilla Tips
(Dec. ‘90 HT)

In the October '90 HIGH TIMES, I erroneously reported that Sinsemilla Tips had ceased publication as a result of a plea bargain Tom Alexander, the magazine's publisher and editor, made with the US government (“Holland's Seed Bank Busted”). Alexander has informed me that he never made a deal with the government in connection with the DEA's 1989 raid of his garden-supply store in Corvallis, Oregon.

Recalling the raid, part of Operation Green Merchant, Alexander explained, “They seized strip irrigation, lights and other items. What they basically did was arrest the merchandise. They never arrested me or charged me with anything.

“They said that since I had a store which supposedly sold marijuana growing equipment it constituted a criminal conspiracy. If the fuckers had a criminal conspiracy case they would have come and charged me, but they didn't. Nonetheless, for two months they were hanging that over my head.

“There was no agreement made whatsoever in relation to Tips. No type of overt pressure or coercion was used; no plea of any sort that I stop Tips. The only agreement I made was that I wouldn't contest them stealing my merchandise if they would just get off my back. Fighting the civil forfeiture of the store’s merchandise was going to cost $20,000. I looked at those numbers and decided it wasn't worth it. I had wanted to sell the store for two years by that time. Instead of selling it, I had it stolen (by the government). They used the law as a tool of extortion. It wasn’t worth my remaining assets to fight these assholes.”

Alexander added that “after 10 and-a-half years Tips will be dead. It’s no longer financially viable. If it was, I’d still be doing it.” Alexander will continue to publish The Growing Edge. For copies of either publication, call: 1-800-888-6785.

GREEN MERCHANT: THE FIRST 18 MONTHS
(May ‘91 HT)

When Operation Green Merchant first broke 18 months ago, no one was sure of where it was going or what the extent of it would be. We knew that its ostensible aim was to shut down this country’s indoor marijuana cultivation industry, and that the operation was designed to link the sources of information regarding indoor marijuana cultivation—HlGH TIMES and Sinsemilla Tips—with indoor growers in a criminal conspiracy. The connection between the two was thought to be the gardening centers that advertised in both magazines.

The logistics of the operation were these: during a two-year period beginning in late '87, the DEA sent agents to 81 stores and mail-order houses specializing in indoor-gardening supplies, asking for information regarding the growing of marijuana. While most store owners refused to have anything to do with the agents once they made their blatantly illegal requests, a handful responded positively, and a few of those apparently even provided seeds to the undercover agents.

Those few positive responses provided the DEA with the legal leverage it needed to subpoena UPS shipping records from a number of those stores. An investigation of a portion of the names provided by those records turned up a number of illegal indoor-marijuana growers.

For the DEA, the link had been made: They now had proof that some of the consumers who purchased indoor gardening supplies from the stores and mail-order houses which advertised in HIGH TIMES and Sinsemilla Tips were indeed using gardening equipment to illegally produce marijuana. The stage was set for the Operation to go public.

MAIN OBJECTIVES

The government succeeded in shutting down Sinsemilla Tips. Tom Alexander, whose Full Moon garden-supply store was seized during the early stages of Green Merchant—without him being charged with anything—was unable to continue publishing after all of his advertisers either went out of business or were threatened with charges if they continued advertising with him.

HIGH TIMES continues to publish despite the loss of revenue from those same advertisers. But once it became apparent that HT would not fold, a federal investigation was launched in New Orleans which attempted to make HT a co-conspirator with both the Seed Bank and the indoor growers. That investigation was dropped some months ago when the government failed to get an indictment.

Nevil Schoenmakers, who legally operated the Seed Bank (another HIGH TIMES advertiser) in Holland, was arrested by Australian authorities at the behest of the US government in June, 1990. A 44-count indictment was lodged in New Orleans, charging him with the sale of marijuana seeds to undercover agents and indoor growers. He has been detained pending the results of an extradition hearing.

INCIDENTAL CASUALTIES

George Warren owned six Northern Lights garden centers in New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania. On October 24, 1989, he was visited in his flagship store by a man who asked about purchasing lights and hydroponic systems. During the course of the conversation the man, who turned out to be a DEA agent, inquired about acquiring marijuana seeds. Warren told the man he wasn’t in that business; the man persisted, and Warren told him there were probably magazines he could look into for that kind of information, then excused himself to answer a phone call in his office. The man followed him into the office and passed him a note asking for 200 seeds. Warren asked the man to leave the store.

