Marijuana Use In Married Couples Reduces Likelihood Of Domestic Abuse

An article from 2014 published in Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, "Couples' marijuana use is inversely related to their intimate partner violence over the first 9 years of marriage.", has been circulating through a ton of popular websites.

I don't want to get of track so i'll keep my rant about how/why this happens brief.

But seriously think about that or a second. This article was published in 2014. So why are all the attention now? I don't have that answer, aside from assuming all of these sites are copying each other for clicks to their sites. I mean that's fine it's something that happens on probably all social websites.

Here are all the sites that were running this 2014 article:

Washington post - Christopher Ingraham - 26Aug2014 (Awesome time to report this article)

High Times - Samantha Cashin - 09Apr2018 (4 years later...)

Fatherly.com - Lauren Vinopal - 12Jul2018 (4 years later and now you can borrow from other sites)

So these are just a few that cite this study, and yet all of them simply re-state the findings in the study. Which is fine but again it's just a puff piece. It's click bait for getting people to your website so you can generate ad revenue. 

--- deep breath --- 

...rant over...

Back to the article

I certainly do not want to downplay the conclusions made from this study, looking at marijuana use and rates of intimate partner violence (IPV). It's pretty awesome that they were able to follow so many couples 634 to be exact and for 9 years!!! (here is the full article: link)

Here are the amazing findings they were able to conclude:

• about 1 in 5 married women and 1 in 3 married men admitted to using marijuana
• IPV rates were lower where at lease one spouse used marijuana
• Marijuana use hinted towards less frequent IPV, with the lowest IPV group being the couples who both used marijuana frequently
• Important to note: subjects were all heterosexual, newly married, and first time married couples

Aside from the results supporting fewer incidence of domestic violence in couples that use marijuana. There was a lot of unpleasant information in that article.

The study only looked at one type of IPV. That being physical aggression and injury (e.g. slapping, beating up, choking). But there are at least three categories of IPV: psychological, physical, and sexual aggression.

I felt that this study was limited in the design to only look at physical IPV. I would like to see where the others ranked in this type of longitudinal study.

I also was a little upset that none of the websites actually expanded on the findings and or limitations. 

I bring this point up because there was an article from 2008 same journal (Psychol Addict Behav) out of Ohio U, showed that Marijuana use was associated with IPV by men arrested for domestic violence. In this article they were able to conclude that marijuana use was related to all three forms of IPV. 2008 Article - Marijuana related to all forms of IPV. 

One last point about the positive article. There were some pretty discouraging figures in the paper.

• Nearly 40% of all husbands conducted IPV on their wives, with an average of 4.0 times per year. And keep in mind the survey was only asking for physical forms of domestic violence.

That is just way too high. Way too high.

Again not trying to undermine the interesting findings. I just think the study was limited to a single arm of intimate partner violence. 

And then when it's picked up by websites who are going to spin the news largely on the title and summary, it's just a little frustrating.

If you read either of these articles let me know what your takeaway is!

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MM's

Cannabis crop early in the veg stage

Looking back at one of our first indoor grows. Such a mix-matched set-up. Half the plants were 100% sativa the other half were 100% indica. That was a fun test of our abilities at maintaining an even canopy...

This was photo was taken very early in the vegetative stage. They had all been recently transplanted from solo cups into either 1 gal or 5 gal cloth grow bags. Medium is coco coir.

They literally exploded into monsters, doubling in size in about 1-2 weeks. Gotta love pH balanced nutrients feeding. They do wonders for your garden.

In our opinion, when your plants are under 2 feet tall, they are so easy to train. It's at this point in your grow when you first begin to transition to training mode. I miss the daily low-stress training and super-cropping.

Looking forward to our next indoor grow. For Sure!!!

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MM's

Super Silver Haze - Bud shots

Happy Friday!!!!

Here are some bud shots from our Super Silver Haze crop.

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MM's

Beautiful Cannabis Leaf

Not to get super sentimental. But when you actually invest the time and effort into growing a cannabis plant. Each part of the grow comes with it's challenges and rewards. And if you're lucky you also get a lot of medicinal product as well. But that is just one of things that makes this entire process so much fun. 

Hopefully you're all experiencing more rewards then challenges!!!

It's getting close to harvesting season across the US. I'd love to hear or see some success stories from other growers!

Here's a photo we use on our blog. It's not the healthiest leaf, but whatever.

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MM's

Quick & Easy Guide: How to turn your Kief into Hash

Here is a quick and easy guide for turning your kief into hash. The process is quite simple, it is safe, and does not take very much time. You can get this completed in just 5 steps and using about that many items.

What Supplies you will need:

• kief
• clothes iron
• wax paper / parchment paper
• paper towel

optional items:

• tape (to help hold the wax or parchment paper in place)
• scale (to compare starting weight of the kief and final weight of the hash)
• razor blade

Total time: ~ 45 - 90 minutes (depends on how long the hash is allowed to cool during step 5)

So, lets get started turning your kief into Hash

Step 1:

Carefully pour your kief onto the center of a sheet of wax / parchment paper. You do not need a large amount of paper. You want to ensure that there is enough paper to fold around the pile of kief.

For our example approximately a 12" square sheet of wax paper was more than enough for our 1 gram of kief.

Note: kief can be stubborn coming out of the contain it is being stored in. To get the last bits out of our grinder and help position the kief on the paper we used a razor. This is completely optional, and be careful if you choose to use them. They can cut the paper, the surface you are working on and even you if you are not careful.

