Those are light bulbs are crap; your friend is right. You have only these options for growing:

- florescents. the more, the better. the "enhanced spectrum" or "plant growth" ones are better, but standard cool white florescents work good for initial growth, and if you have a bunch of them, can be used for the whole life cycle. for a couple of plants, try to go for 200W or so of floros, and keep them an inch or so away from the tops of your plants.

- HPS. High pressure sodium. More expensive, works a hell of a lot better.

- MH. Metal Haldide. Works good in some cases, not as efficient as HPS, expensive.

- Sunlight. The best, but hard to regulate, and if the sun can see your weed, someone else probably can too.