Two days later, nine DEA, Alcohol Tobacco & Firearms and local-authority agents arrived at Warren’s main store armed with a warrant for business records, grow lights, hydroponic systems and other inventory that might be used to grow marijuana. That same day, the process was repeated at each of Warren’s stores; by evening he'd lost inventory valued at nearly $200,000. Warren himself, however, has never been arrested in connection with the seizures, and continues to fight for the return of his inventory.
Reached recently at home, Warren was furious. “If I’ve done anything wrong, arrest me. If not, give me back my merchandise. There’s nothing illegal about lights. What are they going to do with them anyway?”
“Sell them at auction,” he was told.

“You mean they confiscate my merchandise because they think some people will grow pot with it, and then they sell it to someone else?”

“That's how it works.”

The owner of a large West Coast mail order gardening-supply center tells a similar story. On October 26, 1989, the DEA and state police arrived at his warehouse with warrants for business records and computers. They padlocked the warehouse and began forfeiture proceedings for the nearly $1 million worth of inventory, the warehouse itself and the property it was located on.

The owner, who asked to remain anonymous, was never arrested. Ten months later, the prosecutor gave the owner’s lawyer a list of 20 misdemeanors, which he said he would prosecute if the man continued to fight the forfeit. The choice was simple: Fight and lose thousands of dollars in legal fees—as well as risk one year in jail for each count he was convicted on—or give up the fight and walk away. His lawyer suggested that of 20 counts it wasn’t unlikely that he would lose at least one, and conviction on even a single count would mean losing the forfeiture case anyway. The man took his lawyer’s advice and walked.

While not all prosecutors are willing to go to such lengths to seize property, the laws regarding forfeiture certainly make it appealing for them to do so. The reason? Monies generated through the auction of forfeited goods are divided between the agencies involved in the seizure and the prosecutor’s office which promotes the case.
Dan Viets, a defense attorney who has won a number of Green Merchant cases, says that while “the idea of forfeiture is not new, the idea of giving the money to the police and prosecutors is. A lot of people don't really understand that it’s going on.”
Forfeiture doesn't just affect businesses. One of Viets’ clients, a former law-enforcement officer, stands to lose his whole farm because 37 marijuana plants were found growing on it. Another of his cases involved a couple found with four pot plants, who have had their 11-acre farm forfeited as a result. Viets is optimistic about both cases.
And the horror of the prosecution of Green Merchant cases isn’t limited to forfeiture: One couple had their parental rights terminated for growing pot at home; several school teachers and at least one nurse lost their state licenses; others simply got caught up in the legal system, and found that trying to extricate themselves nearly ruined them.

REPERCUSSIONS

While the obvious targets of the Operation were HIGH TIMES, Sinsemilla Tips, the Seed Bank, store owners, small-time growers and the thousands of people who were investigated, the real victim of Green Merchant has been the Bill of Rights.
The right of free speech is a cornerstone of our republic. History is full of people who spoke out advocating illegal positions in an effort to change the laws governing them—from Thoreau's Civil Disobedience to Freedom Marches, and abortion rights. What Sinsemilla Tips did, and what HIGH TIMES does—advocate the legalization of marijuana—is no different than what others have done throughout American history.

The right to privacy has been gutted as well. The investigation of thousands of people—based solely on their having purchased legal equipment from legal businesses which happened to advertise, among other places, in pro-marijuana magazines—has been continually defended by the Justice Department, despite its obvious constitutional infringement.

Perhaps the rights most abused in the execution of Operation Green Merchant involve personal property and the right to be innocent until proven guilty. That store owners could have their businesses seized by federal agents, without there being enough evidence to charge those owners with any criminal activity whatsoever, is a terrifying concept; that people found to be growing marijuana in the privacy of their homes could have those homes seized by government agents before they were ever brought to trial is unconscionable. And yet this was one of the recurring themes of Green Merchant: confiscate property; threaten charges which would bankrupt the defendant to contest; and then make an offer to withdraw the charges if they agree not to fight the forfeiture.

NET RESULTS

The government has defended the actions of the federal, state and local authorities in Green Merchant as integral to the success of the War on Drugs. Terrence W. Burke, the Acting Deputy Administrator of the DEA, suggests that “there is no such thing as a casual or innocent drug user of illegal substances. Users are a major factor in the drug-trafficking problem, and they are going to be held accountable.”

Steve Hager, HT's Editor-in-Chief, disagrees. “The whole reason we told people to grow their own pot was to get rid of the criminal element. We said, if you want this we'll tell you how to grow it. Don’t give your money to the narcotics traffickers. Don’t support the criminal drug trade.”

