Medical 'donations'

[seattlegreens]

Recently my caregiver stopped growing.

I contacted a couple dispensaries in the area to see what 'recommended donations' would be.

To my horror, I have found that they all charge as much or more than those doing it totally illegally.

How is it that criminals and street dealers charge for example $10 a gram, making large profits... and then these co-ops claim they are helping the community, only volunteering or taking donations to cover their expenses?

Dispensaries have an economy of scale, and the law on their side, so they can easily get rich charging half that... and yet they still want to make more money!?

If grown outdoors, MMJ is basically FREE.
Grown indoors, it costs less than $2 a gram.

If a patient needed 3.3 grams a day, she would be giving these charitable, volunteer, non-profit organizations $1000 a month!

WTF?

seattlegreens Reviewed by seattlegreens on 04-01-2010. Medical 'donations' Recently my caregiver stopped growing. I contacted a couple dispensaries in the area to see what 'recommended donations' would be. To my horror, I have found that they all charge as much or more than those doing it totally illegally. How is it that criminals and street dealers charge for example $10 a gram, making large profits... and then these co-ops claim they are helping the community, only volunteering or taking donations to cover their expenses? Dispensaries have an economy Rating: 5

[seattlegreens]

BTW - this is not an April fools thing.
I'm not naming anybody, but yes, they are really asking $1000 a month for medication.

That's more than physical therapy (6 days a month), chiropractic (2-6 days a month) and traditional meds combined!!!

[jackmillions]

Increased overhead in comparison to 'street dealers.' I.e. rent, insurance, business licenses, attorney fees, taxes, et cetera.

Increased risk in comparison to 'street dealers.' Selling MJ in a dark alley at night is arguably less risky than doing it in broad daylight, in a rented retail space, with advertising in local papers and/or internet sites like CL and MMJ related forums.

*disclaimer, I have never grown MJ

Growing MJ outdoors is not free. It requires supplies (seeds, fertalizer, equipment, man/woman power, shade cover, support poles/fencing, etc). I've seen some outdoor grow journals that really showed what an impressive, time consuming and expensive proposition it can be to really go for high quality meds in a decent quantity. ow ifyou jus toss seeds in the ground and pray, well that's a different story.

Growing indoors is not cheap to produce good quality medicine. Lights, fertalizer, power, time, etc all cost bucks.

I can't really argue too hardly about $x per gram to grow indoors versus outdoors because it's really outside my knowledge base. I admit that. But with just a little bit of supposition I can guess that it is never 'free' and never as cheap as $2 per gram (unless you amortize it out over a very long length of time).

And to me it's self evident: if growing was so cheap and easy... then you'd be doing it, or everyone would be doing it and there'd be no need for dispenseries. But it's not that cheap... and it sure as heck ain't that easy... 'theoritically' easy sure (I mean it is a weed right lol). But growing plants is part science and part art, and high quality results just don't happen without a lot of effort.

But I do sympathize with you. Expensive meds suck, be it MMJ or pharmacuticals. Perhaps if we get some good laws passed, then the economy of scale, and reduced risk, will cause the prices to fall like a brick... hopefully.

[seattlegreens]

Increased overhead you say. OK, now they pay taxes on their non-profit? They even insure their weed? You think only co-op drug dealers need lawyers, but not regular dealers? Are you serious?

Cigarettes cost less than $1 per pack to produce.
If you want proof, go to Korea or Mexico where American made products are imported there, and still sold for less than $2 per pack.

Weed grows basically the same way.

Dealers can make $500,000 a year from ONE garage with ONE person doing all the work. This is a fact. There are people in California doing this right now. I'm sure people here too. This is after all their costs (a few grand in lights, dirt and electricity)

It's hard to argue that their labor is worth $500,000 per year.

Outdoors - OK, you have to get sticks to support the plants and some other equipment. Sorry I said it's basically free, it does cost a few cents per gram.

Obviously you'd like to argue it, but if you look at the numbers, you'll see it does not cost more than $2 a gram to grow it indoor or out.
Yeah, it might take some skill to stick seeds in the ground the 1st time.
Just like it takes some skill to grow tomatoes.
After you've done it once though, it's easy and cheap to clone and repeat.

Watch your mother slowly die from cancer, or your best friend from Chroms, while you are spending $20,000 a year to keep them comfortable before their inevitable death.
After that, come back on here and defend these humanitarian non-profits that are 'helping' dying patients.

