Now, just as winter's indoor-growing season demands more electricity than ever, here comes the state's power burnout. And by using 1,000-watt bulbs to trick plants into flowering, they're getting hit with power bills nearly as high as the folks smoking their product. Growers get creative That puts medicinal marijuana growers in a bind. One farmer who supplies the clinic with affordable weed with names like White Rhino and Blue Boy said most patients are indigent and need cheap pot to ease back pain or to stave off alcoholic relapse. A Humboldt County marijuana cultivator removes dead leaves from plants last month.
Growers rely heavily on electricity to grow the drug.
So they get creative. Pat Freese recalled one raid that netted a diesel generator big enough to power a small hospital. The police training manual, in fact, shows photos of dead growers, zapped as they tended their plants. One grower pointed out that as the cost of electricity goes up in California, Canadian power has become relatively cheaper each month. The result, they say, is an unfair marijuana trade imbalance.