Sinsemilla Tips Explained

Sinsemilla Tips was an American magazine founded in 1980 providing advice for indoor growers of cannabis. The founder was Tom Alexander who based publication of this and another magazine, The Growing Edge, in Corvallis, Oregon. Alexander distributed the first run of 1,000 copies out of his car from the Emerald Triangle to Seattle.

During its run the magazine was called "the nation's only trade magazine on the subject" of cannabis cultivation, and sold 10,000 to 20,000 copies a month. The New York Times said "many growers refer to [it] as 'the bible'." The Wall Street Journal noted in 1984 how the magazine's recommendation of bat guano (in a standing column titled "guano notes") affected international trade. A 1986 New York Times editorial also called Alexander a "an unwitting double agent in the marijuana wars" by publishing his magazines.

The magazine was a target of Operation Green Merchant. The magazine shut down in 1990, following a Green Merchant raid and seizure of Alexander's business property. The magazine's advertisements, as well as those in High Times, were used by the DEA to select targets of raids.

References

Sources

• News: Magazine for ambitious marijuana growers. Associated Press. The New York Times . December 26, 1985. .
• News: Willamette Week. The Rise and Fall of Sinsemilla Tips, Corvallis' Legendary Marijuana Magazine . Martin . Cizmar. April 11, 2017 .
  • • News: NYT. Topics; Listening In; Fuzz Buster. January 8, 1986. Mr. Alexander may think of himself as a guide to the lawless but he also serves as an unwitting double agent in the marijuana wars.. .
• News: San Francisco Chronicle . Justice Dept. Probing Drug Counterculture Magazine. Isikoff . Michael. July 17, 1990. A9. DEA officials later confirmed that the list of specialty stores raided was culled from advertisers in High Times as well as in Sinsemilla Tips, a competing Oregon-based journal published by marijuana activist Tom Alexander. Alexander's indoor-gardening store, located in the same building as his magazine, was among those shut down by the raids..
• a defunct quarterly that many growers refer to as "the bible."
• News: Sinsemilla to publish for last time. Hogan. Dave. The Oregonian. Portland, Oregon . November 4, 1990.
• News: Export Finds U.S. Is Fertile Field, but Firms Here Refuse to Cave In. Mark . Zieman. The Wall Street Journal. July 24, 1984. 1.

Further reading

• Web site: Operation Green Merchant: The First 18 Months. Gorman. Peter. TOTSE. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20130118081542/http://www.zoklet.net/totse/en/drugs/marijuana/bbros_number_11.html. January 18, 2013.
• News: Trade magazine has tips for marijuana growers. Chicago Sun-Times. October 27, 1985.
• News: Pot Growers' Magazine Withers up, Goes Bust. Chicago Tribune. November 6, 1990.
• News: MARIJUANA MAGAZINE FOLDS - BUSINESS WENT TO POT. Orlando Sentinel. November 6, 1990.