Step 2:

Once you have the kief centered on the paper. You need to fold the paper around the kief. It is best to create a square or rectangular pocket within the paper. And then fold the excess paper around that pocket.

This can be a little tricky.

Just be careful as to not spill your kief as you are working to create the folds and the pocket out of the paper. Once you get past the first couple folds the kief will be locked in place.

Step 3: Heat, Press (flip), & Repeat

After you have folded the paper, one or two pieces of tape are helpful at holding the paper in place.

Next we wrap the wax / parchment paper in a damp paper towel. This is very important as it will help prevent you from damaging your clothes iron.

Take the hot iron and firmly and evenly press down. We like to start by doing this for a couple of seconds, then remove the iron and flip the kief so you can press the other side.

We like to do this for at least 5 minutes of each side. It is likely not necessary to heat and press for more than 10 minutes on each side.

Oh and don't forget to turn off the iron once you are done!!!

Note 1: You are working with a very hot iron. Make sure you are working on a surface that is safe for this type of heat and that you have cleared the area. Always be careful working with a heat source, so as not to accidentally burn yourself or things in the area.

Note 2: While you are pressing the kief, monitor the wetness of the paper towel. If it appears to be drying out, stop heating it and make it damp on both sides again.

Step 4: Chill Out

Again friendly reminder. Don't forget to turn off the clothes iron.

Now onto the easiest step: put your freshly heated and pressed kief bundle into the freezer.

Possibly a slightly less easy step: wait 30-60 minutes.... (perhaps smoke a little to pass the time)

Cooling the hash will harden it and make it a little easier to handle when you unwrap your kief bundle.

Step 5: Unwrap and enjoy (and storing tips if applicable)

Once the kief bundle has properly cooled. Carefully unwrap and remove all the layers (i.e. paper towel, the tape, and inner paper).

Once you get to the hash, it should be hard enough now where it will come off the paper will very little effort.

At this point you are done. The hash is ready to be enjoyed.

Note: For storage, we recommend putting your hash in an airtight container and keeping it out of direct sunlight. It can store for a good long time for those who are able to ration out usage.

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Happy Growing!!!

MM's

Finally the outdoor girls are flowering (Week 1-3 of Flowering)

Finally the super silver haze plants are flowering. These ladies have been amazing growers, but all through August were acting like true sativa divas. And just would not flip from veg to flowering.

Now that we're in September, it's going to be something of a race to the finish line. Most seed vendors list this strain as having a outdoor harvest time in mid-October. The indoor flowering time is 9-11 weeks.

By our estimate these girls have naturally started flowering in the past 1-3 weeks. They also appear to have made it through their stretching phase. They didn't do anything super dramatic like a 50% stretch, but they do look lean and elongated right now. 

We're very excited to see the transition from lean to filled-in as the bud sites continue to develop.

It's pretty amazing to think that these outdoor SSH plants, started from clones that were cut way back in 2017!!!!

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MM's

Random harvest photo...making us a little nostalgic

We were cleaning out some old photos, and came across some harvesting photos. Growing your own cannabis can be a bit of a project. But when you get to the harvest it all seems worth it.

...I mean until you start worrying about curing, over/under drying, mold, etc...

Just kidding that is also a fun process and part of a larger learning curve.

Anyways as the east coast approaches harvest. We are excited for all the growers getting ready to go through their first or Nth harvest.

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Happy Growing!!!

MM's

What's living in and around your outdoor Cannabis garden

Getting into the last week of August. Here in Mass we are dealing with a little bit of a heat wave this week. Weather in some parts of the commonwealth are going to see temps go over 100 degrees.

The plants are happy, just need to make sure they are getting the water they need. Ironically the humans are the ones appearing to be wilting in the same conditions.

Seriously, is anyone else sort of done with summer??? Or at least these 90+ days with 70+ humidity.

What we're really hoping for are milder temperatures from now through the end of the season in October (hopefully not November). Fingers crossed as these girls don't seem to want to switch over to flowering naturally.

Aside from enjoying the nearly explosive growth of the plants this summer. We've also been able to enjoy seeing a wide range of insects show up. Here are a couple that we were able to get photos of.

  

Moth on leaf

We're not really sure if a moth is a good or bad thing for the plants. But it looked nice and was willing to sit still for a close-up.

Green planthopper (can you see it? 😄)

So these are definitely not helpful to the plant, however they look super cool. We also see a number of different species in and around our garden. By far the best looking ones are all white. Sorry couldn't find one to get a photo of.

Flower Spider - Misumena vatia

This was a surprise to see. Take that literally. We didn't see this spider which is the size of a small marble until one of our faces was right next to it...

Misumena vatia - is a species of crab spider. With the largest and most well-known being the flower spider. These are also called the goldenrod crab spider or flower (crab) spider because they are often found on goldenrod plants.

Another interesting note: these spiders have the ability to change color from white to yellow. And the spider can adapt colors to blend with the plant (if white or yellow). It takes about 10-25 days to go from white to yellow, and about 6 days to reverse.

Bumble Bee (Bombus) - Just chilling out

This bumble bee was just chilling out. The photo is a little misleading with the lighting. It was actually taken close to dusk so the temp was lowering and that was why it was so inactive.

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Happy Growing!!!

MM's