Very cool pictures. 
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Nice fake name, why ya hiding?
I find it funny how people who are afraid to use their true identity like to throw shade on those who do.
And for the record, I have NOTHING to do with High Times.
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Thank you, as a kid who had cancer, this whole journey has been a crazy dream, I say take risks and have fun. We all die at the end, and nature favors the bold.
Jack Herer and I redesigned The Emperor Wears No Clothes in this house, I grew the Black Domina leaf that is on the cover. We had Dennis Peron’s gubernatorial party here that year and had a lot of fun just getting high and growing.
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Very cool stuff. Glad you joined up and stopped by.
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Thank you.
It was definitely interesting times.
An accurate article about what we were doing at the time:
Cancer Patient Ran ‘Pot Palace’ - Los Angeles Times
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@ToddMcC Damn dude that article is amazing. What a crazy ass life you have lived. Much respect for your work and sacrifice. Dudes like you are what started this.
Crazy they valued each plant at $5000. Peacefully trying to grow plants and they screw you like that.
Any chance you can name a few of the special strains that were lost during the mansion raid?
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Thanks. 
The apparent confusion is very satisfying to me.
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$20 for a seed? Fuck that for a joke, even if it hatched and Shiva come out and blew me I’d still say BS , and regrettably I ain’t some 20 something kid 
. That said, there are plenty of suckers with the coin and no sense and that’s capitalism for you.
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I heard alot about a polyploid plant that was held in certain circles in Los Angela’s. Was that by chance a kush ? There are alot of differant opinions about people in the cannabis industry and with out getting into all of that stuff, sam ,the Holland/amsterdam seed movement etc I will say you have been at it longer then most and have put your self out there in the name of cannabis way before it was the cool thing to do. I beleive its primary purpose is medicine and that everybody should have the right and ability to use it. Unfortunately money and greed have always had a large influence on the cannabis industry and culture and with legalization that is going to become fueled even more. In the old days not that long ago You had to at least realy have some balls or love the plant and beleive in it alot to risk it , now everybody can jump aboard and shout about how great weed is with out the threat of ruining there life. If my memory stand correct weren’t you the first person to claim medical in the usa with a international prescription? Your A cancer survivor and a weed warrior, regardless of some peoples opinions about the paths you took in the industry I’d say your knowlege is apreciated here.
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First off, I have bought a $20 bag that was smoked fast and was gone the next day, yet if I buy a seed for $20, I can grow it and have cannabis for a lifetime. To me, that does not seem like a bad deal.
Second, anything of value that is damn near as old as an antique, is going to be more expensive than something made recently.
So I ask:
How much do you sell your heirloom seeds for that you have been storing for over 20 years?
Do you have any that I can buy?
Where did you get them?
Can you prove authenticity like I can with Mel Frank and Sam?
Do you even have seeds that were properly stored for 20+ years, nevermind grown by a luminary like Mel Frank, and if you do, what are they worth to you?
Did you do germination test on them? Are you getting 100% germination like Mel does? I’ve sold quite a few of his 1996 seats so far, and every single person has been thrilled and has told me that they sprouted within 24 hours.
I have paid both a lot and a little for seeds, and what I paid did not necessarily determine one was better or worse, but in the cases that I spent more money, I was buying something I could authenticate.
And as an open question, because I see seeds being sold for a wide range, and €400 for 12 seeds does seem excessive to me, so I wonder, what do you all think seeds should be selling for?
And when you answer, can you just indicate if you’re somebody who actually grows and makes seeds or if you’re just somebody buys them to grow. To me there’s a huge difference, because I think a lot of people don’t understand how expensive it is to be a breeder.
Anyone who wants to see my actual catalog and not just single screen shot can email me for a copy: todd@toddpmccormick.com
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Mate just saying that was not meant to be me criticising, just pointing out that I as an old fart wouldn’t pay it mostly because I am a tight wad lol. Some will and we live in capitalist/free system so if you can get it, good luck to you. To some people paying what you are asking will be worth every cent. To me it’s always been about the quality of the end product, rather than as a collection or for nostalgia ( nothing at ALL wrong with this either).
