The Green Gold

Dutchman 'Mr. Silver Haze' has written what is (as far as I know) the first honest book on the reality of illegal traffic in coffeeshops.

The Green Gold: Tales from a Dutch Cannabis Grower is full of funny anecdotes. But it also highlights the fact that a grower's path is not always a bed of roses. There are several books on cultivation, but this one actually has nothing to do with cultivation, per se.

Instead, it is about what happens when you decide to grow five little plants, not for your own personal use, but as a wholesale nursery. Silver Haze's book is a must both for growers, who can learn a lot from it, and for consumers, who will learn that buying a few grams of Cannabis completely legally in coffeeshops is something that they should not take for granted (yet).

Soft Secrets interviewed the author, who has since abandoned the industry but still, naturally, has good reason to hide his true identity. He continues to pay his debt to the law because of a previous sentence, and would not like for the police to investigate these confessions. In any case, the truth is far less romantic than what we often imagine and, as the saying goes, "It's a hard life to earn an easy living" - even for a great grower!

Let's start with a cliched question: Why this book?

"There are several reasons. Actually, it all started when, under the influence of a joint and a drink, I started telling a group of acquaintances the crazy and sometimes plain sad situations you find yourself in when you work in the industry. Of course, my stories weren't something you hear every day, and someone pointed out that I ought to write them down. That comment hung in the air for a while, but I'm not a writer, so I just forgot about it. Later on, I started to think, why not? I really do have some interesting stories to tell, and my point of view has never been told before. So I sat down at my computer and just wrote the whole thing. And, as I wrote, I became more and more convinced that my story had real educational value. Also, even though I'm definitely not a moralist, I still wanted to add a sort of warning that we can sum up as, 'Don't act without thinking.'"

How did you begin?

"Well, I explain it all in the book. Here's what happened: we're talking about the Nineties of the last century, when a guilder was still a guilder. I was in the meat business, as a supplier mainly to restaurants. I had a lot of Chinese customers. It wasn't a bad activity at all, but I knew I couldn't expect the moon, even from the Chinese. Margins were slim; there was always an extra that had to be added. I worked myself to the bone, often for over ten hours a day. Since my customers were paying less and less, and later and later, I had to make up the difference - but of course I didn't get paid interest. When a huge customer went bankrupt, I knew it would only be getting worse."

Was that when you started to think about Cannabis?

"I guess you could say it happened more or less by chance. One morning, I was delivering some meat to a customer, who was late. I hate hanging around, doing nothing, so I went for a walk. My eyes were caught by a brightly-lit shop window with 'Grow Shop' written over the door. I was curious, and I wondered what kind of a shop it was. Of course, I've always known about Cannabis, but I had no idea there was an entire world behind it. So I entered the shop, completely unaware of what I was getting into, and got into a conversation with a really nice guy. He was smoking a joint and explained everything to me. He also gave me a lot of information pamphlets, which I started reading that same night."

So, did you decide to tackle this new field and start growing on a large scale right away?

"Yes, as a matter of fact. I'm not an idealist about Cannabis. I mean, you can buy it, smoke it, own it. It's just a fact for me. I considered it a business; there was no reason to put on a mask. I knew, of course, that many small-scale growers disagreed with my view, but let's face it: very few small-scale growers are suppliers for large coffeeshops. Furthermore, everything sold in that grow shop was legal - you could have bought it separately in any gardening shop. But when I do something, I do it properly. That's why I decided to start growing on a large scale, rather than in an attic somewhere."

Did things go well right from the start?

"From a technical point of view, things went incredibly well, because we - I'd found a partner in the meantime - organized our business properly right from the start. Which means we had the proper space, excellent electronic equipment, a great atmosphere and, at the end of the cycle, amazing Cannabis and a great bonus.

"On the other hand, there are always lots of unexpected problems at first. You can find all the information you need on cultivation quite easily, but afterward there are often strange surprises in store for you. If the first crop hadn't come out well, I probably wouldn't have continued. But I had a good friend with the perfect space to work in. Great electric power, excellent air intake, everything run by computers. It was much easier than we'd thought."

And you had no moral scruples?

"None. I don't consider myself a criminal, in the literal sense. I didn't harm anyone; I was paying for electricity and all my equipment and I wasn't bothering anyone. Here's what I thought: you can find coffeeshops that sell Cannabis anywhere [in the Netherlands]. And you can find the products you need to grow it in any grow shop - although I was pretty sure grow shops would prefer to be called 'gardening shops'.

