MMJ Industry Falls Short at Cannabis Cup

If you had the opportunity to visit the High Times Cannabis Cup this last weekend, you saw a wide variety of businesses that are participating in the marijuana movement; not just from Denver, but from around the country. The volume of people standing in lines on Saturday was a testament to how many are eager to see marijuana culture up close.

If you are legal Colorado medical marijuana patient, you had the opportunity to visit a restricted area where Colorado medical marijuana centers and vendors of infused products had booths to represent their young businesses.

While I am sure there were many who enjoyed their visit to this room, I had the awful feeling that it wasnâ??t a very good reflection of what a legitimate and professional industry should look like or sound like (there were at least three competing PA systems).

As I was staffing Denver Reliefâ??s booth offering those interested information about our center, the ability to touch and smell our Bio-Diesel and Dopium flowers as well as our water extracted and-critical extracts, I had the opportunity to people watch. While I can respect each individualâ??s freedom to medicate as they please, what I saw was neither safe (considering that most arrive by car), nor appropriate for businesses operating to serve a medical need.

To my knowledge, out of all the booths in the room, there were two centers not NOT handing out free samples, Denver Relief, and Colorado Alternative Medicine. Estimating there to be 25 booths meant that a patient could walk around and to take a sample from every booth. I myself witnessed a young man who appeared to be falling asleep standing up. I donâ??t generally cast judgement, but this may have been an an example of excessive medicating.

Whatâ??s more is that every vendor or medical marijuana center there has not yet received their license to operate from the state of Colorado. The application deadline has passed, but the applications have not been approved to our knowledge.

The Colorado Medical Marijuana Code (CMMC) which has been written and is presently under legal review explicitly forbids distribution of medicine outside of the medical marijuana centerâ??s retail space.

Denver Relief has always erred on the conservative side of things. In this instance it may have harmed how our business was perceived in the eyes of those who attended the Cannabis Cup, but we are unwilling to risk the future of our business to cater to the opinions of others.

It is unfortunate that those businesses that are committed to respecting the guidelines for operating in this industry are given negative exposure because others are willing to break that code, and that owners present at the cup succumbed to the pressures of others around them and made what we feel is a poor choice to break the yet enforced CMMC.

Whether or not the Medical Marijuana Enforcement Division will do anything about this is uncertain. It seems unlikely as thus far we have had little response in terms of real intervention in bad practices, but we can give them the benefit of the doubt as they are still putting their ducks in a row.

That isnâ??t the worst part though at all. To represent the industry as our peers did injures the viability of representing marijuana as a legitimate medicine and as something that should be treated with respect and welcomed into the homes of the average person.

This type of representation marginalizes marijuana culture, and keeps it in the fringes where it will remain unless we can collectively represent ourselves as responsible business owners, citizens, and care providers.

Stoner culture does not benefit our chances of legalizing this wonderful medicine and to have called it a Medical Cannabis Cup is an awful misrepresentation of an industry that should be striving to gain the respect and approval of the average citizen.

I hope those businesses that chose to violate the code that will determine their right to operate as a medical marijuana business will realize before their doors are closed that their choices not only risk their investment, but risk the future of the industry as whole.

I Agree with you 10000000%

Frank

I didnt go to the event for this exact reason. I am not trying to shove my views and beliefs related to cannabis on anyone. I respect other people and their views, and I hope others respect mine as well. Never been into Pure or Denver Relief, but this makes me want to stop by and check out what a real professional dispensary can look like. I hope that full legalization will eventually happen, but the stoner culture is definitely not going to help.

I thought the medication room was great. Patients should have the right to medicate freely, espescially at an event such as a cannabis cup. Everyone wants to be able to sample the medicine in the competition. I think that denver relief needs to relax. If you don't like it don't go, but don't come on here and try and make yourslef look more medical than the next guy. A lot of people have been waiting for an opportunity for the medical community to come together and smoke freely. Fullscale legalization for everyone is the next step. Weed is safer than alcohol. I had a great time taking dabs of oil with everyone out of some amazing glass. Can't wait for a real Colorado growers cup, not just dispensary schwag! MMj is not an industry and you fall short for thinking so.