Marijuana is illegal today only because the big boys haven't yet seen their way clear to corner the market once it does become legal. But you can bet they are working on that; marijuana is just too valuable to be kept off the market forever. It's just a question of working out the details—among which is ridding the marketplace of as many independent growers and as much information as possible. That part of the plan went into effect on Black Thursday—October 26, 1989.

In the final analysis, Operation Green Merchant has done nothing but ruin the lives of thousands, destroy the Bill of Rights, obfuscate the potential commercial and medical uses of marijuana by continuing to demonize it, raise the price of pot and invite the criminals to take charge of its production.
Way to go, boys.

IT'S GREEN MERCHANT
ALL OVER AGAIN

by Peter Gorman and Johan Carlisle
(Aug. ‘91 HT)

In the latest development to grow out of Operation Green Merchant, the DEA served dozens of gardening centers throughout the country with administrative subpoenas late this past Spring. The action was aimed at securing customer records which might lead them to marijuana cultivators.
The subpoenas, served between May 21-24, are not legally binding. According to DEA spokesman Maurice Brown, they are “a polite way for the DEA to say to an individual: ‘Would you, according to the power of the attorney general, please produce any records which we feel is evidence for our investigation?’”
Among those served were not only former HIGH TIMES advertisers as had been the case in the original Green Merchant operation nearly two years ago—but several stores that never advertised in either HIGH TIMES or Sinsemilla Tips (now out of business). An administrative subpoena is signed by an administrative official (in this case, an official of the DEA). A warrant is signed by a judge.
The information requested in the subpoenas includes “all sales receipts, customer lists, shipping records—including those in computerized form—for the period of January 1990 to the present.”

Additionally, store owners who received subpoenas were asked to produce “all correspondence about marijuana cultivation or distribution...all employee records since 1986 and dates of tenure for each, as well as all correspondence relating to marijuana publications.”

Dan Viets, a Missouri attorney, says that the people who received the administrative subpoenas should resist them. “If the DEA wants to get a real search warrant, let them try.”

But several stores have been advised by their lawyers to turn over all the materials requested. And while no store owner would confirm that they had done so, several may have complied, placing thousands of indoor gardeners under the scrutiny of federal authorities.

Reaction from store owners to this DEA harassment has ranged from disgust to outrage. Larry Brooke, owner of General Hydroponics in Corte Madera, CA told HIGH TIMES: “I’m known as an opponent of both marijuana cultivation and legalization, but when the government crosses the line and erodes the Constitution with this sort of behavior it is not only our right but our obligation to defend the Constitution by refusing to comply with this illegal subpoena.”

The DEA defends its latest action as part of an effort “to identify and put out of business those who would commercially cultivate marijuana,” according to another DEA spokesman, Bill Ruzzamenti.

As always, we urge all people who make purchases of any kind from garden centers to use cash and take the items home yourself rather than have them delivered.

The Numbers

The most recent figures (Feb. 1, 1991) released by the Justice Department related to the first 18 months of Operation Green Merchant are:
*443 arrests of private citizens for marijuana cultivation
*50,794 marijuana plants seized (including unsprouted seeds in soil)
*358 indoor grow-sites seized
Of all the arrests made in Green Merchant thus far, only two people had illegal substances other than marijuana in their homes; one man with 2.5 pounds of methamphetamine, and another with five pounds of mushrooms. Indeed indoor pot-growers don't appear to be supporting the criminal drug trade.

NEVIL MAKES BAIL, THEN DISAPPEARS
(Nov ‘91 HT)

Nevil Schoenmakers, former owner of Holland's Seed Bank, has vanished. After spending 11 months in prison in Perth, Australia, Schoenmakers was freed on June 21, on $100,000 bail. Six weeks later, he blew off a required appearance in federal court. It is believed that Schoenmakers was enroute to Holland.

The events left US prosecutors redfaced and angry. In New Orleans, where charges of violating the Controlled Substance Act were filed against Schoenmakers on July 13, 1990, Assistant US District Attorney Laurence Benson had nothing to say about the dramatic disappearance. “We’re in a no-comment mode on that,” he told HIGH TIMES.

That Schoenmakers was finally granted bail after repeated motions came as a major surprise. Australian Federal Court Judge T.K. French gave two reasons for his decision: Schoenmakers was not a fugitive from any country, and he had already spent nearly a year in jail without being tried for any crime.

Schoenmakers, a dual citizen of Holland and Australia, was picked up by Australian authorities on July 24, 1990. He had flown home to join Trish Roberts, who was pregnant with their first child. At the time, Schoenmakers was making plans to return to Australia permanently to raise sheep and horses. Schoenmakers is a champion sheep breeder, as well as a breeder of the finest marijuana seeds in the world.

