MA Recreational Sales Begin Tuesday 11/20

[AgentPothead]

50 years of terrible corporate beer is what happened! I can still remember a couple decades of life where a line of beer taps was Bud, Bud Light, Busch, Lowenbrau, Miller, Miller Lite, Coors, in every bar in the whole country! you might find Molson or Moosehead if you were lucky.

Apparently when Prohibiton started the government drove all the small and mid-size brewers out of business. The big ones like Annheuser Busch were allowed to continue operating to produce "medical alcohol". When Prohibtion was repealed the big guys moved in and cornered the market, not until the late 80's and Sam Adams did anyone break through with good beer.

In Massachusetts there are still distribution laws that screw small brewers and favor the big ones.

Mass has some fucked up alcohol laws, and a lot of people were pushing for weed to be handled the same way. IE farmers could only sell it to wholesalers, who then sell it at retail the way brewers can't sell directly.

 

[yardgrazer]

PatriotCare GF's Leafly reserve online system is... pathetic, as are their offerings (and their AU limits are very strangely worded). They took this long to open and they can't get it together enough to have their shit ready to go on Day 2?

Wasn't actually planning on making an order, just curious about how their offering stack up against the competition. The answer seems to be, not very well.

 

[AgentPothead]

I was gonna hit up Patriot on the way to home depot. Then I checked out their menu. You can buy at most 1/8s, mostly 1/16ths, and it equals out to 400$ ounces. That's more than I paid when it was illegal. They can go fuck themselves.

 

[Zeez]

I was gonna hit up Patriot on the way to home depot. Then I checked out their menu. You can buy at most 1/8s, mostly 1/16ths, and it equals out to 400$ ounces. That's more than I paid when it was illegal. They can go fuck themselves.

They're all crying that they are not making enough money and the state is already crying that revenues are way low.

Watch them come after home growers to try and make the money that way. They screwed up and now they want us to pay for it.

$400 an ounce is crazy.

 

[yardgrazer]

I suspect they'll start with the black market... after years of it not being all that worth their while to go after illegal cannabis sales, all of a sudden they may have more motivation (see that bust in Eastern MA, of the person with the unlicensed delivery service).

In theory the $400 is only because they won't sell you more than an 1/8 (per visit), and they're $50 (INSA will actually do quarters, but charge the same price). For people used to better prices on the black market it's a bad deal, but for your average person with unreliable/unstable sources, or no source at all, $60 for an eighth of kindbud is probably about as good as it's going to get anyway.

 

[Muleskinner]

...and many people only smoke 1/8 or 1/4 per month, they won't mind the store prices, neither will tourists who generally like to throw money at things.

this is a great article - basically the whole industry is failing badly, this is just beginning of documenting the "epic fail" of Legalization 1.0 - it will become even more clear in the next few years as most weed continues to be supplied from the underground, which includes people like us with gardens of course. Remember the biggest companies like Canopy Growth, Aurora, and Acreage are not even turning a profit yet! They are running huge exclusive monopolies and they STILL can't make money.

“Lots of people came into stores,” Adams said, speaking of the California market — though not specifically MedMen. (BDS does not comment on specific companies.) “They took a look at product prices, especially the heavy using, long-time consumer, and they said, ‘I know what the right price is, and that ain’t it.’”

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/28/med...are-a-warning-for-the-marijuana-industry.html

 

[Muleskinner]

Here's another one - the wonderful corporate medMJ industry, which treats its customers like a North Korean POW - I'm never dealing with anyone who makes me check into a prison to do business:

Locked out of care that eases his dying days

https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/ma...-dying-days/wOoctq34RXLckv7ZVLqOLO/story.html

 

[andl]

i guess, most of you re americans as far as i see, yes mexican american is also counted


just kidding



i m from europe and i, well mostly agree with the post here from Mengsk


legalisation didnt help US (not the states, us growers, maybe both not) its getting more commercial and expensive with, and producing more unnecessary jobs... caring less bout environment (big facilities)...creating taxes cause' in need for even more money. its capitalism, not all about capitalism is bad.



keep small ones out of business, and now also big companies take over. whats bad, thats bad, theres no chance to compete, or real fair trading laws, the big players get the license you get nothing in the end. (they dont want you in this business, which was a game before) Or you even not allowed to sell because its not the approved one medical high technical weed stuff, you got my thing.



but wake up,


this is how it works,




Legalisation is for money,
Decriminalisation would be the better option.





