Marijuana.com

Buzzby

What Happened to Hempcultivation.com?
An interview with Rick Garcia, Marijuana.com's creator and webmaster
Buzzby | Marijuana.com | 03/01/2006

[Buzzby] Yesterday you decided to shut down Marijuana.com's sister site, Hempcultivation.com. Was this in direct response to the release of news about the January 30th shutdown of the Heavens Stairway websites (hempqc.com, cannabisworld.com, overgrow.com, eurohemp.com, cannabisseeds.com, and cannabisbay.com) and the arrest of the people who ran them?

[Rick] Yes, my decision was directly related to the release of that news. More specifically it had to do with the charges that were brought against owners of the business. It quickly became apparent to me that there was more than meets the eye going on here. I've been at this a long time and I know the game.

Activist Marc Emery was arrested by US and Canadian authorities and his seed business was shutdown approximately seven months ago. Marc is now facing extradition to the U.S. to face Federal Drug Charges. Just a few days after that my friend who ran WorldWideSeeds.Com just mysteriously disappeared with nothing more than a note to say he was gone. WWS was a Marijuana.Com advertiser and this was a financial blow to our site. Now we have the situation with Heavens Stairway and Overgrow (etc) that is still unfolding. I believe the press release mentioned that more arrests are pending.

This latest news comes on top of turmoil in the seed industry and the retirement of a very respected cannabusinessman, namely Gypsy Nirvana. Only a few players actually know the true story of what is going on there and I can't blame them at all for being silent.

When I stepped into my security role for our HC.Com Community yesterday, I had to look at all these things and then I had to weigh the risk. "Do 'I' think we're safe and secure?" Yesterday, for the first time in over 5 years, I was unable to answer that question with a "Yes" and I did what I said I would do some five years ago. I destroyed it.


According to the news release, the seven people were arrested for trafficking in marijuana seeds and “conspiring for the purpose of cannabis cultivation”. Do you have any idea if the conspiracy was providing information about growing marijuana or providing growers with seeds?

The way I have read and understood this news release is that these people were arrested for “the trafficking, importation and exportation of cannabis seeds” (a controlled substance) and a second, unrelated charge of “conspiring for the purpose of cannabis cultivation via the Internet” (conspiring for the purpose of manufacturing a controlled substance via the Internet) or conspiring to commit a felony via the Internet.

I think that if it wasn't about the data on how to grow those seeds then there would have been no ''conspiring for the purpose of cannabis cultivation via the Internet” charge as the two would be redundant in that scenario. I believe the the involved agency saw the websites as a way of conspiring to manufacture a controlled substance via the Internet, just as they said.


Would you fill us in on the thought processes that led you to decide to close down Hempcultivation.com?

Heh - sure, it's kind of a sordid trip though

I've been following all this closely for the past 7 months as I said and I've been in the canabusiness for nearly 8 years now. I almost felt like I could see that there was writing on the wall but it was just too blurry for me to make out given my personal involvement with HC.Com ~ A love affair of sorts - remember I'm a geek, not a cultivator. But, I would always say that HempCultivation.Com was my garden and that each of the Members were my flowers to nurture and make stronger.

It was cool, cause...I still got to see all the great pictures and talk to my Garden just like I’m sure all those HC.com survivors do. But then yesterday something changed for me. I had just awakened and flipped the laptop open and read the news on PlanetGanja.Com. I immediately posted the news to HC.Com and Marijuana.Com to spread the word as quickly as I could. I knew many people had to make the necessary arrangements, and quickly.

I immediately put my clothes back on 'cause a shower was just not on the list. I fired up ICQ and tried my best to get hold of the HC.com Admins - we needed to have a meeting. You see, when I read the news release I simply couldn't get past one line...


All the sudden the writing on the wall that was too blurry was now clear as day and could no longer be ignored by me or the Community. We already had members wanting their information deleted from HC.

Shortly after the news was released there was a lot of talk about the RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act), the MAPA (Methamphetamine Anti-Proliferation Act), organized international crime, the manufacture of a controlled substance, and how they applied to the owners of Heavens Stairway and Overgrow.

This was enough to push me over the edge personally, but I still held out because I've been known to make some pretty stupid mistakes in the past so I was going to talk to some people and get some other thoughts and use those in my decision. Unfortunately there were no Admins available at this time. I spoke to my wife and fully explained the situation to her, which came as quite a shock as she really knows very little about what I do in that garage of mine and certainly had no idea that I might be in some kind of legal trouble.

