Reader: Medical marijuana dispensaries & caregivers shouldn't be arguing about money

• Geez man I was just trying to make a joke and why you gotta accuse me not paying taxes, how would you know?

• Funny how caregivers never bitched when they were able to sell overages to the awesome dispensaries around the state.  Now all they can do is complain about how evil dispensaries are ruining the world.  Seems somewhat hypocritical if you ask me.

• "Taking care of patients is cool, but it's mostly about the dollar". when a democracy loses humanity...it will fall. a democracy in a capitalist economy is only as good as it's humanity. the founding fathers talked about this over and over in the federalist papers, but i guess looking back at history escapes most who think they have it figured out. this is not the way of the world, but the way of a society(america) that has lost base with compassion and humanity. and to say this is the way of the world...what are you pigeon holed to 1 county in Colorado. don't blink....america is not too far from being a third world country;)))  

• you are correct this is America, and it's about the bucks, about selling and buying. thxs for the comment as it gives way to my point of "choice". the arguing is over which group profits, the caregivers or the dispensaries....bottom line. the patient is forgotten in all of this because some think it is nothing more than a money maker. as my forefathers stated ...."take what you need from the land, it is given as a gift from the spirits". and my forefathers were here a few thousand years before the anglo-saxon came with his thoughts and ideas. war on terrorism......america would have too be fighting itself!

• it is not about getting high, to the individual who needs it. it is about functioning daily with minimal pain, and the least amount of side effects---especially the ones that kill!

• quit promoting yourself high country. i get my "medicine" in Denver and guarantee it is better than anything you grow. we can meet up anytime you like i am already rich, so time is not an issue. when do you get off work? would like too take some of that great mountain medicine, excuse me, dope, since it is all about getting paid and high for you. FREEDOM OF CHOICE PEOPLE.......

• you colorado people got it all figured out.....watch as you destroy all medical marijuana in this state!!! such hypocrites.....i'm just passing through on my way to cali, where the real counterculture is, and the best medicine in the country! maybe you rocky mountain types will figure it out, but i doubt it. all i see is money grubbing fascist like high country caregiver! put tebow in the game...lol!

• High Country Caregiver, thxs for making yourself look like a smart ass, and dumbass all in one comment. no asked you if you were trying too fool someone, asked where you stood---pay attention.i have a red card and didn't lie, i have  several injuries do too combat. i guess i made those up...right? that high country air has warped your mind. now i see, your part of the problem. you want it too go back to the way it was before patients had a "choice" to choose who provided their medicine. "it's all about getting high and making money" has too be the most ignorant statement i have seen yet on this blog. on my planet, earth, America specifically, we have choices. sounds like your a disgruntled caregiver who lost patients to dispensaries and has an axe to grind. what kind of american lives under the umbrella that provides it's freedoms, and then doesn't want to pay "taxes"? that is why your mad, right? because your illegal non tax paying self(who enjoys the roads and other municipalities taxes provide to deliver your "money making high") wants the freedom this country provides, but don't want to do your part! get rich or die trying...ok 50 cent. i am already rich! you can die trying!clueless...case of what happens when you combine a drug dealer into the equation!

• Thanks. Hard to stay on point that long for a stoner, as the editing marks show. I really do think we need to hear more from users of the system - we're the silent shareholders. I don't think the stuff I buy now is as quite as good as what I used to get black, but some of that is just nostalgia, and I never was a pot snob.  I'm a small-budget guy, as I suspect much of the market is, and I think I get a pretty good deal right now. Any good market has high end, middle and low end businesses and there's generally room for all. All the sniping and hating does is show your asses. Let's just get real about what is going on.

• Those Vicodins that go for up to 5 dollars on the street cost like .005 cents to make

• Strong post, Citizen. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

• Windy is good. Thanks for the post.

• What do you think they are trying to tax it? Everyone is in on trying to make a buck. The State of Colorado said it was ok an some what legal so everyone wanted to give it a try. Taking care of patients is cool but its mostly about the mighty dollar from start to finish just like any other business. Investors start the business, people buy the product, money pays for employees, rents, real estate, sales tax, personal tax, corporate tax. Evey one has their hands in the cookie jar from owners to the State to the Federal Government. Yes even the Feds make their money when its tax time. True story, we all file Federal Taxes and pay them. This is the way of the world. Get use to it or move to a Third World Country.

