Ive grown off & on over 30 yrs & when i 1st started growing in the 70's my motives were purely profit,after getting busted & being one of the 1st cases prosecuted under Michigans forfiture laws & loosing everything i owned & doing a couple yrs in prison i stopped growing for about 10 yrs.
After getting out i swore i'd never grow again then the bad news came,my wife was diagnosed with a severe form of Multiple Scleurosis & MJ worked better for the tremors she suffers than any other prescription drug,at the same time street prices went from a nickle bag ( 1/8th ) selling for $5 up to $25 for the same 3.5 grams overnight,its impossible to go from 5 bucks to 25 bucks without being pissed off.
Since the prices exploded i decided to chance growing again only this time on a small scale only for my wife,i grew only for her for about 15 yrs until some people in her MS support group needed a supply of quality MJ & couldnt afford street prices so i took on about 20 patients back in the 1990's & bought a abandoned commercial bldg from the city under my wifes name so all my assets wouldnt be connected to the grow,i grew undercover like this until Michigan adopted a med mj law,at that time i hired an expensive law firm & petitioned the governor for a pardon of my felony manufacturing a controled substance conviction so i could grow meds for my wife,after submitting all her medical records to my amazement the governor pardoned my drug conviction so i could legally grow mj.
After getting legal i took on my 5 patients & my wife took on her 5 patients & we grew for 10 patients who each supplied a few other MS & cancer patients,we did this for about a yr when i was approached to invest in setting up a co-op by a few members of the MS support group my wife belongs too,i invested enough where i had a 50% ownership of the business & we acted as a non profit & were certified as a non profit for 2 yrs.
We paid employees $16 to $25 an hour to disperse profit & gave away about 40% of our total harvests to stage 4 patients & RRMS patients,i took a salary of $58,000 a yr as did my 2 partners who took salaries of $30,000 each,i thought everything was working out perfect,the 5 employees all made a living that could support a family & we were helping alot of sick people but my partners got greedy.
They were selling pounds out the back door & not logging in the sale,they ran every scam they could including cooking the books where the business was showing a loss & we had to cut employee wages in half.
My manager was handeling the sale of several lbs a week & getting paid $25 an hour for her efforts & honesty but my greedy partners cut her pay to $10 an hour & the other 4 employees to $8 an hour,they all complained to me & i constantly fought with the partners till it started being too stressfull for me.
At that point i told my partners they must buy me out or i would disolve the co-op & if they fought me i'd bring in the IRS to examine the books,rather than be busted they bought me out with a stipulation,i allowed them to buy back my percentage at exactly what i invested but they had to exchange 10% ownership to my manager so she could support her family,they agreed & i was out of the business.
Within 30 days of me leaving the 2 remaining owners replaced the 4 bud tenders with their family members & demoted my manager to part time basis at 12 hrs a month or accept the $10 an hour for full time,i advised her to take the part time job at $25 an hour & force them into buying her 10% of the business,they tried to bully her & fuk her over & even made threats to her so i stepped back in with my lawyer & handeled her buy out,she ended up with one yrs full pay at $25 an hour for her 10% set up in 12 equal monthly payments.
Since my departure from the tax exempt business the owners dropped the non profit status & have both become millionaires at the expense of sick people,they stopped the program where we gave free meds to stage 4 cancer patients & discounted meds to patients with real diseases,they stopped delievery to home bound patients & maximized profits in every way possible & are only interested in money.
My wife still has MS & needs mj for tremors but im so burned out from the experience its hard for me to grow so ive been buying her meds,im getting ready to set up one flood table just to supply her & my sister in law,ive got a good pension & a family owned rental home business so it isnt about the $ with me like it was in the 70's & 80's.