depends on where you live. in the UK you need rather a lot of plants to constitute distribution, as you can successfully argue in court that a certain Number will die or be male or that you just consume that amount in between growth cycles. however, this might be harder to argue if you have spent thousands on the grow setup.

scales are an indicator of dealing as many casual users don’t bother checking the weight of a baggy if they’re buying it by the eighth. if you went to the greengrocer and bought a pound of apples you wouldn’t bother checking the weight when you got home. also, you would use different scales, for pot the scales that land you in trouble are the accurate ones that measure grams and points of grams upwards (like jewellery scales) and not the type of scales your mother might use to weigh ingredients for baking a cake. a successful solicitor would be able to argue your case for you though if you were a heavy smoker and got caught with a few ounces, just as long as they were in one bag/ounce bags. lots of little baggies, scales and a grow kit will more than likely land you with a record.

in the US the laws are much more draconian and nonsensical when it comes to drugs.