Growing safety - Tips & tricks on how to avoid getting caught!

Skullman420

Well-Known Member
- Never tell anyone, not even your friends, that you've started growing weed
Telling the wrong person is the number 1 reason growers get caught. I know it's hard to keep the mouth shut. After all you're proud of your accomplishments. Start a grow journal instead if you have to show people your grow. That way you get to satisfy your ego without the enormous risk associated with telling your friends. Remember to carefully check your photos for items that can be used to identify you before you post them. Also try to remove all personal info from the photos before you upload them (The 420's system does this for you so you don't have to think about it in this forum)

- Be careful when ordering marijuana seeds & growing equipment online
This one is tricky because we all need equipment and seeds. I know for a fact that the customs in some countries, will contact the cops, then carefully wrap your goods and ship them to you. Then 2-3 months later the cops will raid your home. In some countries cops will also monitor hydro-shops and follow the above recipe to catch growers. The way I did it to avoid this happening to me was to wait 6 months after buying all the seeds and gear I needed before I started the grow. I do realize most people don't have that much time to wait. Just be careful and observant. Closely examine the received products/seeds to see if it has been opened by customs when you receive it and be careful every time you visit the hydro-shop. Order seeds to another address than the one you will be growing at. Use clones as often as possible.

- Get rid of all sounds, smells, and light that come from your grow room.
There is a number of signs cops will look for to find grows. In some countries cops also have gone out public to tell neighbors to spy on each other and what signs to look for. Block all windows with light-proof fabric. Try to make the grow as silent as possible so you can not hear it outside the grow-room. Use carbon filters to hide the smell.

- Be smart about comings and goings to your home or grow area.
High traffic to and from your house is typically something that will get your neighbors suspicious. Don't walk around with gardening equipment in the middle of the winter. People are extremely nosy and many will report their neighbors upon any suspicion. If a bored neighbor is watching you, it'll look weird if you're going in and out of your house with pots, nutrients, big bags of soilless grow mix, etc, especially if you don't actually grow anything besides marijuana. If climate conditions allow it - grow all sorts of things to legitimize you having a lot of gardening equipment. When you have to do suspicious things, try to do it under the cover of darkness in the middle of the night.

- Get the heat under control
The intense heat given off by lights is a giveaway that's something unusual is going on. Especially in cold countries with snow, numerous people have been caught due to unnatural snow-melting on parts of the roof. Remember that the cops use heat-seeking equipment to localize grows. Also condensation on windows due to heat is a giveaway. If you have a large indoor garden, then you already know how hard it can be to control the heat. Controlling heat is good for your plants, but you also need to do it to avoid getting caught.

- Don't sell weed
Guess this goes without saying, but a grower should never sell weed. Statistically, people who are growing strictly for personal use deal with far less legal trouble than people who sell their cannabis.

- Use as little electricity as possible
In some countries the electricity companies will report people who use suspiciously much electricity to the authorities. How much electricity is suspicious? It's hard to say, but I do believe your grow has to be really big before it start getting suspicious. A few thousand watts is not enough. You can use LED lights to reduce the amount of electricity needed to grow. On a sidenote, this will also reduce the costs of growing marijuana.

- Use common sense
It's easy to get comfortable if you've been growing weed for a long time. The matter of fact, you should rather get increasingly paranoid as time progress :) It's sad to say this, but never ever let your guard down! No matter how careful you are there always is a risk of getting caught.

Do you have anything to add to this list, feel free to do so in the comment section. Did you or someone you know get caught? How? What did you do wrong? Tell us all about it so we all can learn from your mistakes. Sadly growing marijuana is considered an offence in big parts of the world and as long as this situation persists people will get caught and it will continue to be a cat and mouse game with the law.

Safe growing everyone


DeVille

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The 11 fingered leaf of Amnesia
 
A typical way people get caught :) I was really freaked out when it started snowing here this year. But luckily I have managed to keep the temperature so low this didn't happen with me.

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This is another thing the cops will look for. Caused by the high humidity and temperatures in a grow-room
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Normally here the cops are not all that worried about it and it is dicriminalized so fines are giving sometime equipment is taken depends on if you have kids as well. People stealing them that is really the problem or finding out you got a nice setup and stealing it or outdoors just spot the garden early on then come back later and scoop up the plants.
 
An excellent way to be caught is to have a nice electrical fire from the octopus of extension cords and dime store surge strips.
Mind your limitations.


