Free

People seem to talk extremely freely on this site. Are we safe talking this way? What assures us our safety?

Be assured that the DEA, RCMP and various other agencies, have the time and money to hire some very intelligent people with almost infinite resources when it comes to hacking and Internet sleuthing in general. If they want your IP, with few exceptions, they will get it.

I will say that you are 99% safe, even if they find out your ip and track you.

Hacking is illegal. Courts will not tolerate police doing illegal things to gain evidence to be used in a trial proper. The reason that you see cases thrown out of court for search violations is often due to defense lawyers attacking and quashing a warrant.

Now here's what the cops can do. Once they have gathered enough legitimate evidence that you are growing (in the real world) (Smell, hydro bills, pictures of you carrying christmas tree sized plants out your door) then they will come in and, with a warrant, seize your computer and use whatever they find on it in your prosecution. But then so what? By that point your fun is over anyway.

Police do illegal things all the time, my point is that it will not get them very far. You will have to have screwed up in the real world first.

O.K. thanks. I do often screw things up though...

More specifically...

Someone posts a really phat grow setup, with 100's of plants, would that be enough to get a warrant to hack the IP?

I doubt they would bother with a guy growing 2 plants in his closet, but I've seen some pretty wicked grows on this site and I can see some fed getting a boner by just looking at the posts.

Thats true. But some of them I'm sure have been on other sites with the same grow set up and have been around for awhile. right?
Have you ever heard of anyone getting busted on one of these sites?

They would have a tough time convcting anyone on here. In Canada we have a privacy law, the Police would be breaching that. If you are telling everyone and showing off, maybe then you may get caught. But really it is not worht the time and money to track personal growers.

The police in my country are all-but told to ignore the small time growers. it's not cost effective to prosecute. In my country they concentrate mainly on the vietnamese gangs that set up grows costing £10,000-£20,000. where each harvest nets them £250,000. That's sterling folks.

skunkushybrid said:

The police in my country are all-but told to ignore the small time growers. it's not cost effective to prosecute. In my country they concentrate mainly on the vietnamese gangs that set up grows costing £10,000-£20,000. where each harvest nets them £250,000. That's sterling folks.

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Skunk I love that last thing you said. I think I have a new phrase "That's sterling folks."

By the way what does it mean? LOL Might be good if I knew that. LOL

mogie said:

Skunk I love that last thing you said. I think I have a new phrase "That's sterling folks."

By the way what does it mean? LOL Might be good if I knew that. LOL

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it's because you guys think in dollars. The pound is worth almost double so i add it for emphasis, as in Pound Sterling. that is our currency.

Thank you.

That is a catchy sounding phrase. I think it should be used whenever you don't feel you've given something enough emphasis... "This computer has two SLI video cards at 256 megs each. That's sterling folks." or "Mogies avatar changes often. That's sterling folks."

TheConstantGardner said:

That is a catchy sounding phrase. I think it should be used whenever you don't feel you've given something enough emphasis... "This computer has two SLI video cards at 256 megs each. That's sterling folks." or "Mogies avatar changes often. That's sterling folks."

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I must agree... <---- thats sterling folks!

tckfui said:

Thats true. But some of them I'm sure have been on other sites with the same grow set up and have been around for awhile. right?
Have you ever heard of anyone getting busted on one of these sites?

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due to most people's anonymity on sites like these, it would probably be tough to gauge who's getting busted and who's not. "busted" could just as well be "on vacation", or "sick of the internet".. etc etc.

Of course some on here have grown for an apparently LONG time with no issues, some even outdoors... while i'm sure some lurkers have been busted.

I'd venture to say this board isn't heavily "policed", I can't imagine it being very fruitful... I mean, is it even worth the gas it takes to get to someone's house who's growing a few plants for personal use? In that case your "illegal" activity hurts nobody, and it takes $ out of the hands of dealers and other shady types.

The cops should be thanking the pioneers on this board for doing their part in the war on drugs

It also depends on the locale the growers is in. Growers in the U.K. are almost undoubtedly going to be left alone, and it's too much effort for Canadian law enforcement to set up operations and bust someone on here. As the other posters have said, they need real tangible evidence that you're growing in order to obtain a warrant. The scales could be tipped against these growers however if they're consistently producing a ton of marijuana, and the law enforcement needs a headline in the papers.

In the U.S., it likely depends on the state. The DEA has a general policy to overlook small time growers. I'm sure that they patrol this site on a regular basis, but they're only going to devote the resources to bigger growers. They might also tip off local law enforcement agencies, but as I said, it depends on the state. If you're only growing a few plants, and live someplace like California or Ohio where marijuana is decriminalized, it's not worth the effort. You'll probably just get a hefty fine, and in the aforementioned states, no jail time. I'm not growing now, but when I have in the past, you can bet I made sure I stayed within the "reasonable" parameters of the law, since it is decriminalized where I live. When law enforcement agencies bust people, it's so they can get some notoriety or have something to show their superiors/the public. It's not necessarily about interrupting the flow of illicit drugs, because it's been consistently shown that even federal enforcers barely make a dent. It's all about public opinion.

But God help you if you grow anything and live in Vermont. If cruel and unusual punishment wasn't outlawed, they'd probably chop off your pruning hand there. Check NORML.org for your state laws. Grow small, and grow only for yourself (don't sell), and no one will likely want to bother you. Trafficking and large harvests are what they're usually looking for. Not small-time recreationial or medical growers. Me, I prefer to stick with growing legal psychadelic plants, for the sake of my own health.

~Ethno
(P.S. Oh, and plenty of people on here have been busted. Though I'm not sure whether it's ever been directly because of this site)

skunkushybrid said:

The police in my country are all-but told to ignore the small time growers. it's not cost effective to prosecute. In my country they concentrate mainly on the vietnamese gangs that set up grows costing £10,000-£20,000. where each harvest nets them £250,000. That's sterling folks.

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urghh those Vietnamese gangs are giving us Viets a bad name....


EmPot: Even if you post a picture of 100s of plants, hacking is still illegel. Now, if you have your license in the same pic then they probably track you down and send in the swat team.

no vietnam war gave you all a bad name .... joking hahah

UnEmploymentDude said:

urghh those Vietnamese gangs are giving us Viets a bad name....


EmPot: Even if you post a picture of 100s of plants, hacking is still illegel. Now, if you have your license in the same pic then they probably track you down and send in the swat team.

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I did stipulate 'gangs'. Of course I realise that not all vitnamese people grow cannabis on this sort of scale. I don't mind, it keeps the police away from my door. Good luck to 'em I say buddy. Keep the police nice and busy.