Needless to say, that conversation was not very inspiring - but fortunately for me, S2, the lead Administrator of HC.Com was now online and looking for me. We immediately went to Skype from ICQ as it is a secure channel of communications and we chatted. And we chatted. I cried some. We chatted a little more and then it was decided. There is nothing more sacred to anyone of us on this staff than protecting the members of this community even if it means destroying the community itself, and that is how it was decided. Ya got me on another tear jerker, Buzz...go easy on me.


What are your security concerns about the files on the HC.com server?

Oh good, a short easy one after that last one!

I have no security concerns about the files on the HC.Com server. I've already destroyed any incriminating evidence of any Member of HC.Com. I have not destroyed all the information. I will keep that in a secure, encrypted format until such time that I feel I am ready to work with that data again. All your work is not gone, HC folks, just your identities...

I’m sorry...


There seems to be some confusion as to the finality of HC.com's closure. Have all the files and backups been destroyed or is everything archived against such time that the site can be reconstituted?

Well, as I mentioned above it's in a somewhat hybrid state of coma. I've destroyed HC.Com as you know it. It is gone and will never return in the format it was. However, I have kept the data alive and preserved so that some time in the future, when I am stronger, I can again try to make available to everyone what the Members of HC have so graciously given to everyone.


Do you have any thoughts about the impact of this event in Canada on the free exchange of ideas on the Internet?

Well, hrm. My thoughts on Canada have changed a lot. Canada used to be a place that I wanted to run away to in my fantasies - it's no longer that place just as the Internet is no longer a place for the free flow of ideas and content. The War on Drugs was a complete failure, but the War on Terrorism has teeth that none of us could have imagined. I’m sorry to say that information will likely never be truly free in this day and age. We are in a time when nation states fight wars that have no end against an enemy that cannot be defeated, only moderated. These wars we have now, The War on Drugs, The War on Terrorism, etc. People can't see that they are wars on words and ideals and that there is no end game or withdrawal plan - The war is the plan.


What do you think of Canada's decision to suddenly begin to enforce laws that they've tacitly agreed to ignore for a decade? It seems close to entrapment

I agree. But, this is nothing unusual as we all know. The Canadians are doing nothing different from the U.S.A. Remember Operation Pipe Dreams? They came online and took out all the big distributors and glass blowers, i.e. Tommy Chong? Today, right now, I can drive five minutes away from my home to legally buy and pay sales tax on the most beautiful hand-blown glass piece you have ever seen. They have a whole store filled with glass smoking devices, etc - they've been in business since '85 and are still going strong.

It does appear that Canada is learning well from the U.S. in that you do not need to bust them all to get the continued operations funding money, just some high profile guys that make the news.


Rick - thank you for your time and your insights into this difficult situation. Hang in there!

__________________

 

weed.is.a.deed

shouldnt marijuana.com then take off the instructions on how to cultivate mj?

Buzzby

HempCultivation.com was the part of the site with the growing instructions.

THC Fiend

There's still this though: http://www.marijuana.com/Bible.php

__________________
"Nietzsche is dead."
-God

brevity is... wit

Buzzby

Good catch! I'd forgotten all about the Bible. I'll remind Rick.

 

gob

1984 has come and passed but it is happening now....that "government speak"

__________________
End Prohibition

rick

We wont silence the information, the data itself. The Bible, the GrowFAQ and the StrainBase will continue to be worked on and improved.

Our concern is with the Community only, not the data itself. The data will continue to be available we just wont be actively assisting anyone in the commission of a felony or helping anyone manufacture a controlled substance. We will only document the wealth of knowledge that we have. Others can use this research to educate themselves however they wish.

~r

__________________

DarkFox

Thanks for taking the time out for the explanation mate...

I fully understand that HC won't be back in the same way but it's kinda comforting to know our words and pictures will live on in some format or another, somewhere...

DF

Hawg

The war on terror is just begining as it will take away alot more privacy and freedoms in the future.

__________________
Here is a good place to see who test's and how.
http://www.testclear.com/dtcompanies/searchcompany2.cfm



Figures don't lie but liars can figure

2point4

Rick,

Thank you for keeping the GrowFAQ, The Bible and the Strain Guide online. Except that wasn't the Strain Guide part of HC.com? I had it bookmarked and now that link is dead. Anyway, even without the knowledge of the community to further clarify some of the finer points of these resources, now is a great time for a lot of us new growers to take advantage of this situation and really, truly learn on our own. We may kill some plants during our experimentation, but these sacrifices will make us all better growers in the long run. And when HC.com returns ressurected(remember, Easter is just around the corner for all the Christians out there), we can share what we have taught ourselves to a new generation of growers. Newer ideas and different methods will no doubt show their faces.

Grow On!