For comparison purposes, there are seed companies out there charging around this for other beans, i.e Flavour Chasers and TGA come to mind but I don’t buy there stuff either lol…
I have to say though as someone who has germinated thousands of seeds, I would be amazed if you can truly get 100% germination of 20 yr old seeds, hell it’s rare to get 100% from brand new seeds fresh of the plant, but then maybe there is some magic in them beans I am unaware of.
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Thank you, you totally get it.
Back in January 1994 when I first met Jack, I also met Elvy Musikka, who was the first woman to ever receive medical cannabis from the federal government as part of the Compassionate Investigative New Drug program, where her cannabis was grown in Mississippi, and rolled into joints at the Research Triangle Institute and then delivered to her via the mail. 300 joints a month since the 80s, it helps her with her glaucoma, and it has also helped her with her hereditary arthritis.
Anybody that meets Elvy would know that she is a dynamic personality, and her message was always that you have to fight for your freedom and demand your rights. At the time, there was no way to get on the program she was on getting cannabis, the government closed it and grandfathered in the few people who were still getting cannabis. But being around her always had me wondering if I could get legal, and then I went to Amsterdam in November 1994, and I met James Burton, who was an American living in Rotterdam who was championing medical cannabis in the Netherlands. Because my neck is fused, and I have a big scar going down the back of it, it is easy to demonstrate where I had surgery and explain to a doctor why I use cannabis because of chronic neck pain. James encouraged me to go and see the only doctor in the Netherlands who was prescribing cannabis at the time, and I did.
Dr. Trossel (that may be misspelled, it’s been a while) was kind enough to let me have an appointment on a short notice and he sat and listened to me explain all the BS it’s in Jack’s book to him for a good two hours, and he liked me. So he gave me an examination and wrote me a prescription for 10 g a day, and then told me that it made me internationally legal, even in the United States. I thought he was crazy and thanked him and paid him for the visit.
When I got home to California, I went up to Sacramento with Elvy Musikka and really cool old grower from Mendocino, who used to own the USA Traveling Hemp Museum, his name is Richard Davis, and he passed away from cancer some years ago, but he was a phenomenal grower and a wonderful activist. But the three of us, went to the Sacramento law library and we looked up everything we could about international prescriptions, and we came to the conclusion that, my doctor inHolland was right, and it made me internationally legal.
Two months later I was invited by Elvy and Florida NORML, to come debate the southeast quadrant leader of the DEA at the University of Miami in March 1995, and I did, and during the debate I asked him if I went and picked up my medical cannabis in the Netherlands, if the DEA would arrest me when I came back, and he said no, because they were trying to use Elvy as an example of the government’s compassion, which was total BS.
The very next day I flew to the Netherlands and I picked up my prescription medicine and I flew back, and even more crazy, Martin Airlines, which was owned by KLM Airlines, which is a Dutch owned airline, allowed me to sit in the smoking section on the international flight (back in 1995 you could smoke tobacco on an international flight if it was longer than 9 1/2 hours), and after I produced my Dutch physician’s prescription for medical cannabis, they were cool and let me smoke it in both directions. I have home video of the whole experience which is just crazy, I felt like I was tripping into the future.
When I arrived, they sent me to secondary inspection, but I started talking to the customs officer and I declared that I had medical cannabis, and they did not know what to do with me, the guy wished me well and walked me through customs.
That was when I came home to San Diego and started the San Diego Cannabis Compassion Club, where I was redistributing donated cannabis to people who were sick for free. It really came out of being an activist, and a grower, and having an abundance of flowers, and a real sense of empathy for people I met who were sick but didn’t have any money, so I just gave them what I could, and a lot of my friends followed suit and started donating to me so I could redistribute it, and that’s how the compassion club started.
One of the toughest decisions I had to make was providing cannabis to a 13-year-old kid through his mother because he got cluster headaches, and no other medicine was working to alleviate the kids pain. but even though I thought I could get in trouble for providing cannabis to a minor, I was a kid when I had cancer, and my mother started giving it to me when I was only 9 years old, so how could I say no. That was 1994, before I started the club, but his situation and his mother’s, is really what inspired me to attempt to help more people. All these years later, I’m still friends with him and his mother, and he grew up to be a really cool guy who lives in La Jolla and has a wife and kids and still grows to this day.