Less than two weeks earlier Schoenmakers and an unnamed co-conspirator were charged in a 44-count indictment with distribution of marijuana seeds, conspiracy to manufacture marijuana, illegal use of the US mails and operating a continuing criminal enterprise. Schoenmakers faces a maximum penalty of 99 years in federal prison.
The key allegations concern the continuing criminal enterprise charges, which carry a minimum sentence of 10 years. According to a source close to the case, the US District Attorney’s office in New Orleans tried to cut a deal with Schoenmakers’ lawyers that would have greatly reduced the amount of time Schoenmakers would have had to serve if their client could somehow implicate HIGH TIMES in a conspiracy with the Seed Bank, which bought advertising space in the magazine. The offer was rejected.

As one of his bail conditions, Schoenmakers agreed to report twice a day to the Midland police station in Perth. The August 2 edition of The West Australian, however, reported that Schoenmakers had failed to show up Wednesday morning, July 31, leading the paper to predict, “Star Will Miss His Show,” which he did. Roberts told the paper the last time she had seen him was at home at 5:30 pm on Tuesday, July 30. Roberts went out for an hour. When she returned, he was gone.

“I believe he has much better prospects in Holland,” she said. “I certainly hope he makes it.”

Meanwhile, Schoenmakers' lawyer, Chris Elliot, tried to go ahead with the extradition appeal without his client, but the prosecutor, Marcus Weinberg, argued that to proceed with the appeal would be an abuse of the process because, he said, it was assumed that Schoenmakers would be hiding out and waiting to see which way the appeal went. An August 9 deadline was set for Schoenmakers to resurface and come to court. When he didn't, the appeal was dismissed.

If Schoenmakers, indeed, makes his way back to Holland, there is little chance that he could be extradited back to Australia for having broken his bail agreement, and no chance of his being extradited to the US. No extradition treaty between Holland and the US exists.

The Seed Bank, which was sold in 1990, continues to operate, though it no longer does business in the United States.
*******
Operation Green Merchant continues to affect the lives of hundreds, perhaps thousands of Americans. Each week the HT newsdesk receives two to four newspaper clippings from around the country—most related to busts or forfeiture—which mention the operation. Additionally, OGM spawned several other government operations, including Operation Smokescreen, which involved a grow store in Indiana that was operated by the Indiana state police (HT Aug., ‘92). More than 40 people who purchased equipment from the store were eventually busted for marijuana growing. In Houston, the DEA tried to get a store owner to allow them to videotape all transactions (HT May, ‘92). Also in Houston, several seed supply companies have recently opened, all suspected to be connected to law enforcement.

http://petergormanarchive.com/green_merchant.html
 
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Jesse,

I'm going to say this in my softest, most sincere tone of writing. That is an accusation with absolutely no proof or hard evidence to back it up. Slinging this kind of stuff against one of the best cannabis breeders in the world is not good karma. Hell, for all I know, YOU are a DEA agent spreading lies about the breeding community to develop distrust. (I don't really think that at all, but just using it as an example, no beefs with you at all bro).

I would like to hear first hand from shanti about this accusation.

I have a lot of respect for Sam, we used to talk a little back on Overgrow, and one time when I was having trouble getting a copy of a scientific article, he actually photocopied it and sent it overseas to my house in the mail. He is one of the most experienced cannabis growers/breeders in the world, and has helped many, many, many people to grow high-quality cannabis. This does not seem like the actions of DEA agent.

In the spirit of the culture of the internet, "screenshots or it didn't happen", i.e. you need some irrefutable proof to back up this claim, otherwise, this is just character assassination and drama.

(edit) Would you please post a link to the thread at ICMAG that you speak of? I read over there as well, but didn't see much about this in the haze lighting thread or the origins of haze sticky.
 
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Im not trying to take sides on this debate....yet.

I will say though, that I followed the thread for a while on IC, and it sparked my interest.

Ive done a hefty amount of reading / googling / researching, and there's a lot more to the skunkman than meets the eye...alter-ego, if you will. lmao. Skunkman is a canna-legend.... but _____ ______ is a determined businessman, nothing more as far as I can tell. Sure, he's got a lot of experience with cannabis...but that doesnt make you a good dude, ya know?

judging by the 12 voices in my head, this jury is still out. I would like to say that, while the accusations are steep, Im not so quick to brush them off after reading up a bit. There are a lot of coincidences in this scenario, almost enough to make one ask if its one too many.
 
btw, the thread with the discussion is in the MNS vendor forum....on the main page, scroll way way down, MNS is one of the first vendors listed after the bay/boo.
 
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