Quote Originally Posted by 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?


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.