Around the time I was starting the San Diego Cannabis Compassion Club, I was urging Dr Tod Mikuriya (you can see the last interview before he passed away from cancer in my first documentary THE UNION), to start writing recommendations, feeling that we needed paperwork to convince the courts of our legitimacy.
Other than Elvy, when I returned from Holland in 1994 and into 1995, I don’t know of anyone else who was running around with a doctor’s prescription trying to convince cops that it made them legal.
A couple months later in July 1995, I got busted in Ohio bringing some cannabis marked "Not For Sale, Medical Use Only, to the East Coast and while I was incarcerated, the Ohio judge told me that if I could get an American doctor to validate my Dutch physician’s prescription he would consider letting me use it while I was incarcerated. Not only did I get one American doctor, I got three, Dr Tod Mikuriya, Dr Lester Grinspoon and Dr. John Morgan, and John took the time to call the FDA and ask them if an American can receive a prescription for a schedule one substance from another country and bring it back; and the answer was yes, as long as it was prescribed legally and the patient brings back less than a three month supply.
Upon receiving the letters, the judge in Ohio reduced my bond from $150,000, to $2000, and told me to get out of the state. A few months later I came back with a motion to dismiss based on illegal search and seizure and the judge agreed and dismissed the case. had I not had the prescription, I was facing 30 years for 30 pounds.
The NY Times covered it as did the USA Today.
Fortunately, we’ve come a long way since this type of oppression.
http://deadword.com/site1/habit/goldstein/case_1.html
Photo taken March 1995 - Frankfurt Germany (At the first ever BIO FACH to let cannabis/hemp be part of the expo)
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If not for the people who pushed the issue back then we wouldent be were we are today. I was the twenty thousand something person to get a scrip in california when medical passed and we probably have more pot clubs then than that now especialy with recreational passing. It’s hard for some people to accept cannabis as medicine especialy when children are involved but for those who have witnessed it work and rely on it the issue is not up for debate. I have bad nerve pain and migrains and wouldent sleep with out it my self.I also have a friend and fellow member here @Thedrew1985 who knows first hand it is a powerful medicine, it’s the only thing that keeps his child from having umanagable siezures. If somebody hadent started to stand up and shout that people need this plant who knows how much longer the oppression would have lasted.
On a side note one of those tin cans from the old government weed program would a amazing peice a history hopefully some got set aside somewhere .
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I think these are very good questions worth exploring some more. I think that for the average grower who has been around a while and is a seed saver/maker it can be difficult to see the prices charged for beans and not see them as anything other than way overpriced, however for the non commercial hobby grower the fact is there really is little by way of costs per se in producing seed, as typically it can me achieved as side of a regular grows, so then it can be difficult to for the average joe grower to comprehend what is being asked price wise.
On the other hand if seed production is a commercial enterprise, then it brings a whole lot of extra costs and considerations into the equation that home growers don’t see i.e scaling up, storing, testing, regulatory obligations, sorting, packaging, marketing, shipping and some commercial presence on the web. All of these things are an expense that needs to be added to the beans even before a producer thinks about adding their margin. As far as what is a seed worth? Well the answer I suppose is whatever people will pay really. That said it would be instructive for MANY growers here to understand the process/procedures and even setups used/required for the commercial production of seeds.
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Hi Todd,
I am the originator of this post, and I OWN it (stand by what I said).
First. I am 51 and have been a consumer in US, Europe and Africa (where I now live), since I was 16.
I only started growing 3 years ago and ALL my knowledge wouldnt fit on your pinky nail. I have your book and I hold you in high regard.
SO when you posted your seed catalogue, I WAS DROOLING, as truly, the provenance of your genetics would be unquestionable.
When I saw the prices, I was so disappointed @$20 a seed for the Skunk. I have been collecting seeds like a mad man. And at the time, I was collecting most variants of Skunk #1, SO I WANTED yours as well, but at that price and the timing of Nevil’s passing, well you cant blame a newbee for putting 1 and 1 together and conclude that its a cash in.
The seeds I have collected so far, I can never grow all and its mostly preservation that Im focused on.
The only time I would pay big bucks on a drop, would be like Karamgenetics Sour Diesel BX2 of Green Bodhi limited drop of breeding genetics etc, and even their prices were not more than $125 per pack of 12.
