Most Compassion Centers Get Slammed...lol GOOD ARTICLE!!!!=~)

M

Mr.RI Compassion

Member
Check it out... This guy really did his homework and sheds some light on how RIPAC is not looking out for it's patients the ways it should be....:idea:

http://www.pbn.com/RI-compassion-center-proposals-still-come-up-short,55874

Learn more about the applicants, goto http://www.health.ri.gov/programs/medicalmarijuana/index.php and goto the Applicants Selected For Review link on the left side of the screen and check out some of the app's for yourself... You'll see, he' spot on...:clap:

Check for yourself and let us know what you think
 
W

wheel

Member
Thanks for the link! Good reading...

Right off the bat after reviewing a few applications have noticed no consideration for wheelchair accessability. As someone in a w/c, find it discouraging that accesability wouldn't be a thing of consideration.
 
M

Mr.RI Compassion

Member
wheel said:
Thanks for the link! Good reading...

Right off the bat after reviewing a few applications have noticed no consideration for wheelchair accessability. As someone in a w/c, find it discouraging that accesability wouldn't be a thing of consideration.
Click to expand...
Your pretty much right, I've read them all and only a few explicitly mentioned having access even though a lot of the plans and location site oulines clearly show several of the top 5 are handicap access, it would've been nice to make it clear they did offer it???:sad:

Most of the top 5 offer delivery services though which would accomodate people in your situation... Good observation:idea:
 
M

Mr.RI Compassion

Member
Since PBN is now charging people $5 to read the article I posted, looked something like this...

R.I. compassion center proposals still come up short
By Adam Bond

Rhode Island compassion centers are supposed to be the “New Age Pharmacy,” a place where patients could go to get pharmaceutical-grade medical marijuana without fear of getting robbed, both figuratively and literally.

The R.I. Department of Health is nearing a decision about these compassion centers, and I feel a discussion as to the actual strength of these applications from a patient’s perspective is justified.

I, like almost all patients in Rhode Island, agree with that woman who boldly said before a near-packed room of people at the last medical-marijuana hearing, “It’s not about what your name is, what you ran for, or any of that … it’s about us … the patients.” She’s right. It’s all about discretion, efficiency, quality and safety. It is also about which applicants are capable of making their plans into viable businesses.

To date the discussion has centered around a “who’s who in Rhode Island.” Less face it, many people in today’s age would agree that having celebrities or a group of politicians on your side is probably more of a burden than a benefit. As a patient in this program, I feel we are running out of time to evaluate the viability of these businesses.

With more than a decade’s worth of experience writing and reviewing business plans, as well as ample experience as a patient [who suffers from a deteriorating hip condition], I reviewed these 18 applications (available at www.health.ri.gov/) and found most were incomplete or inaccurate with regard to their financials and some were just awful.

I first turned to the financials of these plans, when I could find them, since this is the quickest way to determine if someone can run a business. After all, if these are incorrect, what are the chances that the rest of the plan is going to be correct?

Unfortunately, many plans had tons of holes in them, specifically in how many patients they claimed the center could capture or how much it would cost to set up a top-quality growing facility. In addition the financials didn’t even show the basics. Very general, three-year roll up summaries are no substitute for month-by-month budgets, pro-forma profit-and-loss statements or and pro-forma cash flow statements. In the private market these would not be considered complete.

And some of the other assumptions were suspect as well. Thomas Slater anticipates spending $434,000, with a monstrous annual budget increase, for its security plan, with consultants from the infamous “Blackwater Security” at the helm. This is not a strong selling point.
Some of the most thorough business plans, in my opinion, were Hope Apothecary, The Rhode Island Compassion Center, Thomas Slater, Greenleaf and Summit. Further, the assumptions many of these plans were based on were severely flawed. For example, Summit projected its market share at 8,000 patients by year three. Given that even in the highest growth times in the past year there have been no more than 100 new patients entering the program per month, 8,000 patients at Summit alone would likely equal more than 120 percent of the total patient population! This projection is not even close to realistic.

When I reviewed pricing, I was dismayed that most are higher than many patients currently pay. Most plans average prices are between $300 to $400 an ounce, with only a few lower. Rhode Island Compassion did not mention any price at all.

Greenleaf, for example, is charging $35-$55 for an eighth, which equates to $280 to $440 an ounce. Under its pricing-strategy section, Thomas Slater said that its “pricing will be intentionally set at or above the midpoint of the scale locally, largely due to the higher quality of medicine it will offer to patients.”

I know for a fact that it doesn’t cost any more to grow different strains with regard to electricity and nutrient, so why are they charging more? And what is worse, its pricing is based on “strain quality” versus financial capability. What this says is that those who can’t afford it can only get the “low-quality” strains. CVS/pharmacy doesn’t distribute the lowest quality Vicodin to patients on Medicaid, does it?

One of the best plans with the lowest and most income-conscious discounts was Hope Apothecary, with a four-tiered, income-based pricing system and average price in years one and two at $200 and $158, with even deeper discounts in future years, as it should be, since the business will be growing as it gains more customers. And all this while having biopharmaceutical and cultivation experts on staff.

Additionally, I was shocked to realize how many of these applicants diluted their business focus to provide so many unnecessary services instead of focusing on just producing pharmaceutical-grade medical marijuana in the safest, most efficient and affordable manner. As with any business, success requires focus. How can they focus on producing and distributing medicine when they have so many other products and services to worry about?
Rhode Island Patient Advocacy Coalition’s Executive Director Joanne Leppanen, who is supposed to be a voice of the patients, mainly endorsed compassion centers that offered more than just overpriced medicine. Greenleaf, for example, plans to offer hemp lines of clothing and paraphernalia. Another endorsee, the Thomas Slater Compassion Center, wants to offer services like yoga and Reike. Summit Medical Compassion Center, for example, even offered physician’s injection therapies, surgery, not to mention plans that offered referrals to other physicians for “further” services. While some of those other options are great in theory, they are not needed where I get my medicine.

Diluting the business model with other services is misguided. Unless the services are free, many of these patients will not be able to afford them, as most can barely afford their medicine. If the services are free, then where’s the money coming from and why don’t they just lower their prices rather than offer Reike? If the applicants really did their homework and surveyed the market, they would realize patients don’t want this other stuff. The bottom line is, we want a pharmacy, not a social center. It deserves the respect as such. You don’t see Yoga classes or massage therapy at CVS, do you?

Let’s take this opportunity to get it right and not repeat the nightmare scenarios of California or Colorado.

Lastly, from a business-ethics standpoint, I find it interesting to note that the coalition shares the same office building as one of the centers that Leppanen strongly endorsed, Thomas Slater. So much for being an advocate of the people. Hopefully the R.I. Department of Health will look out for patient interest more conscientiously when selecting their centers.

However, this is Rhode Island. Odds are the ones recommended by the coalition, who are selling the most expensive medicine and offer the most congressional letters of recommendation, will probably get the nod. But as a patient, I certainly hope this is not the case.

Article Copy Compliments of Provedence Business News 03/28/2011
 
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