Chapter 24: Seeds of the Future

Jason was living on the East Coast. His grandmother owned a large estate on an acreage outside a small town in rural New Jersey. Jason was born and raised in Los Angeles. To say this was a culture shock would be an understatement. The worst thing about living on the East Coast was he had no way to get weed.

Jason’s grandmother was older and not the easiest person to live with or the kindest to Jason. She often lectured him about the bad decisions he had made that led to him living with her. She gave him lists of chores to do daily.

Jason started taking long hikes in the area to kill time and get away from his grandmother.

He managed to make it a few miles to the local general store and back a few times.

The dirt road traveled through big green fields and areas with trees as far as the eye could see. It was a beautiful walk.

One day as Jason was walking back from buying snacks he passed by a wooded area and suddenly smelled a familiar scent. It was weed.

Jason noticed a car parked in the dirt near the entrance to the woods. The car was empty. Jason followed his nose into the forest along a small path through the bushes and trees. He came upon three men standing together in a circle sharing a joint. Jason stepped on a twig and suddenly the men were aware of his presence.

“Who the fuck are you?” one of the men asked.

“Hi, I am Jason, I just moved here from California. I haven’t smoked weed in two months and my grandmother is driving me nuts. I smelled your joint from the road and thought I would come see who is smoking. I will give you guys some money if you please let me hit your joint?” Jason said trying to ease the situation.

“You said yer from California huh?” another of the men asked.

“We don’t like people from California round here!” the third man spoke.

Jason started to back up.

“I am sorry for disturbing you guys!” Jason said as he started to turn around.

The men all started to walk towards Jason.

“Hey friend, we are just pulling yer leg. Of course you can smoke this jay bird. Put er there, the name’s Clint. This here’s my cousin Brent. That fat feller back there is Alex.” the closest man said to Jason.

He extended his hand to offer the joint. Jason breathed a sigh of relief and hit the joint like a thirsty man coming out the desert. He then shook Clint’s hand as well as the other men’s.

Jason smoked the joint and made some new friends. The weed was terrible compared to the stuff in California, but it was better than nothing. Since he had not smoked in a few months the crappy weed still got him high.

Clint grew the weed on his property. They lived about ten minutes south of Jason’s grandmother’s house. When the joint was finished, they all exchanged numbers. It turns out Clint was somehow related to Jason. All the men knew his grandmother from town. She was a regular and very vocal at the city council meetings.

A few days later Clint invited Jason over to check out his plants. They were hidden in a small, wooded area on his family’s acreage.

The plants were very ugly and wild looking. They did not look like the plants Jason had seen in pictures from magazines or rap music videos.

Jason was able to get Clint to start selling him weed. Clint initially took a liking to Jason and allowed him to help him with his plants.

Jason started looking up grow tips on the internet to try and impress Clint. Clint was pretty lazy when it came to his plants. He wanted to invest minimal money and effort. Jason’s tips were not always welcome and rarely tried.

Clint said his biggest problem was wild woodchucks eating his plants. He had tried putting money and effort into the plants in the past, but the woodchucks just kept coming and eating the weed. He had tried hanging them in a tree and growing them upside down "like those tomatoes you see on them infomercials" and the woodchucks managed to climb the tree and eat the plants still. They even chewed the rope. Clint had basically given up on trying to grow anything fancy.

After six months living with his grandmother and going crazy, Jason was offered a new place to live. Jason’s mom convinced her longtime friend Daniel in New York, to let Jason come stay with him.

Daniel had a large four-bedroom apartment in a high rise in Jackson Heights. He had a spare room Jason could stay in. Best of all he smoked weed regularly.

Daniel was an older Jewish man in his fifties. He had worked as a school guidance counselor. The last time he saw Jason, Jason was five years old. Initially Daniel was in the dark about Jason's story and being on the run. Eventually after getting to know Daniel, Jason told him his story over a joint.