[redtails]

Main thing is, to break into the "game", mmj had to follow the model set forth during prohibition. If it costs $300 on the street to buy an oz of good quality bud, then they figure they can charge that and maybe a bit more for their trouble (see jackmillion's first sentence). Large growers aren't just going to start giving their bud away to be good people if that's their main source of income. The dispensaries can't have as large of clientel as street dealers because they can only legally sell to a small percentage of users, which also begs them to seek as high of prices as are "reasonable". All these and more are part of the reason why "meds" are so expensive, it's really uncompassionate but what can you do besides growing it yourself or finding a real "caregiver"?

[seattlegreens]

I actually had a caregiver until recently. It worked out really well.

You are absolutely right that criminal drug dealers have no reason to sell their product for cheaper.

Criminal drug dealers could never sell as much product as legal ones however.
Criminals cannot advertise. They cannot have a store front. They cannot take in a new crowd simply by seeing ID or paperwork. They cannot, because they fear getting busted, keeping their clientele much much smaller.
Criminals cannot hire from a large list of employees, only those they trust. Hiring only criminals does not usually result in a large or well run corporation.

If you look at the amount of legal drugs sold by drug companies producing advil, perkoset, viagra, tobacco, alchohol etc it's very obvious how much larger that industry is than the illegal side.

[jackmillions]

Increased overhead you say. OK, now they pay taxes on their non-profit? They even insure their weed?

You pay WA sales tax on all transaction, regardless whether your a non-profit, or a for-profit.

All responsible businesses, especially those with a storefront, carry insurance. Slips, trips and falls are the #1 cause of injury in America, and if you're a business and someone has one at your doorstep... then you want liability insurance.

Business is expensive. Thank lawyers and government (especially democrats) for that.

[seattlegreens]

I ran a retail business for some time.
I need to go back to check what I paid for insurance, but it was next to nothing, and would not add more than a couple cents to each gram over the course of a year.

Also, about all transactions requiring taxes to be paid.
This is not true.
If you have ever worked for or attended a church or non-profit youth group, you know this already.
I think we need to ask the people that run the dispensaries if they do in fact report the millions that goes through their offices or not, because I'm not sure if they are able to (or willing). If they are able to, then that is great for the state, and for the industry (seriously).

Damn democrats making weed illegal.
Too bad Bush isn't here to set things right.

[gypski]

Ten dollars a gram has been what I've been paying in Washington State since 2005. And, its all be quality medicine. There have been cheaper stuff too, in a co-op that was not top shelf, but it was still good to go for $7. a gram. Still, I agree that the price is expensive. When I could afford it, I bought an oz+ a month and paid $300. That's a gram a day, and I could have smoked more often, but really didn't need to. I wasn't sharing it either.

The Black Market price is usually $15 a gram or $20-25 for a dub which should be a gram and a half, or $45-50 an eight.

[justpics]

Recently my caregiver stopped growing.

I contacted a couple dispensaries in the area to see what 'recommended donations' would be.

To my horror, I have found that they all charge as much or more than those doing it totally illegally.

How is it that criminals and street dealers charge for example $10 a gram, making large profits... and then these co-ops claim they are helping the community, only volunteering or taking donations to cover their expenses?

Dispensaries have an economy of scale, and the law on their side, so they can easily get rich charging half that... and yet they still want to make more money!?

If grown outdoors, MMJ is basically FREE.
Grown indoors, it costs less than $2 a gram.

If a patient needed 3.3 grams a day, she would be giving these charitable, volunteer, non-profit organizations $1000 a month!

WTF?

So when is your dispensary opening up that charges $2 a gram for indoor and gives away outdoor for free?


I've never run a dispensary or been a part of one in WA, but its not hard to do the math. To assume that any dispensary is growing all their meds seems foolish imo, and if they were, the amount of plants they would have to grow to supply all their members would be insane. That risk would end up adding to the cost in the end and you'd still pay more for it.


But I don't think any dispensary is growing all their own meds. I imagine they get most of what they dispense from members that have extra. So if they are paying 200+ per ounce of good indoor bud, paying employees, renting a space, keeping a lawyer retained since they have more visibility than your average street dealer, paying a tax attorney (anyone doing serious business has a tax attorney, NOT an accountant), paying to furnish their space, paying to advertise...etc...add all those costs to the original price they had to buy it for and you get to the price they must charge the end customer.


If you think you can run a dispensary that sells meds for 2~ dollars per gram, open one up, you'll have EVERY PATIENT IN WA KNOCKING ON YOUR DOOR...myself included.