Although marijuana is becoming increasingly legal across the United States, there is still a butt-load of places where this plant can get you jammed up with the law. 

Sure, many prosecutors are now tossing out cases for petty pot possession, but the same can’t be said for those caught growing. The cultivation of marijuana in areas of prohibition is a different beast altogether. It’s a crime considered as ugly as drug dealing, which typically comes with much harsher penalties. 

Therefore, it goes without saying that those who wish to grow weed where they’re not supposed to be growing it must be extra careful, or else their only friend for the next few years could be a big ol’ dude named Bubba at the State Penitentiary. And let’s just say he likes to cuddle.  

Growing Weed in Nature … or Your Yard

The most common tactic for averting law enforcement when growing weed illegally is setting up a small cultivation operation away from home and among nature. But too often, if the cops don’t find it through aerial surveillance, the wildlife will. Yes, Bambi and gang love weed just as much as you do.

Marijuana Eradication Teams don’t do much surveilling in urban neighborhoods and other populated spots when trying to bust illegal grows. These methods are typically launched in rural areas. That said, it could be argued that the best way to grow weed and not get caught is to do it in plain sight. 

Perhaps putting it near the house with other plants is suitable cover. “I grew some in my backyard once and never had any issues with police,” 43-year-old Andrew told The Bluntness.

Hiding in Plain Sight

Keeping things that you don’t want to be found hidden in plain sight is not a new theory. It actually began as a military tactic in the 1600s. The concept suggests a soldier could occupy any space on an open battlefield if their enemies couldn’t see them directly. 

It’s all about perceptions. If a person focuses their attention on one thing, it can cause them to miss another regardless of how obvious that thing was designed to appear. 

In a video demo for the book the Invisible Gorilla, the hidden in plain sight concept is illustrated using a group of young women (half dressed in white, the other half dressed in black) passing a basketball. 

The viewer is asked to count how many passes are made by the girls in white. Meanwhile, while the viewer is busy counting those passes, a gorilla appears. Over half the people who watched the video never saw it.

The world is full of illusions, and there are countless ways our intuitions deceive. Seeing is not always believing. In terms of how this applies to growing marijuana clandestinely, nobody ever expects to see an illegal, Schedule I, ‘dangerous’ drug growing in someone’s backyard. Let it blend in. 

“No one noticed or cared.”

“My ex-boyfriend threw a bunch of seeds in the yard, and they grew by my garage. No one noticed or cared,” a woman named Jamie recalled. “They got big. We smoked it.”

Other readers of The Bluntness experienced similar results. “My house in Nashville, Tennessee, had perfect conditions right under our kitchen window, so I planted one there. It was only a mile from Nashville International Airport,” 35-year-old Keshia told us. “Never had a problem.”

Okay, guys, but what happens if the cops see my plants? 

That’s the whole point of hiding cannabis in plain sight. They probably won’t. Take it from Joshua of Columbus, Ohio. He successfully grew a single pot plant in his yard using the plain sight method. It was growing too. And, better yet, the neighbors weren’t snooping around, asking questions. All was right in the world. 

But as the plant grew, Joshua considered the possibility that its true identity might get a little too obvious. Yet, even when the plant got obnoxiously bushy, no one said a word. And then, one day, the cops showed up, not for the plant, but for an unrelated issue. Still, even while standing in proximity to the plant, they were none the wiser.

“Neither officer saw this tall ass plant,” Joshua recalls. “I kept focus on the issue at hand, but I sure would’ve been like ‘what plant?’ had they asked.”

Although sticking a plant or two in the ground in plain sight in your backyard might not spawn any trouble with the law, there’s still a chance that it could. And because the plant is on your property, the cops won’t have any problem charging you with a crime. 

Consider yourself warned. 

The Dead Skunk Defense

We don’t want anyone going to jail because they read an article suggesting that they might be able to get away with it. Many guerilla growers choose locations away from their homes for this reason. Even if law enforcement finds their operation, they would have a hard time proving who planted it.  

It is also important to point out that cannabis plants get rather odorous (like a skunk) relatively quickly. That’s the only problem for growers with neighbors close by who aren’t willing to accept some free weed as hush money. 

One grower we spoke with says he’s got the solution if the locals start complaining about the odor wafting throughout the hood. “That’s why I leave a dead skunk in my freezer in the event someone is suspicious of any smells,” explained Ross, a 36-year-old from Hazard, Kentucky. “I just throw it on my driveway to get rid of wandering noses.”

We don’t know about storing dead skunks in the kitchen or anywhere else for that matter. But let’s just say that when the only option a cannabis consumer has for staying out of jail is keeping a dead animal in their freezer in an attempt to throw the cops off their trail, it is high time that everyone in the nation is given the freedom to grow their own weed. 

But Capitol Hill doesn’t see it that way. Come to think of it, Congress may be the one thing that stinks more than Ross’ freezer.

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