With the growing trend of self-sustainability, NBC 7’s Monica Dean shares how one local company is promoting the idea of growing marijuana rather than buying it.
San Diegans may brew their own beer and grow their own vegetables, and now Green Carpet Growing is adding cannabis cultivation to the local "DIY" list.
The recreational use of marijuana will be legal in California starting New Year’s Day, and adults will easily be able to buy cannabis products at local dispensaries, or have marijuana delivered to their home or business.
However, there is another safe and legal source for cannabis that eliminates the middle-man: growing your own supply of marijuana. And this option does not require a wait until the New Year to begin.
“You don’t have to worry about buying it from someone,” said Grace Olivia Hicks of San Diego’s Green Carpet Growing. “You don’t have to go to a dispensary and sit for an hour, or worry that you’re going to run into someone you know.”
Though the plant's nickname may be “weed,” Hicks and her business partner, Marc Emmelmann, said it takes knowledge, commitment and experience to grow cannabis.
Green Carpet Growing provides the expertise and equipment for consumers to grow their own. The company offers an introductory group seminar on the basics of cannabis cultivation. The 2 ½ hour class costs $75 per person.
Green Carpet also offers personal, in-home consulting for $150 per hour.
Local
The company additionally sells a do-it-yourself package that includes a indoor “grow-tent,” soil and 77 other items, including lights, fans and even custom sticky-notes to trap pests. Everything a person would need for a mini marijuana farm. The package includes 15 training visits of 90 minutes each during the crop’s 15-week growing cycle.
Green Carpet sells less expensive plans for experienced gardeners, and even offers payment plans for customers.
Hicks and Emmelman said their classes teach customers how to trim, clone and re-pot their plants, and that customers will also learn the science of cannabis cultivation and consumption.
Hicks said customers who rarely use the drug or haven’t used it in decades may have many questions about cannabis, and how it works on the mind and body.
The questions of "what is THC," "what is CBD," how the drug affects people, and the different modes of ingestion can be overwhelming for people not familiar with the basics of cannabis, Hicks said.
“Getting more medicated or more ‘high’ than you want to, no one ever wants that,” Hicks said. “So we want to shortcut the negative experiences.”
Green Carpet customers include Naomi Aragon, a Normal Heights resident who plans to open an out-of-state marijuana farm to grow commercial quantities of the drug.
She hired the company for advice and instruction on the cannabis growing cycle, crop cultivation and propagation.
“And maybe point out things that I wouldn’t catch on my own, things I can’t learn from watching a YouTube video or Goggling,” Aragon said.
Hicks said California is the right place for people to grow their legal drug of choice.
She said many people here want to be self-sustaining, "So why not grow your own cannabis?”
The state Bureau of Cannabis Control confirms it is already legal to grow up to six plants in your home as long as the mini-crop is out of public view.
Those who opt for this route cannot sell the marijuana, but it can be gifted in small amounts to friends and family.
