Imagine hundreds of people and scores of companies and businesses colluding to pretend to sell their products to tomato-growing enthusiasts who want firm, aromatic and resinous tomatoes and flower growers looking for beasty buds, when in reality they are actually selling millions of dollars worth of products and equipment to the illegal marijuana industry. Come on, someone has to be supplying all that nutrient and equipment; that 5 billion Dollar B.C. marijuana crop doesn’t grow on its own.

So, this strategy works so well, that the businesses are able to expand to the whole of Canada. This group becomes so powerful, that they are able to keep the law and the media at arms length, publish their own magazines and hold their own (by invitation only) trade show. From a simplistic legal perspective all of their products can and are - to a lesser or greater degree - used to grow other things and besides, with limited resources and lack of public support, law enforcement is not interested in challenging this part of the marijuana infrastructure. The media have never seen it as all that interesting, saying “Well, it’s not news when everyone knows it” and the Green Teams keep taking all that expensive equipment to the dump.

The mark-up is substantial on some items, but the profits on nutrients is lucrative and highly competitive, with some retail stores offering 50 different products from 20 or more companies. Enter Advanced Nutrients, these so-called bad boys of the nutrient industry, begin to market marijuana-specific nutrients, using comparative ads, taking out radio ads on the rock stations and producing stunning translucent graphics and ad materials showing marijuana plants in full bloom. They broke the code of silence, stepping boldly where none had tread before and in true B.C. entrepreneurial

spirit said to the competition, “Throw away the crying towels, boys, and come out to play.” The rest of the companies were thoroughly ticked off. A number of the U.S.-based companies are unwilling to admit that they had any interest in the marijuana game, for fear of loosing U.S. customers and incurring the wrath of their own DEA and federal government. The european companies, being more familiar with the open marketing of marijuana specific nutrients, are somewhat amused at all the fuss. Advanced Nutrients’ response, “Yes, we have an uneven playing field, but considering the enormous profits that some of these companies have been making, we feel this is taking back our own B.C. business.” So why am I and others at Cannabis Health so concerned? Well, since this Journal’s involvement with Advanced Nutrients we have found ourselves caught in the crossfire of the nutrient wars. We were unceremonially kicked out of the hydroponics trade show for having pictures of marijuana in our display, suppliers have told us that they no longer want our business and recently we were informed by one irate retailer that we were now being formally boycotted.

The lights came on in my grow unit when I heard that word “formal”. That means that two or more people actually sat down and conspired to punish us for our involvement with Advanced Nutrients. I have some sympathy for the need for secrecy and candor in the past, but the world is changing, and pipe suppliers, equipment and nutrient companies who want to enter the legitimate market should not be bullied, threatened or boycotted for wanting to be honest with their customers. I guess the other thing that bothers me about the phenomena of the “big lie”, once a group is committed to the lie, how far will they go to protect their turf?

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