I managed to buy the entire collection of Mr.Nice genetics thanks to the Auctions where at full retail, it would be impossible to get so many packs.
I dont care that seeds were in a fridge for over 20 years, if you would have IBL them (F1,F2…F6) or even backcrossed etc…I could say to myself “well, he put a lot of time into this, so why not?”
Mycotec IBL d GG4 and he is only charging $150 a pack and that includes seedbank margins.
You are selling direct to the public and your prices will never be justified especially when you havent had growers as testers to verify or comment on your genetics. You are selling purely based on who you are and who you know, no one ( that I know off) has really grown your genetics.
I would gladly buy your entire catalogue, if you chilled a little on the pricing.
Im not telling you what to do, Im explaining why Im not buying.
There are guys like LED seeds and Katsu who grew for ages and were tester growers for guys like Bodhi etc, who have only NOW, gone to market with their personal crosses, and at reasonable pricing.
I hold Bodhi and Mr.Nice in high regard as they try to make their genetics available to most people and as F1s so that they can all explore the multitude of phenos and genos we can pull out of them. Mr>nice with his auctions and Bodhi sells at $70 ( but mostly you catch at $60 and with buy 2 get 1 free offers).
So you see where a newbee like myself can come up with my conclusions. I posted this topic so I can check fi I was the only one who thought that way or if Im right.
Im not a hater, but a critic.
All the best to you. I invite you to make me an offer I cant refuse, and lets see what happens, lol.
AND NOW, my collection.
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Holy shit! Todd McCormick posted on OG! I’ve been reading about you in HT for over 25 years! I just think it’s cool that I can actually communicate with people who have been legends to the cause, and in the community regardless. It’s almost like getting to talk to Paul Stanley or Ian Anderson in my book! And Positronics…man do I miss that place. 
I still have few old seed catalogs from there circa 94’-95’ish.
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Sup Todd, i got a question …where’s that afgjan/thai…
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Thank you for some of the kind words, I can’t believe you have my first book, that thing is about to be an antique. When I get my next book finished, titled: From Cancer to Cannabis: The Essential Guide to the EndoCannabinoid System I’ll send you and electronic copy. My contributors are; Dr. Lester Grinspoon, Robert C. Clarke and Richard Rose.
Let let me also point out that every seed I make myself, I sell for just $10 ea, which I think is a very fair price considering what a little seed is capable of doing.
One of my favorite quotes from Ernest Abel’s Marijuana - The First Twelve Thousand Years:
“It sprouts from the earth not meekly, not cautiously in suspense of where it is and what it may find, but defiantly, arrogantly, confident that whatever the conditions it has the stamina to survive.”
A dog is a dog, you can go to the pound and get a dog very cheaply, and it will bring you amazing happiness, I know, I’ve done it many times. But if you want to breed a Doberman, you have to go to a known breeder and buy a pedigree that is authentic with known heritage from someone you can trust, and you’re going to pay more. You can go buy a glass bong, for $30, or you can go buy a Mothership for $3,000, to unfuckingreal prices, and both bongs will get you just as high if your smoking the same hash. But I would love to see you go argue to the Doberman breeder, or the artists at Mothership, that it’s just a dog and they should should sell for pound prices, and that’s it’s just glass and they sell for glass for whatever it is that you want to pay, I’m sure they’ll laugh at you and go tell you to go to the pound to get your mutt, and then go buy your cheap glass and have a nice day.
The same is true with cannabis. Which is why I went to the sources: Mel Frank and Sam the Skunkman were already legends to us decades ago. When I was a kid reading Mel Frank’s book and starting off with florescent lights, I never thought I would get the chance to meet him, never mind grow his plants or sell his seeds.
You can view photographs of our gardens:
www.instagram.com/melfrank420
and
www.instagram.com/toddpmccormick
(Everything on my page I grew myself unless it’s marked as grown by somebody else.)
I would also like to point out again, that all of his seeds are just $10. ea - except for one variety that is both very old and definitely, what you would call “breeding material”. The Skunk seeds are also well documented, and really hard to find authentically on the market today, if you can find it at all, and I actually do not think that you can find Skunkman’s Sam’s seeds on the market, other than the ones I have. Because most everybody who ever got Skunk No.1 seeds in the 1980s from Sam, mixed it with something else, which is why Sam’s Skunk is in damn near everything we smoke today.
