How Do You Feel About Co-Ops?

fdd2blk

Well-Known Member
I'm not sure what u were trying to say here... are u selling to the clubs?

There is no doubt that the clubs are making huge profits. And again, I guess if the point is simply for pot to be available, that it doesn't matter. I just have a problem with all of this money being made in the guise of "helping the sick." So I do what I can. I provide to the ill at less than half of street price, and I don't patronize the clubs AT ALL.

At any rate, thanks to all of those that responded to the thread. Even though I am extremely surprised at the lack of outrage in regards to this issue, it has been cool to see how other people feel about it.


yes, i donate to the clubs for a recovery of my costs. believe me, this club is not making huge profits. there are only 3 in my town so i can't speak for all of them.
 

Reprogammed

Well-Known Member
Honestly, I'm going for a cheap organic crop that I'll tend to constantly and get some help from Mother Earth.

As such I'm honestly going to completely undercut our local street. I know half the dealers around my area (Kansas City) and they all hate how much the market is exploited to aid greedy monopolies. I'm giving away at least 2 pounds in quarters to everyone I know and might even leave some around.
Hopefully it'll be enough to bring other local growers out into the open so we can work together.

I second the applause in your direction. It's gangs and cartels and greedy peddlers that will always tarnish the culture and make the DEA's jobs a hell of a lot easier villainizing us.
 

ViRedd

New Member
I don't see the reason for outrage toward legal clubs. They are providing a service and fulfilling a demand. Not all ill people are poor. For the poor who are ill, there should be some accommodation provided, and yes, we can provide that as independent closet growers.

I DO agree that there are some "patients" who aren't really sick, and I DO agree that not all clubs are on the up and up.

The clubs have:

1. Rent.
2. Utilities.
3. Licence fees.
4. Security personnel.
5. Fixtures.
6. Risk.
7. Product to purchase.

They deserve a profit.

Vi
 

fdd2blk

Well-Known Member
i'm pretty sure the honest ones don't make much more than you or i. i only work with the honest ones.
 

7xstall

Well-Known Member
i hope that "clubs" never exist in my state. to me, it seems an over-formalization of something that should, and certainly could, be most efficiently run as a decentralized confederation business type model.

here's what i'd do:

medical growers all provide contact info, prices and strain data to a registered not for profit state entity. the entity keeps track of the demand load on each grower in "districts" or some other kind of regional system. of course, growers pay to be listed in this system because there will be employees who run the web site, database, take calls, blah blah, the whole "dealing with the public" thing. it's conceivable that competing entities would arise but because they simply interface growers with patients, it would be a fairly thin margin operation from the start. the more business that can occur online the better.

this entity should also probably have a trust fund or escrow account that can be used to pay lawyers should the need arise for growers.

once prescribed, patients are provided info for how to contact the state entity online, in person, by phone, etc. the state entity then gives the patient price info and puts the patient in touch with a local grower and the patient does business directly. the grower just has to verify the prescription by phone and get paid.

this way growers manage their own schedules, prices, place of business.


i think in Cali what's happened is that large commercial growers are dumping large amounts on these "co-ops" at low prices, and, having a great deal of tenacity/greed, these co-ops are marking prices way up to keep their shadowy friends in business and make huge profits themselves.

IMO they are working in tandem with the street dealers and as a result that's all they really are themselves. just telling you what it looks like to an outsider.






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fdd2blk

Well-Known Member
let's try it this way.

clubs pay $4000 for 1 lb.
they have 15 employees. older with visible medical conditions.
they have an outrageous rent to pay. the landlord will consider them a "high risk". i can imagine the deposit.
retainer fees for lawyers.
the state is now trying to get there cut.
will anyone even insure this business?
1/8ths always weigh 4+ grams. kinda makes them 7ths. re-do the math.
call a street dealer. get the run around. get burned. get bunk pot.
i can return a club purchase for a full refund if i am not satisfied.
clubs are helping to show cause for legalization.
the city requires permits to be paid. i have no idea what those fees are but i'm sure it's not cheap.
hours, days of operation and location are all tightly regulated.
it is a safe secure way for people to get there meds. there are a lot of actual patients out there.

so at $4000 a lb. that divides into $250 an ounce. the club charges $360. please tell me where this HUGE PROFIT is.
 