"We're talking about the years when the word 'Cannabis' was a lot less delicate than it is now. At the time, you could basically drive around with a few hundred plants in the backseat of your car and no one would say anything to you. And, of course, I knew that all those coffeeshops that were springing up like mushrooms needed suppliers. It makes no sense for a coffeeshop to run on five little garden plants. And, no matter which way you look at it, someone has to produce that Cannabis, because it doesn't just appear out of thin air... although some people act like it does."

How did you manage to sell Cannabis?

"I didn't know anything at first. I was a meat merchant, so I'd never really thought about it before. But a grow shop gives you the freedom to talk to people, which makes it easier to come into contact with customers. And don't think they were all suspicious characters - most of them were respectable people who could easily go unnoticed. That goes for the figureheads, as well."

So you started organizing your growing activity on a larger scale?

"Of course. It was just business for me. I used to call it the 'green grass'. But you need the right place if you want to expand and it's not easy to find the right place. First of all, it can't attract attention. Second of all, you need a figurehead, someone willing to take the risk for you in exchange for a share of the profits and the use of your place. I would provide and organize everything, from the plants to the electronic equipment, and I'd often go water the plants myself, although technically that was the figurehead's job. But usually, things would progress automatically. You learn as you go."

You learn about people as well, according to your book.

"Especially about people. One of the reasons I wrote this book is that I love describing the variety of characters you meet in the Cannabis world. Of course, the book deals with special cases, because lots of people are able to manage a plantation without any problems. You pay them, everyone's happy and 'so long' until the next harvest."

The ideal situation...

"That's how it should be. But the larger something becomes, the harder it is to manage. You'll find a description of one of the minor problems we had in greater detail in my book, but here's the short version: my stuttering neighbor offered me a shack for a few thousand guilder a month. Beautiful location, on level ground, no busybodies or nosy neighbors anywhere around. When we were finally ready to connect everything, it turned out that the electronic equipment couldn't be used. That meant quick and creative thinking, because the alternative was losing a fortune in no time. We solved the problem by putting in a hidden generator. In hindsight, it's a fun story, but at the time it felt like a tragedy."

The more you grew, of course, the more renowned you became.

"Right. I'd never mentioned anything about my Cannabis activity, and then suddenly someone would touch my shoulder in a bar and say, 'Do you deal with Cannabis?'

"I'd ask myself, 'How does he know?' Then again, you can't grow Cannabis without coming into contact with people, and people talk."

Sometimes, everything goes wrong...

"Once, we had a flood that nearly ruined a whole building. That's either your responsibility or a mistake on the part of the figurehead. That time, I just claimed it as office damages. Once, we had a group of real criminals, burglars; that was more complicated. I'm talking about people who study a plantation and then bore some holes from the outside, so they can keep an eye on when to harvest the Cannabis. That happened to me more than once and you have to pay the penalty. You lose your crop; the criminals leave no traces and, of course, you can't turn to the police - you're a Cannabis producer! Once, I had a figurehead give me some plausible excuse for how the crop had been stolen and a while later, I spotted him driving a brand-new BMW."

So, what did you do?

"I was a business owner - violence isn't in my nature. When something like that happened, I just let it go. I'm not a scaredy-cat, of course, and I can become threatening if I need to. But it's never really been necessary. I kept to the agreements and most of the people I dealt with did the same. Sometimes, I found myself in the unpleasant situation where people I considered friends of mine double-crossed me. That's sad. Money can do strange things to people, you know?"

And you got caught in the end?

"I had a good life with this activity, but sooner or later, unfortunately, you realize that they're keeping an eye on you - on the sly, through pretty girls who try and chat you up in a bar. Being allowed to drive on when there's a police roadblock is a sign that you're being watched carefully. And when the grow shop I often stopped in was tapped with microphones, I knew it was the end.

"But they were great years, although I soon realized that it took a lot of effort to make it work, just like in the meat business. Money doesn't just materialize all-of-a-sudden in the Cannabis business, either, but I managed to do some really great things. I'm not sorry and I don't really miss it. Spending tons of money every day on drinks, drugs and beautiful women can get old. And some people end up ruining themselves.

"I live an honest life again and it's also a lot less stressful. And my book has already been translated into English, French, Spanish and German. So lots of people do know that whoever deals with illegal traffic is always the scapegoat in this monstrous system of ours."

Buy your copy at www.thegreengold.nl, Amazon or Barnes and Noble.