I am working with what I call the primary colors of cannabis, and I don’t necessarily want the secondary colors of cannabis that have been “worked” by mostly amateurs mixing together plants in limited numbers in usually a small space (because of prohibition). Genetics that they got from somebody else and are now calling their own. Many of the growers I’ve met making seeds, have not even taken the time to even read the 1981 book, Marijuana Botany, and don’t know shat about breeding.
Most seed companies are simply in it to make money and are not breeding, they are simply crossing together closely related plants because they don’t have access to plants that are not closely related. And let me tell you, that mixing together plants that are closely related is cousin f-ing and it does not make the population better, if anything, it makes it worse.
There are not many varieties in cannabis that are true IBL’s, Skunk No.1 was one of them, which is why everybody used it to breed.
When I look around at the market, I see a lot of people selling seeds for a lot more than $10 each, here is a screenshot of SSSC, and none of their seeds are as low as $10 each, and please, what the hell is “Lava Freeze” and who bred it? But 8 seeds at €145, at today’s exchange, is $162, US, divided by 8 seeds, and guess what, $20.25 a seed - for what and made by who? We may never know…
One of the reasons I named my company “Authentic Genetics” is because I feel like a lot of other companies are really selling inauthentic genetics, and I have felt that way for over 20 years of being close to the European and American seed industry.
And also, there is very limited supply of both the 1996 and 2010 Skunk No.1 seeds, I would like to see them get into the hands of more people so people can enjoy them and breed with them, than to hand them over to one person for pennies, who clearly doesn’t even appreciate the fact that somebody else took the time to make them and store them properly for over 20 years.
I am going to continue selling my seeds for $10 each, I think that is very reasonable and so do the people buying them from me.
And sad as it is that Nevil passed, it had no bearing on what I’m doing now. Nevil had nothing to do with making Haze, he was just fortunate enough to get the variety from Sam, who had the foresight to save it.
Also, considering the market around me, I make no apologies for selling 22-year-old Skunk No.1 seeds grown by Mel Frank and begotten directly from Skunkman Sam in 1988, for twenty bucks each. Nobody in the market today has what I have from the people who started it, most of what is out there is overpriced garbage brought to you by people who were not even growing cannabis 20 years ago, and if you think $20 is high, what you think of these?
On Sale! lol
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I’ve paid any where from $1 a seed to $20 a seed and dont regret either purchase.
Just a few of my more expensive beans are
DJ short - blueberry and grape crush
Archive - face off og bx2 , lemon head
I also acquired a 30 yr old inbred haze , from santa Cruz along with a 25yr old ibl of blue moonshine for next to nothing, it would be hard for me to place a value on some of the things I have , pure choc thai for example or legit Panama red.
I have alot of landrace and old heirloom genetics I’ve been collecting and holding on to sense the late nineties and have spent alot if time and money doing so. People can charge what they want for beans and those who are ok with purchasing will and those who arent wont. I think we all could find more productive things to do then criticize somebody for what they feel is a fair price for there work.
@ToddMcC if you want 10-20 a seed I dont see what the problem is as that is pretty average pricing from alot of the new never cared about cannabis seed company’s popping up. The fact that you did so much for the medical movement all while fighting your own battle is enough to convince me your passion is for the plant and its healing ability. i myself wont be purchasing but that’s because I’m broke atm and not to interested in hybrids or acquiring any more genetics , unless somebody still has that polyploid kush plant… There are plenty of seed options for people who want to pay more or less and think some may just be upset about the timing or the price because they cant afford it.
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Thank you, totally appreciate your sentiment.
I will say again, that the timing of my seed company has nothing to do with Nevil and everything to do with the Hemp Farm Bill passing and making seeds legal.
I’ve been working on this seed project for a long time and I wish that Nevil was still alive, but again, what I’m doing has nothing to do with him, I just happened to favor my Nevil’s Haze plant and wanted it Hazier, and wanted to mix the varieties I loved, which I have here in California with real Haze.
As for hybrids, 99% of all the seeds available are hybrids.
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