7xstall

Well-Known Member
so, the dealers are just dealing to the co-ops at street prices? it doesn't cost me $4000 to make a pound... i could take a pound across the country to you and it still wouldn't cost me anywhere near that.

like i said, i suspect the dealers and co-ops are working in tandem.

seems like the only control/regulation should be by patients reporting their experiences to the fictional state entity i outlined. growers who don't play nice have to go back to the black market, after being publicly outed.





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medicineman

New Member
actually, it's not a state entity i outlined, it's a not for profit private entity...
I dont understand why Med patients dont grow their own. That is legal under california law. For the cost of one ounce they can get a grow set up and within 5-6 months be free from pot expenses. Even a dummy can grow pot if he doesn't over do it, just plant seeds, water, fertilize, add light and wait, 6 mos. later he'll have some buds. I think the bubbler system is a no brainer. you have to have a ph meter, a PPM meter, some PH up and some PH down, some liquid nutes and pure water. How hard is that. I'll probably get 6-8 OZs off one plant this grow. I don't know how much one smokes, but if it's dynamite pot and you only smoke for medicinal reasons, an OZ should last a month, eh? If your a huge pothead, grow more pot. Buying pot from anyone takes the buzz out . I used to deal a little, kilo here kilo there, thats when I could buy a kilo for 50 bucks, pot was decent for mexican bud. Lids were a sandwich bag stuffed as full as you could get it, over an OZ for sure, 10 bucks, good stuff, acapulco gold, panama red. columbian gold,100.00-200.00 a key, OZs were 15-25 bucks, the good old days for sure. It Galls me to see mother nature going for 500.00 an oz, But if that is market price then if I sell an oz for 2-3 hundred, I'm doing the guy a favor, right? I should make a small profit also.
 

ViRedd

New Member
I know several growers who sell exclusivly (well almost *lol*) to clubs. They get $3000 a pound for really nice pot. The exception would be $4000, but that would be for something really rare, or maybe a nice, pure Sativa that takes 120 days to finish flowering.

Vi
 

7xstall

Well-Known Member
oh, wow! i thought the whole idea with the clubs was to debase the black market, not justify/enforce it.

i'm with you med, i thought the purpose was to drive the street dealers off into antiquity. i guess this country boy just doesn't understand California's way of doing stuff... and that suits me fine! :)




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potroast

Uses the Rollitup profile
Well, few country boys understand the California MMJ marketplace. And that makes your opinion about it mostly meaningless. Several guys have posted a partial list of the expenses and risks of running a dispensary, but you've decided not to consider any of those in your mindset. They didn't mention the potential for huge losses, as well as jail time.

And you seem to have forgotten that California has the highest cost of living in the country. Everything is more expensive, and so, everything is more expensive.
 

medicineman

New Member
And you seem to have forgotten that California has the highest cost of living in the country. Everything is more expensive, and so, everything is more expensive.....................................Well I think you've hit on something Ollie, That's why I moved back to Vegas 18 years ago. The problem is half of California followed me and 500,000 mexicans along with them, Now we are Calif. No., or Mexico No., either way, it's a lot more fucked up than when I grew up here, when the mob ran Vegas, then it was a great place to live, no street crime, the Mafia didn't allow street thugs that weren't on their payroll. If you got caught ripping off little old ladies, you spent a night in jail, and when you got out, you dissapeared, lots of shallow graves in the desert. Even now as the town expands they are finding bodies with no teeth, and no flesh as they used quicklime which ate your ass up. Cheaters at the Casinos, dissapeared. If you played it straight, this was a Mormon paradise, BTW I'm Not Mormon.
 

fdd2blk

Well-Known Member
oh, wow! i thought the whole idea with the clubs was to debase the black market, not justify/enforce it.

i'm with you med, i thought the purpose was to drive the street dealers off into antiquity. i guess this country boy just doesn't understand California's way of doing stuff... and that suits me fine! :)




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that's your first error. the whole idea with the clubs is to supply medical patients with pot that they can't grow or get themselves.

no not everyone can grow pot. some people can't water a house plant. some people HAVE money to spend on weed. you can raise your own cow but you buy beef at the store don't you. why? it's cheaper to raise your own.

