Well when a grower isn't asking for anything up front, I think it isn't very nice of the patients to demand medicine up front. I have grown for 6 years as a patient & grower and I don't ask for any reimbursement until the patient receives their medicines and an itemized list of the grow costs.
I think it comes down to compatibility and compassion on the part of both parties. I know there are thieves and shysters(?) out there. When I first started in the program my grower gave me the bottom popcorn buds. I didn't know any better until I helped trim and thought.....hmmm these are really big intact colas like from the magazines.....gosh I wonder why my medicine looks so scraggly.....naive of me. Then I started growing for myself and had some pitiful results but I kept at it and I am pretty damn good now. I also experienced giving one of my patients a pound and a half only to have them call me day and night 3 months later saying they are completely out and need more and they didn't make it into rick simpson oil they claim they were smoking it.
Sorry to be so long winded....I just believe patient/grower is a unique relationship. I will leave it at that.
Definitely a unique relationship. I have never had a grower myself, always grown for myself and just a few select others.
I have just seen a few different bad situations that revolved around growers promising what they couldn't deliver. That's why I have advised people that have asked, to always find someone that can at least supply some until the 1st harvest is in. I was easily able to have enough extra to supply 1 other patient when I was just growing for myself.
The other direction is equally true. I had one patient that obviously started to abuse our relationship. It became apparent he was trying to pay his rent with my generosity... he was gone soon after.
The OMMP is set up in a way that demands a lot of trust and fairness from both sides...it's tricky, but it can work well if you find the right people.