THE HEALING FIELDS

Last year, when I visited Eddy Lepp's Ministry of Cannabis and Rastafari in Upper Lake, CA, I was astonished by the size of the project and mission. But last year's garden of 700 plants was child's play in comparison to the enormous task being undertaken this season.

In 2003, the ministry counted roughly 100 members; that figure has exploded to more than 1,000. At least 6,000 plants are required to fulfill patients' contracts. To envision such a large project, work backwards, beginning with the propagation of more than 10,000 clones.

Lepp's mantra of "patients first, plants second" has earned him quite a reputation. From Los Angeles to Eureka, up in the redwoods, everybody has an opinion about Lepp and his ganja fields. He's alternately called a martyr, a madman, dangerous and ridiculous. I see him simply as a man undaunted, who knows in his heart that what he's doing is right.

Proposition 215 states that anyone suffering a condition for which marijuana may provide relief can qualify to receive a doctor's recommendation. Lepp's cannabis ministry allows patients and caregivers to tend up to six plants for a flat fee of $500 per plant. This adds up to approximately four ounces of high-grade, medicinal-quality marijuana per plant.

The ministry's need for more acreage was met when Lepp bought up 20 acres right across the road from the ministry, on the plains of the dormant Mount Konocti volcano. The purchase included a building that's been designated for clones and mother plants. Lepp equipped it with two dozen EZ-Clone machines churning out not just 120 plants, as they're designed to do, but triple that amount by placing up to three cuttings in each neoprene collar. To ensure high quality and maximum potency, mothers are used for only two or three rounds of clone stock and then replaced.

Around 25 strains from such notable breeders as Apothecary, Paradise Seeds, DNA, Soma Seeds and Sensi Seed Bank were selected. Flavors on the menu include Sabertooth, Cherry Pez, Goo, Super Silver Haze, the Beach and my personal favorite, Strawberry Cough.

Achieving the high-volume harvest takes a large team of dedicated people. Sitting on buckets in a circle around a massive pile of soil mix, workers day after day pack grow bags, then pass them off to others who plant the rooted clones and add strain tags. Hundreds of bags are gathered on shaded tables outside the clone house. After being watered, they're loaded onto six-wheel Gator vehicles for transport up to the "coldhouse" 40-by-100-foot barn with a greenhouse-type roof. At any time, workers can pull a lightproof tarp over the roof and create darkness to bring crops to early fruition.

New transplants are nurtured in the coldhouse, with 1,000-watt high-intensity discharge lamps used to augment the natural light. In this building, up to 3,000 plants are staggered according to size. New plants must spend several days in the coldhouse acclimating to the strong light and further developing their root structure before being planted in the field. The barn is a perpetual testing bed for new procedures, such as budding out plants according to differently scheduled photoperiods. Crops that need to be seeded also have a spot in the coldhouse.

As I write this, there are 2,000 plants in the ground at Lepp's farm; another 2,000 to 3,000 clones will be transplanted this week, and two more groups totaling 5,000 after that. The ministry should end up with 7,000 to 10,000 plants.

Lepp's "healing fields" are being watered by hand until new wells and irrigation systems are completed. Farming anything, let alone a specialty crop like medicinal cannabis, is a major project requiring experience in many specialties. The job of processing (including trimming and properly drying) all that marijuana alone will be a colossal one. The ministry is a working farm in every sense. Lepp employs several head gardeners, a breeder known as Dr. Thundermonkey, a small team of construction and maintenance people, and a fleet of rotating laborers who gladly sweat in the hot sun for the cause. Not just a farm, the ministry is a place where people come to get counseling, education, clones, seeds and medicine. It's not a dispensary yet, but this could soon change.

The effects of what happens here will undoubtedly reverberate far beyond Lake County, whose board of supervisors recently approached Lepp to assist them in writing a proposal for the State Legislature that includes recommendations for setting up organizations like a growers' guild and dispensary owners' association. A $150-per-pound state tax is also on the table.

"We canlay out a comprehensive plan [about] how this can be done without taking money from terribly sick people," Lepp explains, "while still generating funds for the cities, county and state to institute testing programs so that patients are always protected."

Though he's been a constant target of the DEA (in 2002, the Feds confiscated 400 plants but failed to file charges, for which he's suing them), Lepp is more a role model than a martyr. He shows no fear as California Highway Patrol helicopters fly over his house and farm several times a week (supposedly conducting training exercises on how to spot marijuana from the air). Life is stressful and cannabis relieves stress, says Lepp. "That's why everyone should qualify to use medicinal marijuana."

Lepp's cannabis ministry is like a huge gift to the cannabis community. Not only will this be the largest crop of legal medicinal marijuana ever grown anywhere in the world, it could become the model for the way the entire country deals with cannabis in the future. Lepp has hopes of someday providing his services nationwide. "Even some of the states that do allow medical marijuana don't have the facilities to grow like we do in California," he says. "In five years, we hope to be helping patients all over the world with seeds, knowledge and medicine."

-Kyle Kushman