Quote Originally Posted by BasementWarrior
Hi everyone, I'm new here but have been posting on other forums for a few years now and have been growing for many years.

I'm nervous about HB1284 too, It's been a fairly cool ride operating as a legal caregiver the last few years. But, at the same time, I'm secretly excited about the potential new changes. Hear me out.

When I first started growing (mid 90's) I was getting $4400/lb, no negotiations, and could not grow enough to keep up with demand. I was never asked what strain it was. I never heard any complaints. I only had to meet with 1, sometimes 2 people a month. I fished a lot.

As a legal caregiver I have slightly sick, mostly stoopid (pun intended) patients who are extremely entitled and demanding. My patients want me to grow a dozen different strains so they can pick the 1 or 2 that turned out the best that run and then they leave me stuck with the B's until I have to blow em out for $800/qp to the dispensaries before the next harvest.

My patients see all the desperate new caregivers/dispensaries come onto the scene offering free everything and want me to compete with all these phantom freebies of unknown quality.

Dealing with dispensaries as a vendor has not been very pleasant either. The huge influx of growers to CO has definitely given the power to the dispensaries. If it's between paying the bills or holding out for a fair price, everyone is going to do what it takes to pay the bills eventually.

I predict that within a short time there will be a lot less growers and there will also be far fewer licensed patients since very few will comply with SB109 hoops. But, there will still be just as many folks smoking the ganja. So do the math. Supply goes down, legal patients stop renewing, demand stays constant.

Yes, start pointing fingers and throwing eggs, I'm the one grower in CO who is secretly excited about the passing of hb1284. I'm going to try and have the best of both worlds for sure now. With a few pieces of window dressing on my wall giving me a legal defense for my grow, as well as, higher profits for my produce on the newly invigorated CO black market, I see a bright future ahead for those of us with the balls and the skills to pay the bills.

I agree with everything except for one thing, I dont think there are going to be that many fewer growers. Current growers *may* grow less but I'm not even sure about that. All the growers I know I have not heard one say they are going to stop. I do think a lot of both patients and growers will go back to the black market so hopefully one will take care of the other and prices will stabilize but I doubt they will go up much.

Things were definitely starting to get out of control with everyone and their mom (literally) growing with dollar signs in their eyes so in that aspect I'm glad, hopefully 1284 will stop every pizza delivery guy and McDonalds worker from lighting up their basement from now on.