It was in Putney, Vermont, that Soma first started growing cannbis. He was living in a second-story apartment, and while rolling joints on record albums, he constantly threw seeds out the window. In the spring while walking around the side of the house, he noticed some little green plants underneath his window. Upon closer examination, he discovered they were cannabis plants and transplanted them up onto Putney Mountain. Since they were South American genetics, they couldn’t possibly reach maturity in the cold Vermont climate, but Soma’s green thumb had gone to college.
In 1974, Soma moved to the warmer climes of Gainesville, Florida. Besides picking wild Psilocybin mushrooms in the cow fields, he was able to grow some amazing South-East Asian cannabis and some pure Ruderalis Afghani. In this southern location, he was finally able to grow some marijuana all the way to harvest. When he smoked the weed he grew with his own hands, he was convinced that this was the way it should be.
It was at this time that the famous Gainesville Green was being smoked around the nation with great appreciation. In 1980 Soma grew 200 kilos of Afghani-Thai outdoors, got busted by the police and out just how hard it was to breed cannabis in America. In the late eighties, indoor marijuana cultivation was starting to take off, and Soma was one of the first people to breed different genetics together indoors. His Afghani-Thai hybrid was so good, he still rates it far above most strains today.
Soma kept growing in Florida through 1991, and then moved to Eugene, Oregon. It was in Eugene that Soma really mastered his growing skills and started fine-tuning his genetic library. Soma started an all-hemp store in Eugene in 1994 called Sow Much Hemp, selling everything from The Emperor Wears No Clothes to hemp paper and cloth. It was also in this year that Soma started writing under the pen name of ‘Amos Washington’ for High Times magazine. The 1994 Wyoming Rainbow Gathering was where Soma met his girlfriend of the last 10 years, Donamaria. They both traveled to Amsterdam together to participate in the ’94 Cannabis Cup. Soma was picked to be a celebrity judge and his Amsterdam adventure had begun.
Experiencing Holland’s relative freedom, and not being thought of as a criminal brought tears to Soma’s eyes. This immediately started the gears turning in his head, thinking of ways to move to this cannabis-friendly land. It took a year, but then it happened: Soma moved to Amsterdam. Leaving all of his fine friends behind was a very difficult thing to do, and making a fresh start in an alien country had its difficulties. With Donamaria’s help they made a home in Holland for themselves. Soma continued his cannabis genetic research, and being a medical user, he was always seeking better medicinal genetics.
The years went by and Soma started winning prizes for his genetics at the Cannabis Cup. His seeds started to spread: people on different cannabis websites started talking about his strains. In 1999 he was asked to give grow seminars at the annual Cannabis Cup. He also started growing with his daughter Willow, which brought them closer, and placed them in a financial partnership for the first time. The year 2000 came with the birth of Soma’s granddaughter Lexus Emily Nokia.
Finding himself a grandfather gave Soma new insight into the future. He looked for solutions to the dim future he saw looming ahead of humanity. Cannabis with all its benefits was one of the principal areas he focused his energy. The Soma Seeds website was launched in 2001 and the Soma Seed Bank was officially in business. Soma was now writing and taking photos for five different cannabis magazines. Two thousand and two brought Soma the biggest number of prizes at the Cannabis Cup. He started a forum on his website and got very involved with other forums, including Woody Harrelson’s voiceyourself.com. Cannabis awareness was growing by leaps and bounds.
Two thousand and three found Soma writing and taking pics for nine different cannabis magazines in four different languages. Soma’s daughter, Willow, was one of his favorite cover girls. It was also the year the G-13/Haze crosses came into being and started travelling the globe.
Soma says he owes all his success to the magnificent, sacred cannabis plant –his medicine, his sacrament. The typical stereotype of the lazy stoner certainly does not hold true when you look at the productive life Soma has lead thus far. The next chapter will certainly be interesting to watch.
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