• Thank you for sharing your experience with the rest of us.  It was not windy and corroborates what most of the comments say.  I'd like to add that the good stuff still comes from the mountains and not from some warehouse in Denver.

• Caregivers, dispensaries, what's the difference? This is America, and it's about the bucks, about selling and buying. Markets work for the consumer/patient, if they're regulated. Lightly. Today I'm looking at a sort-of-regulated market with prices half of what they were a year, year and a half ago. To me it looks like progress, of a sort, for patients. Like me. Caregivers: Before I got my first license I was using an individual with connections "in the mountains" who would drive up every so often and return with an igloo cooler full of goodies, and the word would go out. We paid him $100/quarter, and yes, it was pretty fire-y stuff. But erratic supply and undependable contact were par for the course. It was harder than hell to find a caregiver once I did get a license, they weren't advertising. I went through five different "caregivers" searching for that compassionate, caring grower that could really help me, and not break me. Translation: I wanted to cut out the middleman, cut my costs. Of the five I went through one was the dispensary owner where I got the license - back in the days of "five minutes to see the Dr, get your paperwork notarized, sell you some pot and get you out the door."  At least he was local, not Cali. The next three started up dispensaries and skyrocketed prices and shed agreements just 'cuz they could. The last was a guy who wanted to get started growing and I took a flyer on him. Another mistake. Most of their stuff didn't measure up to what I'd bought black. By a long shot. New-ish growers, eager to cash in. Dispensaries: Every time I hear a dispensary owner claim they're in the business for anything other than money I remember how much they were charging, compassionately and caringly, for stuff they bought from a shady-looking dude walking in off the street, before all the legislation.  Say a year and a half ago, when 8ths were $65, ozs were well over $400, quality was all over the place and a dispensary owner who actually grew any of his own stuff was rare, treasured and sought out. I was one of a few who argued on several boards then that patients were being ripped off, that profits were immense. We were slagged as idiot newbies who obviously didn't know a thing about what it cost to grow good pot, greedy bastards who just wanted to put caring growers out of business.  And the looming spectre of Big Pharma got brought into the conversation, of course. Gotta have a bogeyman. Patients: We're mostly eager, self-shearing sheep who got herded into the system during the wild and woolly boom days. Lots of us are scamming, to one degree or another, and everybody winks at it but it drives the Drug Warriors in LEO crazy.  Chronic pain indeed! But a recent study unrelated to MM, showed large percentages of the general pop saying they suffer from chronic pain.  ??? I'm 68. Pot works for all my aches and pains, some of which are minor, some of which are limiting. And yep, I do get high, and that's part of the treatment -  d'ya really think this is a great time to grow old?  Hell, if I wasn't high I'd be out carrying signs. Or heat. Depends on the day. Sorry I got so windy - musta hit a nerve.

• Hey Crazy Horse, welcome to Planet Earth, selling drugs is about making money.  I'm not trying to fool anyone. If someone selling weed tells you they care about their custy-morons, and you believe it, then I've got an island to sell you. There might be 10 or 20 people in the whole State who benefit from cannabis, but the other 125,000+ people went to their doctor, lied and now get to buy marijuana under the dispensary drug dealer scheme. The surface of it all has changed a little with the medical marijuana scam but reality is It's pot smoking man, that's all it is. It's about getting high and making money. Get rich or die trying.

• Infighting is the reason that marijuana legalization is taking forever.  Cannabis supporters spend so much time and energy fighting each other that there is no pressure against the real opponents.  Someday we may be less retarded in our efforts, but apparently not today... or tomorrow, and the day after isn't looking promising either..

• dumb comment. infighting in general is stupid. the federal government regulates poison and death and imprisons innocent people over a plant.  any other argument is moot. know your enemy. 

• The argument is not so much about money as it is about whether it made any political sense to cheerlead and/or stand aside while the General Assembly, CDPHE, DOR, and BOH abrogated the rights of caregivers under Article XVIII, Section 14 of Colorado's Constitution -- it did not. Robert Chase Colorado Coalition for Patients and Caregivers (720) 213-6497

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