Just Say Grow

Enterprising information scientists looking for something useful and even socially conscious to plant in the library's atrium or flower boxes will want to consider this dandy how-to video on growing marijuana--strictly for medicinal purposes, of course. Actually, cultivating marijuana for any purpose is still illegal, as Just Say Grow's hostess Andrea Nagy's “compassion club”--which distributed medical marijuana to qualified patients--discovered when it was closed as the result of a lawsuit by Ventura (California) County (the video does carry a responsible preliminary warning to the effect that viewers should know their state's laws before starting a weed garden). That said, this is a fine guide, combining careful instruction with excellent demonstration sequences and more than a little grounding in the why as well as the how of medical marijuana cultivation. Nagy recommends gardening supplies by name (achieving a somewhat unwelcome Home & Garden Television channel ambience throughout), but the instruction is solid, with tips and suggestions for both indoor and outdoor growing, advice on cloning pot plants (valuable since the seeds for this crop are nominally illegal--except in birdseed) and a look at safe-smoking (are water pipes healthier delivery systems?). Recommending this video for public libraries in the midst of the intolerance extravaganza that we laughingly call the drug war is probably the critical equivalent of urinating in the gale, but here goes: recommended. Aud: P. (M. Tribby)