Hi, I recently joined this forum. I have 6 degrees (4 in hard sciences including biochemistry and botany, 2 in theology), so they helped me a lot when I grew for 3 decades. (I haven't grown for ten years, since I lost my farm in a divorce, because growing in a rental property is reckless). I'm a disabled veteran now, on 13 prescriptions, and when I smoke where legal (like in Jamaica), I have proven that I can eliminate all of those drugs except for heart medicine and Dilaudid -- which I was able to reduce the dosage by 2/3rds.
It helps with pain, my Crohn's disease, and epilepsy, and both my social anxiety and PTSD melted away completely. I felt halfway normal again.
While Missouri recently decriminalized 7 grams or less ($1,000 fine, no jail), the state increased all of the sentencing guidelines for all felonies significantly. An ounce or more is ten years and a $5,00o fine, and until recently, Missouri held one man for life without parole for three successive possession felonies. The Legislature passed a bill to release this man last year.
Activity here in Northwest Missouri is crazy. Last week, a federal task force made multiple arrests, but none of those arrested possessed more than 5 grams! This County of only 25,000 apparently receives federal money for each drug conviction. In 2010, I myself was arrested for possessing meth, which I have never touched in my life. A man spread some lines on a table during a party, and a corrupt informant swore that I did a line. I spent 32 days in jail, paid a $5,000 fine, and walked three years of probation for a crime that I did not commit. I did so because it was an SIS, and even though my lawyer said that I could beat the charge (the police never once Mirandized me), I could not afford a $50,000 bond, and new trial dates were six months down the road. I would have lost everything sitting in a cell (at $38/day) for six months. It is now off of my record, and the informant died two years ago from alcohol poisoning.
I chose Thai as my moniker, because I was stationed there for two years (and twice in Germany for six years). I love Thailand, and because that country's cost of living is dirt cheap, along with world class medical facilities at a tenth of the cost here in the United States, I am saving up money to move there permanently.
Although I've studied genetics extensively, I have never bred cannabis, and that is of great interest to me.
I also agree with the many comments about desirable phenotypes being lost through sloppy breeding. I sold Thai stick for over a decade in the '80s, and today's strains lack the psychoactivity of older strains. Youngsters don't know what they are missing.
Anyway, I didn't mean to make this too long. I am looking forward to the posts on breeding...