The Greed Screed--Dispensaries and $$$, rather than care.

I was in a dispensary on Saturday to visit a friend of mine who is one of the owners. I won't say which one, other than to point out that they're in a rather run down location in the 5 points. Although my friend was absent, I stayed around to speak to one of his partners for a bit. The opinions he espoused to me were horrifying for Medical Marijuana patients across the state.

Now, obviously I didn't have a tape recorder (although I'm thinking about going back and trying to get him to go on record with his silly opinion.) But his statements were something along the lines of, I'm ecstatic about HB1284 (he kept calling it HB 1186 or something like that, which shows you just how much he cares about sick people), it's gonna give us complete control of the market, we're gonna mass produce our product in warehouses, drive the price below $10 a gram, and run all the private caregivers out of the business, collecting their patients all the while.

Now, obviously this guy's a jackass. First of all, I have rarely seen medicine in his shop that is either organic or up to my personal standards. In fact, the few times that they do take in quality product, their own workers almost always buy it all up before the patients even get a shot at it. I don't think for a second that patients will pass on quality in the name of price, they've had that option on the black market for years. But that's not the point.

I will admit that I'm all for making medicine more affordable to the average patient. What I'm not for is the narrowing of variety and the mass produced lack of quality that these dispensaries will surely turn to, and the suffering that patients will experience as a result. If these guys weren't producing quality medicine in their basement (he informed me that currently he, too, is a basement grower, the exact type of grower he then informed me they were going to "run over"), then someone please tell me how their quality will improve in a warehouse?

I think this guys motives were the same as a lot of dispensaries motives--$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$, rather than helping sick people. I will not be doing any business with this particular dispensary, nor will I recommend that my patients do so. In fact I think that guy is a selfish, self serving prick, if you want to know the truth. He's extremely unprofessional and rude anyway, hardly the kind of person I'd want working in my own business. If the legislature had any morals or sense, it's this guy they'd be regulating out of the market. Instead, they have decided to hand it over to people like him, and to kill the private caregiver in the process, who actually cares.

That's why I'm recommending that each of you go to the dispensary you most often purchase medicine from, and have a conversation with the owners or managers. Get their stance on this, and if you don't like what they have to say, don't shop there ever again. Let them know that you're not interested in making them millionaires at the expense of suffering or dying people. Tell them that now they have become the ones oppressing marijuana for their own benefit. Tell them to get some class and some ideals.

I will warn you that most owners aren't as big of idiots as the guy I spoke to--they probably won't just come out and say the things that this guys said--he obviously has no common sense or social skills. He's been a jerk to me every single time I've walked into their shop, as a matter of fact.

I haven't had a chance to speak with my friend at the dispensary in question, but when I do, it will only be to tell him that I hope his business fails, and fails miserably, and that they disgust me. His partner informed me of his intention to take over the market, So I plan to inform him of my decision, to boycott greedy dispensaries. I hope you will do the same. Peace!