Your story is about actions and consequences, how one step led to another, would you have changed any part of your story?
This is where we begin Tom Kikuchi’s Cannabis Journey, from his awakening in high school to his arrest and founding of FreedomGrow.org.
Go Here for Chapter 1.
Actions and Consequences:
This is a hard question to answer. Of course in hindsight, I should have passed on the opportunity to build a warehouse grow 4 times larger than the last one but then I wouldn't have gotten to execute a clean sheet design for indoor cannabis growing on a real commercial scale. Automation, user-friendly layouts, minimal maintenance requirements, cost efficiency, self-sufficiency, and safety were all priority considerations. I like to think I succeeded on all counts considering the available technology of the day. Still, getting stripped of all my assets and certain other rights is a pretty heavy price. Doing time in jails and prisons was also dreary too.
At the end of the day, the only thing I would like to change is to have gotten into professional cultivation 10 years sooner than I did. In 1974, I was living the surfing life in Isla Vista near the UCSB campus. It was like that Beach Boys tune I Get Around: My buddies and I are getting real well known yeah, the bad guys know us and leave us alone. I hung with a tight-knit crew, and some of them were tightly connected to various pot smuggling entities of that era. During the 60s and 70s, about 99% of all the weed consumed in the USA was imported/smuggled from 3rd World countries. If you were connected, you had opportunities to obtain some interesting varieties that no longer exist. Not many people were interested in growing back then, so seeds from these precious landraces were disdained as dead weight and thrown away.
One of our crew went to Hawaii to surf in 1974. He came back stoked about the islands and collected all kinds of Mexican, Colombian and Thai seeds from our rolling trays to take back with him. He invited me to go back with him, but I was living heaven on earth where I was already. I was a young guy who had plenty of income, girlfriends, choice surf spots and a great crew to hang with all day every day. In hindsight I should have gone to Hawaii then instead of 1984. I should have been proactive instead of reactive about professional cultivation. The bad scene in 2002 might not have happened but then again maybe something far worse could have happened to me in Hawaii. You can't change the past, unfortunately. It's best only to look forward.
Freedom Grow is a federally registered non-profit organization administered by an all-volunteer group of concerned American citizens. The common thread among most members is that we have all been victimized by our government's war on cannabis. Some of us have been imprisoned for decades. Some us have even seen the death of a loved one over a few plants at the hands of the police. Some are currently serving life sentences. It is Freedom Grow's mission to help those long term cannabis prisoners and their families by sending letters, thoughtful gifts, and money for commissary.
The concept of Freedom Grow started about a dozen years ago. Stephanie, my co-defendant in my federal case felt a lot of compassion for the plight of prisoners in general. Prisons are little more than warehouses for people. Her prison was an old World War 2 base converted into a women's correctional institution. The ancient plumbing leaked and cancer causing black mold covered the interior walls where people slept. All you can expect are 3 terrible meals and a steel sheet for a bed. If you need warmer clothes, better food, or want to phone home, then you better have some money. In Winter, thermal underwear is essential. Better food means $1 per pack ramen. Phone call charges are much steeper than regular pay phone rates. Postage and stationary aren't free. All this can be obtained at the prison store if you have funds on file.
Fortunately, Stephanie and I had saved for these rainy days and were able to take advantage of whatever the prison store had to offer. We both were able to eat well enough and had warm clothes to wear but many others didn't have Angels on the outside sending money.
After Stephanie and I were released from prison, probation was still cramping our style. For 5 years, we were not supposed to have anything to do with medical cannabis or risk a return to prison. We still wanted to help prisoners in general but the constant legal problems had drained our wallets. Stephanie came up with the brilliant idea of sending used books to prison libraries. It was easy to collect all kinds of reading material from many people. Eventually, a public library started giving us books by the 100s. We would go to various cannabis events where booth space was donated to us. We would use the space to set up displays to educate people about life sentences for cannabis offenses. Donations were solicited to cover mailing costs for all these books. Occasionally, someone would donate enough to send off 100 books but usually we did it out of our own pocket.
The book mailings went on for a couple of years until the day the federal Bureau of Prisons decided that it was too much hassle screening every incoming book and magazine for drugs, weapons, pornography, explosives, or other contraband. Boxes of books started coming back to us with a note stating that used books were no longer allowed. While this was upsetting, it only hardened our resolve to aid our cannabis brothers and sisters.
I came up with the idea that we start sending money directly to a prisoner's commissary account. My reasoning is that the Bureau of Prisons might ban books but they will never ever ban money that lines their pocket. While I personally think that all drug prisoners deserve compassion, there are just too many to render effective aid so we made the strategic decision to concentrate on aiding people who were doing long sentences for cannabis with no violence involved in their case.
We now taking care of a roster of 200 people doing unconscionable amounts of time. Last week, one person on our roster was released early, hallelujah. The bad part is that 3 more names were added.