We chose not to have a booth at the Medical Cup, but wasn't the event what everyone expected? As with other events in the past (RMCC, KushCon), exhibitors simply weren't given enough information about what participation would constitute.

Stepping back a little, the millions (yes, millions) of dollars spent between organizers and participants of these conventions could have done a lot of good. We, as an industry, need to be better stewards of money and work towards higher goals. I commend Denver Relief and their "Green Team" for being amongst those who "get it."

Jake

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Originally Posted by DenverRelief

The Colorado Medical Marijuana Code (CMMC) which has been written and is presently under legal review explicitly forbids distribution of medicine outside of the medical marijuana centerâ??s retail space.

Denver Relief has always erred on the conservative side of things. In this instance it may have harmed how our business was perceived in the eyes of those who attended the Cannabis Cup, but we are unwilling to risk the future of our business to cater to the opinions of others.

It is unfortunate that those businesses that are committed to respecting the guidelines for operating in this industry are given negative exposure because others are willing to break that code, and that owners present at the cup succumbed to the pressures of others around them and made what we feel is a poor choice to break the yet enforced CMMC.

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We also did not support the event because of the anticipated [and resulting] theme of the event.

I did talk to somebody that had a conversation with Dan Hartman. If you don't konw who he is, you should.
[Hint: He's the director of the MMED] He was more than a little pissed. Pretty sure when he strolled through the sampling area he was taking notes.

We were advised by High Times and Warren Edson that distibution in any shape or form was not permitted. We were told that patient to patient sharing was approved. We chose not to dispense, give away or smoke meds with the patients who attended. Instead, we used the event to teach patients how to read Full Spectrum Lab results and match THC, THC-V, & CBD with the appropriate symptom. We have our strains color coded to show high values in different types of cannabinoids which takes most of the risk and trial and error out of patient/strain matching.

Dan Hartman was there. I bet next years Cannabis Cup will not go down the same way. If they are allowed to do it again.

I can guarantee you it's not going to go down like that next year!
Hope everyone had fun with their "WOO HOO 4/20!!" behavior!

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Originally Posted by SoCoMMJ

We also did not support the event because of the anticipated [and resulting] theme of the event.

I did talk to somebody that had a conversation with Dan Hartman. If you don't konw who he is, you should.
[Hint: He's the director of the MMED] He was more than a little pissed. Pretty sure when he strolled through the sampling area he was taking notes.

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We brought the issue up about passing out medicine at a meeting with Dan Hartman.

We sought to clarify the issue and after hearing his response, we knew we weren't going to hand out medicine at the Cup

It is our hope that someone (maybe we'll do it) will organize a convention with a greater focus on what we can do to move this industry forward in Colorado, and how to make it attractive to the other 35 states that don't have medical marijuana bills.

this ~was~ a high times event. starting an event that works the way you envision is the best solution.

Cannabis culture is different things to different people, too. I'm not a kid anymore. It isn't rap music and hoodies ;) Not that I have a problem with any of that, it just isn't my thing. It would most certainly be nice to be able to sample a variety of strains over a few days in a place where many providers are. Maybe it could be done better, classier. I'm not sure how you would set it up to appear more responsible. If High Times is going to be a force in MEDICAL pot, they should start a different publication, or realize they may be wanting to reach a wider age range, or even some women as readers and shift the tone of the current rag a bit.

While I completely endorse full legalization, we are not there yet. If you want to see what happens when you push the edge too hard for the conservatives to stomach, just take a peak at what's happening in Montana and Michigan right now.

Montana = Medical Marijuana Repealed
Michigan = Heavy police [and DEA!] activity.

We have made Medical Marijuana part of our supreme law, and should treat it as such.
There will be a day when full legalization happens, but it has not happened yet.

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Originally Posted by copobo

If High Times is going to be a force in MEDICAL pot, they should start a different publication, or realize they may be wanting to reach a wider age range, or even some women as readers and shift the tone of the current rag a bit.

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High Times does have a Medical version of their mag, but I haven't figured out how to subscribe. I have picked it up at Borders a couple times.

When I go to a trade show, I'm always embarrassed by the way other guests comport themselves. The neo nazis and militia types at gun shows are the worst. Sometimes the culture that surrounds and supports an industry or interest can be mortifying if not repulsive.