Daniel was sympathetic and offered to let Jason live with him permanently if Jason agreed to help clean Daniel's home, walk his dog regularly and do grocery runs. Jason became like Daniel's caretaker.

Jason’s biggest issue with New York or really anywhere outside of California at the time was the price of weed. Good weed was literally double the price in New York compared to Los Angeles. Daniel's dealer was a man called "The NY Jew". Jason said he had a thick New York accent, wore a suit and fedora, and looked like he was from the movie Goodfellas. He was the only person on Earth who was immune to Jason's negotiation tactics. His price was firm, but his weed was good. Almost California quality but double the price.

Jason eventually convinced Daniel to use one of the closets in his spare bedroom to grow a few plants themselves. They cleared out the closet and purchased a cheap grow light online.

Jason had taken a few seeds with him from Clint’s plants and Clint had taught him how to germinate them. Jason was able to get a few of the seeds to sprout and then planted three of the sprouts.

Daniel was paranoid and insisted they kept their plant number low at the start.

Jason joined online chat groups. He found a hydroponic store in the city and started taking the subway there to buy nutrients and talk shop with the employees.

Jason told them he was growing indoor tomatoes. Jason tried everything he could to improve the plants. All the tips Clint had ignored.

Despite Jason’s best effort, Jason and Daniel’s first attempt at growing weed did not live up to their expectations. They had a decent size return for the number of plants and the size of the area.

The weed itself just sucked. It took a lot to get high and gave you a headache. It was the New York version of Schwag.

Jason came to the conclusion in order to grow the good California weed he was used to, he needed California seeds.

That is where I come into the story.

It had been a few years since the whole Santini saga. Carson was still going back and forth between the beach cities and Northern California each year. Carson had managed to get a hold of Jason while he was living in New York. Jason convinced Carson to start hanging out with me and try to get me to sell his weed.

I did not want to sell weed but I still managed to purchase it from him on a regular basis. I started inviting Carson to my house and out to activities with John and other homies. I know his parents appreciated it since he was a bit anti-social and I started being welcome inside his house when I picked up off him.

Carson’s dad even made me a sandwich. I am told this is a priceless honor. Jody would mad dog me from across the house I could feel his eyes through the walls. But he never said a word.

I even officially met Bobby the oldest brother. I don’t think he even knew I was the same guy he had a problem with years earlier because we bonded over our knowledge of weed. He even gave me some hash.

Carson had managed to bring seeds home with him this time and was growing several small plants at their house. He had so much weed already these plants were more like hobbies for him. After years of working at the farm Carson was becoming very skilled at growing weed.

Jason and Carson had been talking and Jason convinced Carson to give me a bag of seeds to send to Jason. We all agreed with Carson’s connection to the farm he should not risk it himself. Sending weed seeds in the mail was not legal.

At the time I had an older Xbox 360 game console that had stopped working. There was a common problem going on with the consoles. A flaw caused them to overheat. There were a lot of different independent services online where you could mail them your Xbox and have it fixed and mailed back. So, we used this as our cover.

I took apart the Xbox and hid the seeds inside, then put the console back together. I mailed it to Jason with a letter thanking him for fixing it. I know this sounds lame, but it worked. Jason received the seeds in the mail. They were special rare genetics from the Santini farm. A mix of Sour Diesel and Grand Daddy Purp. Two popular strains.

By now Jason was an expert at using the subway and buses in New York. He knew where all the best smoke shops, grow shops, and pizza spots were.

Jason’s time at the hydroponic shop, intense research online and constant contact with Carson helped him become a decent weed grower as well.

This time there was a night and day difference in the appearance of the plants. You could tell these plants were not only better than Clint’s Jersey Schwag, but they were also something special.

Jason tried to talk me into coming out and staying with him in New York and helping him with the harvest.

I did not make it out for the first harvest of the Santini genetics but about eight months later I made it out for the second harvest.

Chapter 25: New York