Operation Green Merchant and H.W. Bush’s War on Drugs

The war on drugs continued to worsen under the Bush administration, and cannabis cultivators were literally pushed in the closet. Meanwhile, these cannabis enthusiasts were finding that by using hydroponic methods in controlled environments they were able to grow more potent products and cross-breed strains for more nuanced effects. The feds were looking to curb the growing number of indoor cannabis gardens that had become more and more popular after Reagan started policing outdoor spaces with helicopters and law enforcement officers were given more or less free reign of private property outside the home. In addition to expanding the purview of authorities and increasing the penalties for drug offenders, in 1985 the United States Congress began passing laws to criminalize the sale of legal products for illegal pursuits—such as grow lights used for cannabis cultivation or glass pipes used for cannabis consumption. Because of this new statute, instead of doing flyovers to look for outdoor operations federal agents began keeping an eye on the ever-expanding cannabis pop culture outlets.

The government began to equate hydroponics equipment distributors with cannabis growers, regardless of the fact that only a very small percent of hydroponic equipment purchased was used to grow Mary Jane. By 1989 gardening stores were beginning to worry that trouble was on the way and started to refuse service to individuals asking about growing grass. High Times and Sinsemilla Tips, which were both created to share gardening tips and the latest in cannabis breeding and production, proved a valuable resource to narcotics detectives. By looking at stores that advertised in these periodicals, and tracking the purchase records of their customers, law enforcement hoped to find and disenfranchise marijuana farmers across the country. Sanctioned by the Bush administration, agents started looking at utility companies’ records for individuals with abnormally high energy use—like the kind needed to run an indoor grow operation—and served subpoenas to UPS to track orders for hydroponics equipment. Then, in 1991, government sleuths started subpoenaing customer records from hydroponics stores, including customer addresses.

On October 26, 1989, now known to the hydroponic equipment and marijuana industries as Black Thursday, the DEA raided garden stores in 46 states, seizing assets and arresting 119 people. Over the next two years $17.5 million in assets were seized and 1,262 arrests were made. Agents dismantled 977 grows and 57,000 plants were destroyed. Even though stores were becoming more and more careful about separating themselves from the cannabis market, the narcs were relentless. They entrapped store owners and workers by ‘offer[ing] us women, guns, and money if we’d show them how to grow pot and sell them gear,’ as one hydroponics retailer put it, and would pose as hippies or medical patients to try and solicit information about growing ganja. Martin Heydt, owner of Worms Way Group was one of the many arrested, but was relatively lucky being sentenced to 3 years probation and a $2,000 fine. Tom Alexander, the publisher of Sinsemilla Tips, lost his business when his entire inventory was seized by DEA agents—and even though he was ultimately never charged he was unable to regain his property due to the new civil forfeiture laws. Alexander also stopped publishing his 10 year old trade journal, Sinsemilla Tips. High Times also felt a crushing blow and it took several years for them to recoup the losses of their biggest advertisers. Although most individuals targeted were ultimately never charged, there were dozens who were given prison sentences dictated by the new controversial mandatory guidelines.

The excessive measures undertaken under the Bush administration did little to dissuade cannabis enthusiasts from spreading the gospel of medical marijuana and offered further proof that the war on drugs was causing more harm than good.