This is just a email I copied & posted for everyone to be "safe" about your grows, I know it is just a few bits of information on it, but it does hit on some "good points" and is barely scratching the surface, and like said I am sure everyone does try to be safe as you can, just wanted to make sure everyone is ontop of there game, and always takes the proper precautions..
Learn to be a Stealth Grower and protect yourself - and your plants -from unwanted attention! See what you can use to keep your grow under the radar of your neighbors, and everyone else! See an awesome example of stealth, and an awesome example of the exact opposite of stealth!
No matter how good you are at growing cannabis, if you get caught and end up in jail, you'll be in a place where your skills are useless and wasted.
But fret not! We've compiled this easy-to-read list of tips to help keep you out of the sight and minds of people who could ruin your life just for growing a plant.
Remember, the only thing better than increasing the potency and yields of your harvest is making sure you get to keep it!
Let's get into some tips for Stealth Growing - keeping your grow "under the radar" of other people.
First, the mantra: "No smell, no sell, no tell."
There are a lot of ways to keep you and your grow safe, but this is the heart of it all.
No smell - No one should be able to smell your grow or smell cannabis on you. This makes you an easy target for police and marijuana haters!
No sell - Statistically, people who are growing strictly for personal use deal with far less legal troubles than people who sell their cannabis. This even applies in places like Colorado where it's legal within the state! No tell - Having fewer people know about your grow reduces the chances of you getting busted by law enforcement or burglarized by thieves. I know it's hard to not show off your awesome growing skills, but this one secret that needs to stay a secret!
Growing Indoors vs. Outdoors
There are benefits to both of these growing methods, but when it comes purely to stealth, indoor growing is the way to go. Outdoor growing has one potentially major problem that indoor growers are pretty much safe against...people wandering by! Many outdoor growers have been busted by nosy neighbors, city/utility workers, or just bad weather(floods have revealed hidden outdoor grows, for example). If you can grow indoors, you'll make yourself that much safer! Smell
In the vegetative stage, most cannabis tends to make an unnoticeable smell. But once flowering really kicks in, the smell can range from tame to "WHAT IS THAT SMELL?!" Luckily, this can be easily corrected with several products like carbon filters, or odor neutralizers. Additionally, you can try growing cannabis strains that are known for low smell. The goal is to make sure that the smell stays within a few feet of your plants.
Sound
When buying any kind of electrical device, look up reviews on the product to make sure it runs quietly. A low-quality exhaust fan or air pump will cause people to be suspicious since they make lots of noise and typically run all day and night. Sight
To the outside world, it should appear as if you're doing everything as normal. As paranoid as it sounds, you should assume that anyone who sees you doing growing related activity will know what it is and report you.
Move any growing equipment at night so you're less likely to be seen Be careful about what you throw in your trash. On the rare occasion that I do throw cannabis trash(like stems) in a trash can, I usually cover it in food trash so no one will want to go through it Pick a couple days to walk around your house at a few different times of the day to see if anything stands out as suspicious. Example: Super bright yellow light(HPS) coming from a window at 11:00pm. Be a good neighbor! A lot of people think of cannabis growers as criminals. When you continue to act like the intelligent, well-mannered, amicable person you are, your neighbors natually become less suspicious! Don't look like a stereotypical stoner! There's nothing wrong with Rastafarian clothing or wearing red/green/yellow all the time, and it's your right to dress and act as you wish! Just remember that police, nosy neighbors, and marijuana haters are likely to 'judge a book by its cover' and harass a person based on their clothing...regardless of how unfair that is.
Electrical Safety
A Google search for "house fire marijuana" will yield stories for events in at least 7 cities (in the first 2 pages alone) where people have accidentally burned down their cannabis, their home, and everything they own in electrical fires. Most electrical safety mishaps can be prevented with a few healthy habits:
Only purchase quality equipment. Quality parts means fewer failures, which means fewer fires started. Fire is bad! Keep water and other liquids below waist level and electrical equipment above waist level. Even if this isn't always possible, it will help to accomplish the real goal: keeping water and electrical devices separated. Clean up all spilled water. Having a few towels or a roll of paper towels handy makes this a breeze. Don't overload your circuits. If you live in an older house, you probably don't want two 1000w HPS lights and high powered exhaust fans running from one room. Sticking only to what you actually need will help you in this department. For example: for indoor growing that's strictly for personal use, a single 600w HPS will keep you in constant over-abundance all year, every year.
Technology
Technology and the way we communicate changes so rapidly these days, that many of us aren't aware that we now do things that give away a lot of information about what we do. You don't need to be a computer wizard, but these terms will definitely help you maintain your privacy in the digital age:
Proxy: Many websites track your computer information and where you are. Proxies trick those websites into thinking you're in a different place. Try:
http://www.hidemyass.com/ (please excuse the family un-friendly name)
Anonymous Search: I love Google and use it often, however, they do track information about searches. Google is still safe to use for normal use, but for things pertaining to cannabis, try a search engine that doesn't track information, like
https://duckduckgo.com/.
Exif data: Exif data is a little chunk of information that comes attached to pretty much any picture you take nowadays. This can be dangerous if the picture is taken on a device with GPS(such as a smart phone), because the data will also include the location where the picture was taken! Check out the video below to see how to remove this data.
Know the Law
In the U.S., many states have their own laws on how marijuana is treated. Some states will send marijuana users to jail for years, some will give them counseling, others will just give a fine, and some do nothing at all.
However, it's important to remember that marijuana is still illegal according to U.S. federal law, as well as the law of most countries.
It's imperative that every grower spend a little time making sure they know the laws that apply to them to help minimize the risk of being prosecuted. Here are some resources to get you started:
U.S. residents, see NORMLs page on marijuana laws state-by-state:
http://norml.org/laws Outside of the U.S., get the basics at Wikipedias page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legality_of_cannabis_by_country
http://clicks.aweber.com/y/ct/?l=5c.Y_&m=3f5CHXWI8QrSDxT&b=3oumJNPvpCPZuxbK3ffGuA
Just wanted to share this information, as I'm sure that everyone tried there best to keep "everything" low key, we can never be to safe!!