Quote Originally Posted by funkfingers
Growing quality cannabis is quite a challenge during the summer months. I'm sure it proved to be quite challenging to some who have not experienced how hot it can get here in the summer.. Nothing new here though, the amount of quality herb always goes down considerably from the months of june through sept in the rocky mtn region..

Growing exceptional cannabis requires much more than labor/skill, I truly believe it is a labor of love, and the resulting product will be conducive to how much time and love went into that plant.. When it is quite obvious that the majority of centers out there are in this to simply make money, is it any surprise that the quality of the herb has dropped? I will not be surprised when c's and b's become the norm, and A grade medicine will be unaffordable to most. We pretty much are following cali's footsteps in that respect to a tea.. A+ herb in most clubs is 50+ $ an 1/8 usually all the way up.. Grow your own, just think if everyone that could grow did, there most certainly would not be a shortage of quality meds..
The 97 pages of additional regulations that have been appended to the existing regulatory bill are basically a wakeup call that they are going to try to regulate this industry "to death" to get the small players out of it. We knew this would happen. Crony capitalism is alive and well. The wealthy and politically connected will prevail. Some centers will be having some problems complying with some of the changes that were added to the bill. This does not mean that the state will be returning the non-refundable application fee that they were required to send in prior to these new regulations being added. The new rules will certainly benefit the big operations as they gobble up the smaller dispensaries that are going to fail due to these expanding regulations.

The new paradign is to encourage growers to use hydroponics systems and grow in industrial warehouses under artificial lights. This is incredibly wasteful from the standpoint of energy usage. I prefer dirt grow medium to chemical soup and greenhouse winter grows using real sunshine whenever possible, though obviously supplementary lighting is necessary for greenhouse growing in winter here.......that's only 4-5 months. Greenhouses are going to be harder/more expensive to secure than warehouses so cost is a factor in the planning phase and the new security regulations are very strict. I'm willing to pay for my own greenhouse and security system but this won't really work under a business model that doesn't allow the market to dictate pricing for grade A product and I can't get top dollar for my grow. I don't want to use what I consider to be an inferior and risky grow methodology. I know there are plenty here who will disagree with this being an inferior method but I'm old school and I like dirt and as much natural sunlight as I can get. If a hydroponics system fails or your liquid grow medium becomes contaminated, or you get mites, you can't segregate a plant/plants and you can seriously damage or completely lose your entire operation literally overnight. I'm not going to play this game if I can't do it pretty much on my own terms. Unless I can achieve something along the lines of what I prefer, it's back to being a caregiver for 5 patients. I'm not going to be a slave to a system that pays me jack shit to work my ass off 16+ hours a day to grow a huge number of plants in order to make a profit. The numbers just don't work relative to the amount of time involved to grow a quality product.

I don't have a problem with paying taxes on my earnings at point of sale to a dispensary. That was the previous model and it would have worked just fine before 1284 happened. 1284 assumes a guilty until proven innocent posture relative to growers being honest about their earnings. The new regulations will reduce competition in the marketplace and limit the availability of quality product to patients. The paradign is going to be for big centers to offer growers 1/3 to 1/2 less (or even less than this) per kilo for their product than the actual market will bear. They are not, however going to be passing this along to the patient at point of retail sale so what will happen is that they will buy up the harvests of growers who are going out of business at a discount, then they can capitalize their expansion with this cheap product until there are fewer growers (their growers), then they will actually raise prices to the patient because demand will be funnelled through fewer supplers (them) and the supply (and price) will be controlled by them.

Sweet.