Hello all! I was born in a state that still to this day actively arrests and charges citizens for even the smallest amounts of personal possession. After being arrested twice for having less than a gram of marijuana on my person I realized maybe this was not the state for me. So when a friend asked if I would like to move to Honolulu HI right after grad high school it was an easy decision. 18 at the time I was blown away, finally a place where the people around me didn’t treat marijuana like it was crack cocaine or look at me like a drug addict for smoking a joint or two after work. I was making almost no money working a restaurant but was loving every moment of it. After a few months a friend brought me to his grow operation he had out in the sticks. An outdoor crop of 12 plants way off of the beaten path. This would be a life changing experience for me, until now the only thing I knew about marijuana was what strains I preferred to smoke, now maybe just maybe I would never have to spend another dime on this amazing plant. He gave me some pointers and a rundown of everything he was doing at the time. I later learned this was far from the correct way to be growing outdoors. So 19yr old me is thinking ok I need to start growing for the simple fact I didn’t want to continue spending a portion of my income every week. The thought that I could someday make a living from this was still far from my mind. I lived in the middle of the city so setting up a guerrilla hut in the rainforest like I was shown was not exactly an option. I dragged my feet for about another year before the lack of income started to wear me down. So after being there 3 years I decided it was time to move back home, maybe find a career I was genuinely interest in and could make a living with. I come from a very conservative family from a small town that is never short on ignorance. Still being very young and impressionable, I had the feeling that I should be going in the direction my parents and those around me wanted to go, which was far from the marijuana industry. I consider myself a fairly intelligent person, new jobs and skills I can pick up pretty fast but if I don’t have a real drive or passion for something, forget about it. Why spend a large portion of your life doing something you don’t truly love? A lot of my family and people I looked up to lived the other way, they made good money but did they enjoy what they did? Hell no. So after two years of electrical school, I knew that wasn’t for me. Maybe go work for my father and follow in his footsteps?……think again. Now 23 years old working construction back in NE hopelessly trying to find something I could make a living at and that I was interested in. At this point in my life I had about 3 things that met that criteria-computers, mary jane and BJJ which only one I saw could be a potential career. So I took what money I had saved and took off to Key west FL to start school for computer science. I learned more about myself and what I wanted to do and what I was capable of in those 4 years than I did my previous 23. One of the most important things, the internet is capable of much more than I ever knew and prob will ever know. Other than 1 or 2 plants indoors at a time, my growing skills were not improving at the rate I would like. Honestly 90% of the bud was shipped from another state and then marked way up because they had you trapped out there. Once I saw Massachusetts was legalizing recreational I saw my opportunity, I moved back home with plans to start growing asap. Other than family I know zero established growers or anything of the sort after being gone for so long. Now there are talks that they want to push the date back for the bill or change it outright. I can’t spend anymore of my life dragging my feet waiting. I strongly believe this is the best time in American history to be producing marijuana , similar to when prohibition ended just at a slower rate. Do you all recommend finding a farm maybe out west to trade labor for knowledge? I did a little research on Wwoof and sites like that, but I figure you guys are the right ones to ask, a lot of you are light years ahead of me and honestly where I want to be! I’m aware when it comes to these things it’s all about trust, which has to be earned, as it should be. Any advice is welcome! I know this was long and drawn out, if you made it to the end thank you! Maybe someone else out there was on a similar path
North has the serious growers and breeders. South has the stoners and consumers of northern products.
I had a buddy that moved out to Colorado and now works for a commercial grow op, Im sure he is learning lots of new skills for large scale grows and what not. Another buddy that goes out to CO seasonally as a trimmer. I would think a job like that would be hard to land though, I mean who doesn't want to be in the industry? Another buddy moved to OR and is in the industry and also works part time as a river guide. Those guys met their employers at music festivals so they did a bit of networking beforehand I suppose. As for myself, never had the balls to move somewhere I didn't know anybody, and never had the money. Good luck!