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Then you are a lucky man Spart :) I would go to jail for what I am doing if they catch me. No doubt about it



Normally here the cops are not all that worried about it and it is dicriminalized so fines are giving sometime equipment is taken depends on if you have kids as well. People stealing them that is really the problem or finding out you got a nice setup and stealing it or outdoors just spot the garden early on then come back later and scoop up the plants.
 
That is excellent advice. Many people push their luck with electricity too far. For example timers have a max amount of watt they can handle. Don't put 3000 watt on a timer made to handle 600 watts for example.



An excellent way to be caught is to have a nice electrical fire from the octopus of extension cords and dime store surge strips.
Mind your limitations.


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Here anyone can grow six plants, but only poses one ounce. I guess they don't expect much yield. I am allowed 99 plants due to my medical card.
For all you folks imagining how wonderful it is to be legal, it is just as awesome as you imagine.
If someone does break in and rip me off, the cops have to try to find the bastards. How hard they try is debatable, but at least they won't arrest me. .


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If I got caught I would risk several years in prison as my grow will most likely produce close to or even more than a kg of buds. It's not fair as I grow strictly for personal use. For this and other reasons I plan to remove a lamp and produce slightly less in future grows. I should keep it below the dreaded 1 kg limit to avoid being prosecuted as a "pro" drug dealer if caught. I really envy you guys who have a more normalized situation. Some day it will be like this here as well. I am so cautious I won't even say which country I am in. But I can say the continent which is Europe :)
 
Gotta watch what you put in the trash too. I carry Nutella bottles and other trash out just before the truck picks the bin up so no one has a chance to go through it. People are always picking through looking for recyclables, but if they know you are growing, you are at risk.
In my former State of Missouri, the cops watch the hydro store and then go through your trash to find any evidence to warrant a search.


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I for one can legally smoke it and i am waiting for my Gov to approve me to GYO.

Once approved i am legal to grow under certain regulations the Gov has setup based upon my presciprion.

So no worries for me.

I suggest that anyone who can with a medical reason seek out a doctor that will prescribe for you.

Even if your legal to grow, do not tell your neighbours or even friends as ya never know your $3000.00 setup just might get stolen.

Plus neighbours may call the cops but if your legal and running under the regulations properly, then you have no worries.


A Licenced Medicinal Cannabis User
 
There is a thing with EU. Let's say you get cannabis prescribed by a doctor in the Netherlands. Then it is illegal for other EU/EEA countries to confiscate your legal medicine. Therefore some people in some countries are arranging journeys to the Netherlands for patients. You can legally bring cannabis for either one or tree months to any EU/EEA country. Just a little tip :)
 
There is a thing with EU. Let's say you get cannabis prescribed by a doctor in the Netherlands. Then it is illegal for other EU/EEA countries to confiscate your legal medicine. Therefore some people in some countries are arranging journeys to the Netherlands for patients. You can legally bring cannabis for either one or tree months to any EU/EEA country. Just a little tip :)
Brexit, still don't know what is up with that....LoL

Pat's Mars Hydro II 700W Grow

Pat's Small CFL Grow
 
Hi, DeVille thanks for those timely reminders. I don't have much personally to add as I've only done a max 5 at a time and only able to (renter) 5times . however in my experience walking city suburbs in the early hours after spinal surgery and after 2seasons knew where 4 grow houses were in my neighbourhood. One morning the Skunky Stench was so strong outside a house as I rounded the corner I couldn't help exclaiming out loud "holy @#$%ing Hell and was busted by the owner saying it. It was thier final pick and clean up. I just smiled... I felt like crying out for help to her.!
So smell its the major give away when all is out a sight. I have noted this driving in certain areas over the years. I wonders and am glad "cops have air conditioned cruisers" and they don't walk about at night...cheers.

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Yep, a couple of years ago I would smell a grow every morning early. I think they were exhausting outside only in early am.
Then one day ten cop cars were there and we never saw them again.
I just put a good air scrubber in my room. Expensive but imperative. I was going to build one, but don't want to learn the hard way.
The worst part for me is that I have dogs, and while they are really good guard dogs, if someone really wants your shit he will kill your dogs.
That would piss me off.


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We might actually be legalizing fully here in spain next year. Cant see my neighbors to the north still having the hardest cannabis laws in the eu not decriminalizing or reforming at least since it would be in local shop if legal.

The biggest tip I could give anyone is not telling anyone you are growing. I have friends who come over that don't know and with my carbon filter no smell at all.:Namaste:
 
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