Romer or Corry

[Zedleppelin]

See, I completely disagree with that. The people that opened dispensaries, by and large, were people with experience that had grown for a while or had decent connections. The "20 year old punks" (I'm 27, not sure if that makes me a punk) are the ones that knew they'd make more money swindling a few patients into signing up with them so they could go to the dispensaries and making the real money.

A few years ago it was true that the people who opened dispensaries were experienced growers/users, but not when everything exploded. I have been on both sides, both dispensary owner and caregiver. When I had our dispensary most were low key and were not throwing it in the publics face. Most were ran by people you could trust and although there was a profit factor most were actually concerned about the patient. But then again most who had cards had truly legitimate issues. Then came the Obama Administration and its statement not to go after mmj and everything changed. People that had flooded the Cali market flocked here to capitalize and you had kids who didnt know better turning their houses into 300 plant grow rooms and a lot of them went on to open dispensaries. These are the ones that hired doctors, put up huge signs, and caused this fiasco to get out of control. Ever see The Kind Room or Boulder County Caregivers advertise that they had doctors on board? The whole thing turned into a clusterfuck of greed from both dispensaries and caregivers.

I understand why growers are upset, but I can't fathom why it's with MMC's in general. We were their bread and butter, and I'd dare say that 90% of them made their money off of wholesaling, not their patients.

Its the few Walmart wannabe dispensaries that people are upset with. Lets face it, they played a huge role in 1284. As far as the dispensaries being the caregivers bread and butter it was also the caregivers that were the dispensaries bread and butter. Most dispensaries would not have survived if it were not for caregivers and vice versa.

But I'll put this question back on you: out of all of the caregivers out there, what percentage do you think GENUINELY care about patients and AREN'T in this to make a buck?

Probably the same percentage as dispensary owners. 95% of the people in this regardless of what role they play are in it to make a buck, nothing wrong with that. But when it becomes based on greed then the problems start, and I see a lot more greed coming from the dispensary side. When I had my dispensary nothing ever sold for over $50 and never was a caregiver paid less than a grand for a QP unless there was more quantity involved and we still made decent money. Now I hear about a lot of these places offering $600 for QP's, are they lowering their prices on the retail end?

The last thing I want is for my patients to have to go to a caregiver who can rip them off without anyone ever knowing. If I put a jar of meds out covered in mold, people will spread the word. When we had a couple seeds in some great Master Kush a few months back, I came to the community and asked if there was a consensus on what to do with it. A caregiver sells a 70 year old cancer patient something crawling in mites and odds are no one ever knows.

Once again it works both ways. It is a lot harder for caregivers to find patients than it is for a center to find them and there is just as much incentive, if not more, to provide people with good quality meds. Yes I know there are tons of people growing crappy meds and it surprises me that anyone would sell them. Matter of fact I just grew 6 plants of a new strain that I wasnt happy with, no mold or anything like that, but I wasnt impressed. Last night I chopped them all and gave it all to one of my patients free, he'll probably get close to 2lbs but I would have not been happy selling it to any of my patients, but I have without a doubt seen much worse in dispensaries. I am not bashing the whole dispensary model, I know quite a few good ones, but I know a hell of a lot more bad ones.