@sanvanalona
full quote MNS Forums : pre 1999
I decided to write this letter in response to the growing number of inquiries regarding my whereabouts, and the whereabouts of my seeds. Nobody can tell you I got tired of breeding cannabis, I got sick of the business.
The only people that truly understand the dedication and expense of conscientiously growing for seed are people that have done it. Selections require a lot of space, both indoor and out. Certainly the selection process is what I enjoy most about cultivation. Most growers consider such crops a luxury, or at least a necessary evil. The average grower is working for max yield of sinsemilla that is where the money is. This is achieved through systematically replanting identical clones from a high-yielding selection.
Luckily for most growers they will probably get clones from someone who has already discovered it while growing a selection from seed. The grower is rewarded for providing other people with what they don't provide for themselves.
That's cool, not every puffer is a gardener, for whatever reason. I never dreamed of producing mass quantities and raking in a bundle, just to grow my own and share it, as I like.
Factory-like repetition may be the rule of production, for this is how things get built; just consider laying bricks, or weaving a basket. When personal stash is the motivating factor for a grower yield concerns are secondary to quality concerns.
Prior to the retail revolution in cannabis seeds in the Canadian market, many growers gladly traded seeds and clones from their travels and selections. No one had a proprietary interest in "guarding" his or her genetics, every good specimen was proudly shared among all brave enough to continue the age-old act of cultivating good grass.
Distinguished London, Ontario cannabis activist Chris Clay was the first in repressive Canada to stand up for our rights as growers and smokers and openly sold both clones and seeds in Canada's first hemp store.
The Great Canadian Hemporium. Chris always had the tasty as well. Around the time the cops and courts shut him down Marc Emery was taking up the flag in Vancouver. Marc was no stranger to controversy and courts, as an alternative bookstore owner also from Konservative London Ontario
Marc supported banned publications and free speech such as a banned album from the infamous "2 Live Crew". Marc published an alternative paper and wrote most of it. Being high in high school at the time I thought he was pretty cool talking about the evils of The People's Institute of Education and so on.
Soon he would sell High Times and The Emperor Wears No Clothes. After boring of London Politics Marc and family did a stint in Southeast Asia where they eventually got a not-so-boring taste of Indonesian Politics. Returned to Vancouver practically destitute. Made his start selling High Times door to door. Then he was able to continue to sell the controversy around hemp and highness at Hemp BC.
In Vancouver, Marc's boundless energy and enthusiasm for cannabis was fuel for an already largely hip populace. That dude sold a lot of bongs, and his seed catalogue progressed from one, then two, then three strains to probably more than three hundred.
After Marc was busted for the first time selling seeds, I wanted to do something for him. I went downtown Vancouver and I told him, "I have no pictures or samples but here is a film canister of one of my seeds in the spirit of donation if you have the heart to continue selling seeds." He took off the lid and looked at those big fat dark coconuts and told me excitedly, "Make all the seed you can!
Marc gave me some of the seeds that he was selling. The germination rates were low and the finished product of those that did grow did not impress me enough to keep clones. I knew I was the pickiest of puffers and so began the beginning of my seedy career. For five years I had been saving seed of every favourite before I moved to BC.
I grew outdoors mainly until then. There I moved indoors for five years after experiencing the cunning ruthlessness of the prevailing herb pirates. Up until my first fall in BC I had never lost plants to humans. I still don't really think of herb thieves as human and treat them accordingly. People that try and take from you what is rightfully yours are the most contemptible beings on the planets, whether it is your work, your freedom, your loved ones, or your life. Your nightmares will come true when WE get back at YOU.
As far as why Spice of Life Seeds have been unavailable for over a year and a half, it is because I had become simply too hot to continue growing. After Marc lost a huge consignment of Spice Seeds (that were not to be stored in the store, by agreement!), I had to tell my satellite growers, five houses and five strains, that they should plant their next crop for sinse. I had to do crazy things to keep up my payment schedule to them as a point of pride. I never want it said I left someone hanging. To Marc's credit he did an admirable job of keeping the business together through those turbulent times.
The only thing besides my loved ones and my ganja that seemed a worthy expenditure of my valuable energy was to promote economical and environmentally friendly ways of producing gourmet vegetables and fruits. I was actually compelled to start keeping a line of broccoli and a few of tomatoes that were happiest in my bioponic system and really I knew all of that time that all I wanted to do was to start doing selections of cannabis again, to straighten out some current favourites to the point that they could be my finest work. I was elated when I got a phone call inviting me to breed cannabis legally in Europe.
