Growing since 13, an advocate since 16
Hey there! I’m Farmer Tom Lauerman. I was born and raised in San Diego. I grew up surfing, skateboarding, and downhill mountain bike racing, which led me to a lifelong love of the earth and all things outdoors.
I also grew up with a deep appreciation for cannabis. Because of it’s miraculous help with healing any of my sports injuries, and also it’s relaxing proprieties. The plant’s useful nature has driven my mission to ensure that everyone has access to it’s benefits.
I’m still a farmer with a passion for growing organic fruits & veggies too, but growing high-quality organic cannabis and hemp is my specialty. Educating people on how to grow organically for themselves gives my life purpose, and I take pride in being a consultant for the Federal government and for private farms.
The vision for our current lifestyle started back in 1999 after a raid of our Collective Garden, where I was arrested for possessing 448 plants.
Paula (my wife) and I had a common vision for a sustainable organic cannabis lifestyle. More than 25 years later, here we are, sharing our vision with the world.
Shelter from the Storm: the collective behind the 1999 raid
After California voters passed Prop 215 in 1996, Tom grew for Shelter from the Storm, a San Diego collective of about 20 patients living with cancer, AIDS, arthritis, glaucoma, PTSD and chronic pain. Nobody bought cannabis there. Members paid 50 dollars a month if they could afford it and, in Tom’s words, “came once a week and you filled up your jar or your baggie on the honor system.”
We knew we were more powerful together as a group than each of us individually.
Farmer Tom Lauerman, Unscripted Cannabis (2026)
The collective took four-inch plants to town hall meetings to explain how safe cannabis was, and it kept a media list. When police raided the garden in 1999, the press was there. NORML gave the group free lawyers, a big protest gathered outside the court building on the day of trial, and the charges were shelved. Tom says the case led to San Diego’s first medical marijuana task force, the start of his cannabis policy work.
We hope to continue educating the future generations on organic farming and cannabis activism!
You can support me by following me on social media or contacting me about coming to visit your farm!
Boom Pow! Today we farm!
Learn about Tom’s work with NIOSH
Farmer Tom Organics’ SOP’s (Standard Operating Procedures) are the foundational baseline from which all Federal cannabis safety standards have been created from.
Thirty years, from Prop 215 to the CDC and the courtroom
Follow the thread: the raid made him an advocate, the Washington farm brought CDC and NIOSH scientists to study a harvest, the farm’s records now back his expert witness testimony, and the lessons became Hemp Farming Academy. He tells the whole story on Unscripted Cannabis.
Boards and committees
Tom brings 50 years of growing and advocacy to the boards and committees shaping cannabis policy and farming today:
- Foundations of Life: Board Secretary and Founding Director, Policy and Legislative Strategy (2026). An Oregon nonprofit restoring degraded land and moving food production away from synthetic inputs.
- American Council of Cannabis Medicine: Committee Member, plant medicine, seeds and genetics (2026).
- Patients First Coalition: Committee Member (2026).
- Past: Board Member, Cannabis Patients PNW (2020 to 2025), and Board of Directors, Coalition for Patients Rights (2024 to 2025).
That board work sits alongside his cannabis policy advocacy and his work as a hemp expert witness.