Quote Originally Posted by cologrower420
MMJinColorado, I appreciate you addressing the issue of being biased or not. It's easy enough to give on that.

However, you haven't said that you buy your meds anonymously like willbreathes does, so you can't really say what you are reviewing is what's going out the door. I can't tell you how many times I've bought a bag from seeing the nugs in the jar, only to get home to substantially lower quality. This isn't really your problem, but in my opinion, should be addressed.

I would consider buying an 1/8th anonymously, reviewing that bag, then contacting the MMC for a photo-nug. It's a fair criticism that patients aren't getting the medicine that they see in the 'preview' jar/display case, nor are they getting the same quality sample that you get, in many cases. This is a problem with shops that pre-weigh and package their meds as well. I guess I'm old school, but I prefer when shops take meds from a larger jar and weigh it in front of me.

Thanks for taking the time to respond, and keep up the good work. As a patient, kindreviews and mmjincolo are great sites and great resources for MMC's. Hopefully we'll see a dozen or so strains on the A+ side moving forward, I'd absolutely drive somewhere if it's worth it.
Thanks for the reply. As far as the display vs. sell jar issue, we almost always get what is in the standard large under-the-counter jar. Rarely shops will hold a special photo-friendly nug for us, and it's not from some special reserve... they just want to make sure it's decent-looking for the pictures instead of us making a trip and ending up with popcorn buds that don't photograph well at all... We normally end up with several 'levels' of nug in each sample, with one of them being at least 1.5" long... that's about the smallest you can use for a decent wide shot. We got one recently that was almost all shakey popcorn buds because they were running low... it really just depends on their stock.

Also, I haven't been to a shop that had their meds pre-weighed in a LONG time... don't see that as an issue really. If a shop is showing off a display nug then selling garbage bottom-plant buds that've been shaken, the word will get out soon enough. When I go into shops to buy something for myself, I almost always see them pick nugs out of the jar (sometimes with their hands.. eew) and weigh it in front of me.... I'd probably choose another shop if they made that aspect of it a mystery. Legally you're supposed to be able to see the scale... and really, it should also be a LFT-quality scale that weighs to the hundredth of a gram a la grocery store delis, but hardly anyone is doing that because it hasn't been officially mandated/enforced by the state.

Again though, our job is not to review the shop, their prices, or their service -- we're strictly about the medicine and don't take any of that other stuff into consideration, which is why I think the anonymity factor is overrated in our case. Breathes is reviewing SHOPS, so anonymity really matters. We can get attacked by an owner's dog at a shop, and if the meds are great, it's still getting an A, y'know?

There are plenty of other resources for dispensary reviews where that sort of info is available. Price is not considered in our overall grades either. For example, if there is a $35/8th B+, that's a damn fine deal that most people can appreciate... if there's a $70/8th A+, then you may have to weigh the value of that quality and your level of connoisseur hunger to try what is deemed the best at that elevated price. None of our previous A+s were over $60 I believe though, so it's one of those things... we just post the price and leave it up to the patients to make those value decisions for themselves.

As to your suggestion re: buying samples then asking for photo nugs... we're trying to review 10 strains per week or more, so buying that many 2.5g samples simply isn't an option... We strive to get as much information out to CO MMJ patients as possible, and free samples are absolutely necessary to that process. I used to buy samples for MMJinColorado.com and tried to be anonymous for the most part, but being a person working a normal job and not loaded to the gills with cash, that became a big stress on my budget and left the site with only a few posts per week if I was lucky (more often 1 or 2). Getting samples allows us to publish a lot more content and do it more quickly and regularly than anyone else...

We're pretty much an open book on the process... if anyone has questions about how we handle the intake process or the actual reviews, let me know here (I can create another thread if that's cool, don't want to go heinously off-topic here) or e-mail at [email protected] and we can talk further. Our reputation is important to us, and we're open to criticism and suggestions -- we're trying to be the best resource online for medical marijuana strain reviews and info, so everything is taken into account.

Watch for a new website soon as well... it'll be "so long" to the basic blog format. Thanks everybody.