it is legal.......but...... 3 'drug-endangered' kids taken from Windsor home | Santa Rosa Press Democrat // News for California's North Bay and Redwood Empire
 

7xstall

Well-Known Member
that's your first error. the whole idea with the clubs is to supply medical patients with pot that they can't grow or get themselves.

no not everyone can grow pot. some people can't water a house plant. some people HAVE money to spend on weed. you can raise your own cow but you buy beef at the store don't you. why? it's cheaper to raise your own.

it is legal.......but...... 3 'drug-endangered' kids taken from Windsor home | Santa Rosa Press Democrat // News for California's North Bay and Redwood Empire

see, this why Cali appears so insane from where i'm at... you voted to legalize medical. the state/county cops (not feds) are still arresting people for medical. what's going on over there anyway?

despite the perpetually conflicted state of government and laws there - i know everyone can't grow but there have to be people around who can; a friend, relative, good neighbor, someone. that's one reason why the co-ops seem so shady to me. another reason is the pricing, if it's black market prices/suppliers why not staple a list of pager numbers for dealers to a telephone pole instead of going through the trouble of opening a place of business?

people still go to jail and the government is taking kids... so you got this legalized medical law but it's really useless, amiright?


potroast, let's assume that most growers don't have access to sunshine and that they use imported premium bottled water; still seems a bit like rape to me if the intention was to replace expensive pharmaceuticals and/or crime. my opinion is meaningless because i have common sense and it's safe to say that Cali has provided the 49 other states a great example of what not to do...





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fdd2blk

Well-Known Member
see, this why Cali appears so insane from where i'm at... you voted to legalize medical. the state/county cops (not feds) are still arresting people for medical. what's going on over there anyway?

despite the perpetually conflicted state of government and laws there - i know everyone can't grow but there have to be people around who can; a friend, relative, good neighbor, someone. that's one reason why the co-ops seem so shady to me. another reason is the pricing, if it's black market prices/suppliers why not staple a list of pager numbers for dealers to a telephone pole instead of going through the trouble of opening a place of business?

people still go to jail and the government is taking kids... so you got this legalized medical law but it's really useless, amiright?


potroast, let's assume that most growers don't have access to sunshine and that they use imported premium bottled water; still seems a bit like rape to me if the intention was to replace expensive pharmaceuticals and/or crime. my opinion is meaningless because i have common sense and it's safe to say that Cali has provided the 49 other states a great example of what not to do...





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if you noticed he was on probation. probation for domestic violence, not tolerated at all in this county. he was over the limit. he pissed off the wrong person and they snitched him out. there is more to this story then we are getting. as far as taking the kids, i have NO IDEA what that was about. i will keep an eye open for the follow up.

let's try vegatables. why not grow your own. or get them from a neighbor. nope grocery store. once again, WHY? :confused: some people don't want to deal with dealers. they want a safe secure places to purchase Quality meds at a fair Market price. quick and easy. if the clubs sold it for cheaper they would have to pay less for it. people sell it for what they can get. if they get $4000 on the street why sell to the club for 2, or even give it away. people start to take advantage. show me 1 thing in this world that is not sold.
 

7xstall

Well-Known Member
if you noticed he was on probation. probation for domestic violence, not tolerated at all in this county. he was over the limit. he pissed off the wrong person and they snitched him out. there is more to this story then we are getting. as far as taking the kids, i have NO IDEA what that was about. i will keep an eye open for the follow up.

let's try vegatables. why not grow your own. or get them from a neighbor. nope grocery store. once again, WHY? :confused: some people don't want to deal with dealers. they want a safe secure places to purchase Quality meds at a fair Market price. quick and easy. if the clubs sold it for cheaper they would have to pay less for it. people sell it for what they can get. if they get $4000 on the street why sell to the club for 2, or even give it away. people start to take advantage. show me 1 thing in this world that is not sold.
while i do have a pile of squash that was given to us by a friend of a friend, and i do have a fat tomato that i picked day before yesterday... i still get your point, sort of.

i give stuff away myself. a z here, a z there... it's just my way of putting a small dent in the black market when i can.

maybe it's different in your case because the state has ok'd mass profit from prohibition, but do laws really make everything right or wrong or is there something else we should listen to.. i just think this stuff should be shared, spread out all over the place for everyone who wants it, whether it makes me rich or not.






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