I had pretty much sworn off the business due to the prevalence of knockoffs. It was easy for them, I gave anybody clones of my favourite plants and likely still will. I firmly believe that there will never be too much high quality cannabis in this world, and that there is already way too much shit.
I told Marc after numerous business ethical conflicts, e.g. Say "Sold Out" when a popular seed is unavailable; do not advertise to sell what you don't have. People were ordering Spice and receiving replacements, or deceived, not cool. I was and am still friends with many of Marc's employees and was often shocked at what goes on. Still am. I put together and made popular a brand name Shishkeberry, which achieved much acclaim.
One of Marc's ex-employees that came to work for one of my businesses actually stole two shipments of my seeds before he quit the shop and now kicks back making a tidy living as Cash Crop Ken. He wrote up what he thinks he knows about them, and together with his fence, Marc Emery, exploit the name Shishkeberry that I developed and popularised. In a civilized country I could successfully sue them, but in the cesspool of Marc Emery's current seed scene acts like this are everyday business.
Take for instance some of his employees working for shit wages and growing some good grass in their basement, thanks to clones from me they finally could actually get high from what they grew. These desperate boys are calling themselves Federation Seed Co. Let me set the record straight: Cotton Candy = Sweet Tooth, Island Sweet Skunk = Sweet Skunk, Mikado = Sweet Pink Grapefruit.
These are popular clones I've named and let loose. They claim to have developed them "over the years". Flash-in-the-pan seed company might have been a more appropriate name; they've already crumbled due to a combination of incompetence and shame. Just having my clones does not mean they know how to produce accurate seeds of them when they attempt to reproduce them "over the years" I had long ago told Marc when he asked, that I was not interested in doing knockoffs of others' work, in name or substance.
I claim what the heritage is of my seeds, to give respect and credit to our predecessors, but I develop something original. Marc was also fairly informed that if he began selling knockoffs of my work I would never, ever, ever sell him seeds again. I laugh at him now when he says, "Well, not everyone wants the knockoffs. Sell me more seeds, I'll pay cash." The last deal we made was I erase his crushing debt and he gives Spice of Life free ads for life. He has cancelled that deal as well, but I don't feel too bad writing it off anyway because it's for the cause.
When I was shutting down seed ops for non-payment of seed, Marc was off to Cuba with his new girlfriend. I was Breeder Dave at one time until "a typo" changed that. Cannabis Canada published my home number and therefore address eventually. I have been arrested partially with his help, and contrary to my wishes. While Marc has pled guilty for the cause I have been fighting in court for a head's innocence.
Laughing Moon launched themselves with a tidy purchase of Spice but that was a long time ago now they are selling their versions of my strains as my strains. Impostors such as Dubious David "Freedom" of I-don't-know-what-the-fuck-he-calls-it-now.com who never paid for his small order should be avoided, as should Derek the dongblaster who never even had any Spice but claimed to be the exclusive distributor.
The Amsterdam Café owners, on the other hand, are always fair and honest to deal with, my regards ladies, kudos to you. They are roses amidst the snakes in the grass. Marc was so pissed I won't ever sell him seeds again that he screamed at me, "I made you, you would be nothing without me!" I earned my reputation with quality. Marc had it in for me since the time about two years ago when he asked me to run the Seed Desk at Hemp BC. The offer was generous enough but a desk is not my cup of tea. Smelling the roses is. He asked ten times and then became rude. He couldn't stand that I wouldn't work for him.
To avoid confusion, until further notice, doubt the authenticity of anyone selling Spice of Life Strains except the Amsterdam Café, legendsseeds.com, and seedbank.to. We appreciate it when you bring fraudulent seed dealers to our attention. The Spice of Life name has been synonymous with quality for the last five years and I will not abide its abuse by poseurs. I'm very happy to be back at work now and look forward to bringing you the best I can. As for the price increase the truth is that the cost (and scope) of my experiments have grown incredibly, believe me when I tell you that up until now and still I have not made any money in breeding, it has been an expensive hobby.
However it is my passion and I do what I have to do to afford it. Lots of people aren't in it for the money and I can appreciate that, however I would love to be able to spend ten million on a state of the art facility, a monument to cannabis in a stable country. It would be a dream playground for the committed into the future, don't you think? Working to improve plants by cultivating and collecting plants from seed is a noble calling, greetings to all who ever did so with integrity.
Sinserely Steve
