Bigger is better for pot dispensaries

[Payaso]

Harborside's Steve DeAngelo is in favor of bigger, and better dispensaries able to serve not only patients; but in the future with legalization, the general public.

For Sacramento and other California cities wanting fewer medical pot clubs, Steve DeAngelo offers a potential model: the world's largest marijuana dispensary.

DeAngelo is executive director of the Harborside Health Center, a 48,000-member patient collective he says serves more marijuana users than anywhere else. For sure, the Oakland dispensary – one of just four allowed in the city – is a titan in California's legal medicinal pot trade.

Greeting up to 800 people a day, Harborside's Oakland center has a neuropathic primary care doctor, an acupuncturist and a chiropractor. Its staff teaches yoga, stress management and "universal life force energy" – and doles out a harvest of weed.

Harborside, which recently opened a second dispensary in San Jose, handles $20 million annually in pot transactions at its Oakland facility, DeAngelo says.

Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/2010/04/14/2676819/bigger-is-better-for-pot-dispensaries.html#ixzz0l5nxij9d

 

[festivus]

Go for it Harborside, I hope you become the model for the dispensaries of the future!

 

[2Lazy]

I'm from the bay and Harborside is definitely massive. I dunno about MJ being big business but it does need to be monitored. The worst thing imaginable would be getting someone sick or poisoned from some improperly treated product. Perhaps pesticides or mold. Either way, when we start talking about some super volume then it might happen if no one is taking care of the oversight. The FDA needs to be involved and sadly their stance on MJ isn't one that allows them to be a watchdog of the industry.

 

[Hydrosun]

I want Costco to get into the game. Then you outdoor growers could see your lbs on the shelf in a week and gone in two

 

[TrichyTrichy]

yay,Harborside!

 

[nomaad]

Ha. This is the move we have all been waiting for. Harborside as cartel. Woo hoo!

I am hoping for a different model... I like my ganja to come from people... not a monopoly of "health facilities" with statewide logistics and power over the marketplace.

The Gang of Four rule Oakland... it would be sad to see them go on to rule the entire State in the same fashion. In Oakland, it seems they filled a vacuum in the political scene... lots of cash and a plan to raise Oakland from its economic woes... in exchange for complete control of the city's marijuana marketplace. Whether or not they do a good job as a dispensary, their power-hungry political aspirations send up huge warning signals to this pot farmer.

 

[Yes4Prop215]

^i hear that nomad....fuck monopolies..

 

[mexicangreen420]

yeah, screw BIG COMPANIES, especially non-profits. let the smart people have theirs... let all the dummies buy their chronic from wal-mart.... oh shit.... looks like china might be growing our weed soon.

 

[Teeg420]

yeah harborside will be the mcdonalds of collectives, theyll start setting up franchises in every legal state.

I am definitely not a fan of monopolies.

 

[ixnay007]

I'm not a fan of medicine being sold along side snake oil (until chiropractics and acupuncturists are anything more than glorified masseurs and people relying on the placebo method to make you want them to poke you full of needles)..

Yes, this means that MJ is medicine (with studies to demonstrate the efficacy) and chiropractors and acupuncturists are not doctors.

 

[the_red_bull]

It's not practical for states that want heavy regulation, and if you think on it as a grower you're either not in a position to supply a place like that, or at the very least you know most of us aren't. I don't know about you but I really don't want to see us importing marijuana anymore.

 

[montanaorganics]

An operation a third of that size would completely displace the 2500 caregivers in Montana, people who have found jobs; decent jobs, in the midst of this recession.

Those 2500 arent going anywhere, so one operation that size has a quick supply of 2500 $12 an hour growers.

Sick and ridiculous, the free market works 100% but everybody is in a hurry to consolidate these weed walmarts.

 

[Sam the Caveman]

I'm not for huge dispensaries either, if I were to make the rules, all dispensaries would not be allowed to grow at all and would be required to buy from home growers with no more than a small percentage coming from any one individual grower.

Dispensaries would still make more than the growers.

Monopolistic attitudes are tyrannical.

 

[djslife]

Are the people in favor of this serious? Have you ever been to Harborside? Their are way better model for clubs.

Steve DeAngelo would be in favor of this. This is the same exact idea as a Walmart moving into a town, once they kill off most other clubs they force the patients who went to said clubs to go to them now.

Use your heads before you fuck us all over.

-djslife

 

[nomaad]

We should picket Harborside for a day.

 

[nomaad]

(until chiropractics and acupuncturists are anything more than glorified masseurs and people relying on the placebo method to make you want them to poke you full of needles)..

at one point, after sleeping on an aero-bed for about 6 months, my sciatic nerve decided to turn into a slinky and bunched up to the point where I could not walk upright. It was kinda funny, because I could drive just fine, but when I arrived at the chiro's office I almost had to crawl from the car to the waiting room. A couple of adjustments later, I was upright and on the mend. He also showed me a stretch I now do at the first sign of sciatic nerve inflammation that keeps a real problem at bay. An MD or DO would have prescribed me a muscle relaxer.

Which healer's technique is more valid?

You say "glorified masseur" as if its an insult. I would say that they are both extremely important healing arts.

 

[binaryfission]

I want Costco to get into the game. Then you outdoor growers could see your lbs on the shelf in a week and gone in two

is this sarcasm?

I'm not a fan of medicine being sold along side snake oil (until chiropractics and acupuncturists are anything more than glorified masseurs and people relying on the placebo method to make you want them to poke you full of needles)..

Yes, this means that MJ is medicine (with studies to demonstrate the efficacy) and chiropractors and acupuncturists are not doctors.

marijuana is the placebo effect, IMO. one of the biggest uses of marijuana is to improve mood. chemo sucks. getting high makes it easier. WE can't scientifically quantify an improved mood. But we know people see chiropractors and acupuncturists and "feel" better. Your argument is not good for the marijuana movement, IMO.
NOMAD puts it well.

An operation a third of that size would completely displace the 2500 caregivers in Montana, people who have found jobs; decent jobs, in the midst of this recession.

Those 2500 arent going anywhere, so one operation that size has a quick supply of 2500 $12 an hour growers.

its about scale. montana is tiny. less than 1 million people. california's prison population is bigger than montana's whole populace. proof: http://articles.latimes.com/2010/mar/17/local/la-me-prisons17-2010mar17


and for all you guys crying. go vote and get involved. we are the people who run this place. don't let their financial terrorism scare you. doesn't matter if they are big. we are bigger if... we work together.

 

[Hammerhead]

I was just watching a interview with Mr Lee he was talking to a politician trying to get the # of dispensorys incresed in Oakland.

http://cbs5.com/video/[email protected]

 

[xxd]

48,000-member patient, wow....
I like little dispensaries better and less greedy people

 

[Leon Brooks]

i just had a tumor slightly larger then a golf ball removed from the arch of my foot 3 weeks ago and of course am still on crutches. cant put ANY weight on it for another 4weeks.

went to harborside oak and stood in line for 20min on crutches while EVERY single person who worked there saw how uncomfortable i was.

never offered front of line access (f'ing disneyland does) or even a seat for that matter.

when i finally got up to the counter i donated however much it was for a gram (was going to get more) just cause i didnt want to have stood in line for 20 min for nothing.

then i let them know i would never be returning and to remove me from there files.

fucking with $20mil, yes

compassion, no

coincidence, HELL NO.