I remember growing under a 150w HPS and worrying Id get busted.
Then upgrading to a 400w.
Then growing both indoor and outdoor.
…and still being a small grain of sand compared to people growing out a side of a mountain, or two.
An acre of weed seems surreal to some, seeing dozens of acres personally is pretty cool.
And those acres are minuscule compared to MSO’s and the brands that dominate multiple states and countries these days.
And yet we dont hear much of anything from the people hustling in multiple continents, jet-setting between festivals and business deals while their crews ship bulk seeds and hash all over the globe
And even those guys never got permission from UK/US governments/LEO to grow and study cannabis.
Fractals, man. Far out.
NIDA, Sam, Mowgli, Gypsy… they’re all on a first name basis. They may not work for or report to the same people, but they are all in the big leagues game. For Gypsy to butt against Sam’s wishes may mean more legal troubles, who knows. But Im sure his life is easier making Sam an overlord of a moderator.
An interesting data point is in looking at where some breeders have been breeding towards the past couple decades.
DJ Short spent a lot of effort on strains that would allow for perpetual harvesting, theoretically making Rec farming indoors more efficient - no need to replant, just let the plants just keep growing out new fresh buds to harvest every couple weeks. Unfortunately, no states allow for constant harvest in their compliancy, some states even requiring a plant to be entirely harvested on one date, not even allowing for an extra few days to let the lowers finish up after harvesting the main colas.
Many breeders chased 7-week projects thinking with the same old school black market mentality of beating the police or the mold by harvesting early. But Rec is more efficient growing in a hoop and harvesting in Oct-Dec than harvesting Aug/Sept.
Then look at Sam’s projects. Breeding single-cannabinoid plants to both conform to pharmaceutical canna rollout while also allowing the sidestepping of some overbearing regulations such as THC limits or even taxes.
As far as Phylos, I dont think they’d have to sequence the whole genome to achieve their goal.
Their project for the galaxy and testing everyone’s genetics was a sales pitch, not the final goal. They state in the business plan i posted above that they will be breeding and selling novel strains. They dont need to sequence the entirety of everyone’s genetics - they just need to sequence enough to show a commonality between your Super Cloud Eater and Sam’s Sk/Hz/Cali-o/etc.
I know Phylos is currently charging 20% to farms for growing out Phylos’ genetics right now. Thats quite profitable.
And if I go to the grocery store to get a pound of veggies or fruit, its a dollar or two, for a whole pound. Yet those farms bought those seeds from an MSO who spent millions to breed those seeds and keep them exclusive.
Weed is only still just becoming legal where it can be backed by banks, insurance, etc. We haven’t yet seen the rollout of Monsanto-style market dominance by a select few corporations.
I imagine interstate trade will open around 2025, international around 2028. That’s when we’ll see patents getting enforced and the real agendas and alliances will be revealed.