PS. here we pay 10€ for a gram, 30 grams 8€/gram or so indoor....


in netherlands where the business is, lol


i was on a trip with my girl last year nothing is charged under 15€ (mostly) and then they came up with your special cali cookie sherbert stuff with an INSANE PRICE OF 35€/GRAM


no comments anymore

 

[andl]

why is it so expensive, i asked, because we imported it directly from cali LOL even better, but they just took some beans from your companies,grew, and sell famous new west coast strains for high prices




you got the finest of the finest of THE FINEST water hash there for 30€ maximum, some years before
and i would trade 3gram of any weed for 1gram of that stuff 4 sure, without even thinking


PS:
a good point is, that here in europe its solely decriminalized, a few states,or tollerated, all got other laws so they will be regulated (sooner or later) diffrently and here we like to support our local farmers and traders, but we live in a conserative state which isnt ready yet...

example of trading with locals:
i always knew this is a good product (simple egg) when it got no numbers or stuff on it just some dirth and a few feathers..... comes directly from chicks habit ^^

 

[yardgrazer]

In some US states decriminalization of possession was the first step (e.g. Massachusetts). As much as the corporatization of marijuana is problematic, I'm not sure the kind of decriminalization seen in the US went far enough. New York state, for example, decriminalized possession of small amounts of pot in the 70s, but it was limited, you couldn't have it out and visible in public and paraphenalia was still illegal. Reality was that the police would "use their discretion" and not charge certain people under the decriminalization theory, and charge other people, mostly poor people of color (at times under the street search "empty your pockets, oh, there's some pot, out in public" approach).

 

[yardgrazer]

Berkshire Roots, Pittsfield's 2nd dispensary, opens Saturday.

 

[Muleskinner]

I'm proud to say that Mass. was the first state to COMPLETELY remove criminal penalties for cannabis possession in November 2008. All the 70's decrim laws only added the OPTION for civil citation, while retaining the option to arrest & prosecute.

Absolutely yes decrim is the precursor to full legalization - you could see it play in out Mass. and right now in Vermont. Once full decrim happens, it removes most of the benefits of Prohibition for LEO - they lose the right to get in your car or house over weed. They lose the power to arrest most young people on a Friday night. the power to arrest people of color. All the fun is gone for LEO!

once the thrill is gone, LEO realizes they will get most of the tax revenue from legalization, and they stop fighting.

 

[yardgrazer]

Vermont isn't quite there yet... MA has a more activist judiciary.

 

[AgentPothead]

Oh yeah I forgot to say that was 400$ without taxes. So 480$ ounces. I'd rather grow my own ounce and donate 80$.

 

[andl]

but you see where the numbers go eh?
like naphta never down always up maybe smoke is some day only for the rich....


at least legal one

 

[yardgrazer]

Not to take away from anyone who wants to boycott PatriotCare because of the lobbying efforts of their corporate parent, but I visited their dispensary the other day. No doubt the prices are high, but I was fairly impressed with the bud I bought. Because of tolerance or some other issue a lot of bud doesn't effect me that much, and this stuff was good. Reminded me a little bit of the connoisseur bud I used to get from a guy I bought from for years before I moved.

On the topic of tolerance: does anyone else find that commercial edibles in MA don't seem to do much? I've tried a few different products from NETA, and one from INSA, and while I got some effect off the chocolate I had from the latter, most of the stuff from the former didn't do much of anything, even when I upped how much I was taking. On the other hand I made butter a few times, from trim I had left over and from bud, and both of those knocked me on my ass. Maybe something to do with absorption? I bought a bottle of oil tincture, and that seems to work a-ok (maybe not knock me on my ass, but pleasant).

 

[AgentPothead]

Edibles don't hit me the way they seem to hit other people. I've only had one set of brownies we made back in high school that really fucked me up, everything else has been really weak. I was gifted like 50 or $60 worth of edible gummies from Colorado and I ended up giving them away.

 

[Muleskinner]

interesting article

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2019/04/13/entrepreneur/5CWvaqgcRPxzDbRysiHToL/story.html

 

[Magnificat]

Oh yeah I forgot to say that was 400$ without taxes. So 480$ ounces. I'd rather grow my own ounce and donate 80$.

Yet you probably have grown out hundreds of ounces in your lifetime, but I am STLL waiting for you to donate the 8000 to charity. . I'm just joking here, of course, but the point I make is still valid. Taxing weed is still doing some good in this state and the way the new laws have been implemented seem to be working..

Look at other states that do not want to allow the public to grow their own! 6 plants yields a good 13-14 ounces without any extra effort..

 

[Muleskinner]

the state of Mass. never wanted people to grow their own, nor did any other state in the US except for Vermont's Legislature. They wanted to keep raiding our houses & throwing us in jail - we forced the law to change through petitioning. You have the right to grow because the power of our ballot initiative is still stronger than the power of the entrenched political class. The "judiciary" in Mass. wasn't activist - they didn't do a goddamn thing to repeal Prohibition. No judiciary branch of government anywhere in the United States has ever struck down a cannabis Prohibition law.

The Governor and State Legislature of Massachusetts voted to prevent sick and dying medical patients from using cannabis every single year from 1990 through 2012 - they wouldn't even let medMJ out of it's first legislative committee.

Things are "working well".....for whom? not anyone trying to start a business, like my farm co-op - we've been run out of business by the state and local government and our primary investor lost her family savings.

Paying over 23% tax when boozers get to pay 1-2%? that's only "working well" if you're a slave IMO.....

Massachusetts tax on beer: 1%
Massachusetts tax on wine: 2%
Massachusetts tax on cannabis: 23% +