My experience as a commercial grower in the recreational scene

[JumpKickYerGunt]

I decided to try my hand at commercial growing by joining a group that I thought was heading in a good direction. What I found truly disturbed me and Colorado as well as the rest of the scene should do what they can to inform the public to not support these businesses.

There are several dispensaries funded by a group of Russians whose money is bad to say the least. When I heard rumors of money coming through via heroin, prostitution, and massage parlors I knew that my intuition was correct. I was in the belly of the beast so to speak. Also, I was doing things I was completely against. These are just rumors though right? There's more.

The growing process was beyond amateur. It was as if the growers did not understand how to grow at all. It was a 'stick a clone in a bag of FoxFarm and water' type of process. Every plant was sick and dying. According to the head grower, these are perfectly acceptable results as long as yield goals were met. Fertilizers were heavily applied to plants that were saturated in nutrients and clearly burning alive. The head grower ignored the runoff of 6.0ec and pH of 5. Next, these crispy, salty flowers are pulled very prematurely to be hung in a drying room for a week. The drying room part seems legit...or not because it was actually referred to as a curing area. I was told the plants are cut down and hung to cure for 7 days. This is drying, not curing. There was no curing. This is truly pathetic and lazy but it gets worse. The genetics...one big lie. It was openly admitted to me that they were lying about their Girl Scout Cookies, Bruce Banner, Green Crack and a few others. Not even close to real and yet they'll steal the label in order to trick customers.

These people will do and say anything to take money from uninformed customers. It's so sad and it needs to be stopped. They're damaging what has taken the scene so many years to build. What I saw goes beyond what I have said here. I hope you all understand my pleas. Please do not support these businesses. Choose a Colorado run business that puts you first. Quality will win at the end of the day, but first I feel like the truth needs to be heard. They are using their money to buy up small shops which then are turned into shit. These people are making a serious push to get themselves into other states. Its scary to say the least.

 

[z-ro]

You should see what they do in mendo and humboldt, whole ridge lines clear cut and graded, thousands of plants out in the open, and zero respect for the ecology or people around them.

 

[JumpKickYerGunt]

You should see what they do in mendo and humboldt, whole ridge lines clear cut and graded, thousands of plants out in the open, and zero respect for the ecology or people around them.

:< Ughhhhh, so awful. I know how bad it can get. I feel like Colorado still has a chance, but the longer these guys are in business the worse it will get.

The people out here are making a push to rebrand themselves as the "New Belgium of weed" (New Belgium is a brewery in Colorado that prides themselves on being environmentally friendly, being good caretakers of their employees, producing a very nice product, and positively representing Colorado). They're the exact opposite of what New Belgium is. Never any talk of producing an environmentally friendly product, no regard for quality (even saying they don't care about quality), funded by non-Coloradans (probably traceable to non-Americans), and making all of us look very bad. It goes to show how demented the minds are there. In the world of honesty, you have to play the part to be the part. You can't call yourself something you're not. Otherwise you'd be nothing more than an arrogant liar. Every second I spent as a commercial grower I kept thinking "I can't believe this is happening right in front of me". Fuck man, to me if I'm using non-American money to buy grow supplies for the operation then a part of me believes that my product is not 100% American. Stuff like that matters to me.

 

[rob feature]

Good post. I've been a medical patient in CO for a few years and have seen this myself. My favorite shop got absorbed by a profit center. The bud quality went to WFT & most behind the counters are freaking clueless. Now, I may be a new grower, but I've been around cannabis for a long time. I know from the bud when I see a shady grow operation and I've been seeing plenty of it.

I see that your experience has been with recreational and not medical, but I've seen medical trending this way. This is shameful because although most of the medical MJ in CO is a ruse, there are many whose lives are significantly enhanced by cannabis. Many need it to carry on normal daily functions. And they're being sold a potentially harmful compromise in order to make the shops more profit.

I'm with ya Jump - as you discover who these shops are, don't give them your business. Tell your friends. With any luck, these folks will be looking for a new line of work.

 

[jayjayfrank]

They're damaging what has taken the scene so many years to build.... Quality will win at the end of the day...

for me, what you described, is exactly the only thing i have seen and experienced from prohibition cannabis, even in medical states

i am still waiting for the day quality wins, haven't seen it yet(might be too poor), and when that day comes i wont need to keep a tent in a closet anymore

 

[m314]

When I heard rumors of money coming through via heroin, prostitution, and massage parlors I knew that my intuition was correct. I was in the belly of the beast so to speak. Also, I was doing things I was completely against. These are just rumors though right? There's more.

You say that like it's a bad thing. Why would you care how consenting adults make their money? Massage parlor employees and customers are there because they want to be there. People sell sex and drugs because the demand is there.

Shitty weed is a different issue. If I had to buy my own weed, I'd go for quality.

 

[stoned-trout]

dont get into the crack game lol... theres shady folks always when theres lots of cash to be made

 

[Max Headroom]

These people will do and say anything to take money from uninformed customers.

it's called capitalism, a legalized form of organized crime.

 

[JumpKickYerGunt]

it's called capitalism, a legalized form of organized crime.

Pretty much why I don't believe in it.

It seems like the word is out on these people. Really glad to not be associated with all that.

 

[Coconutz]

Once went into a shop where the bitch didnt know what bubba was. Gave me a stupid look...
I had to tell her it was the PRE98 BUBBA on the fucking menu bitch!

 

[MJPassion]

it is as it always was!

it is as it always was!

The only thing that's changed is that these guys can now get a license to rip folks off.
Nothing has changed in the drug scene over the last 20+ years in this aspect.
The Russians have been in Colorado for quite some time & they're not leaving anytime soon.
I recall hearing that they ran about 90% of the meth manufacturing labs, in CO, back in the mid-late '90s & they were/are in cahoots with LEO.

If ya don't like capatilists, move to another planet. Capatilism is a pleague upon the earth & like the ol Ruskies, it ain't going anywhere either.

 

[Shcrews]

it's all capitalism... if the russians grow shitty weed and sell it for $$$ then they will eventually be driven out of business by good growers.

the key is to educate cannabis consumers , so they don't buy shitty nuted out weed

and theres nothing wrong with making money off drugs and prostitution, my issue with organized crime is that there is always violence and extortion involved.

 

[steadydets]

it's called capitalism, a legalized form of organized crime.

And its affiliations to ideas like this that make all stoners look like hippie pot heads who are non-participants in this country.


Saying "it's called capitalism" is a simplistic, anti-intellectual viewpoint. Hyperbole at its finest.


Writing an explanation to this would take too much time, not that I don't want to participate in a discussion, but I've got take my gf's mother to dinner tonight and she is the biggest PITA you've ever met.

I don't want my post to be taken as hostile, but this "capitalism" you speak of is the reality of the world we live in. Criticism is all fine and dandy, and if you want to make believe we all live in a "Contemporary Ethics" course in college, that's you're prerogative I guess, but it doesn't reflect the reality we live in.

The bottom line about this story is :

These are scumbag Russian fucks who don't care about anything but themselves.

That, under socialism, capitalism, communism, Hinduism, old school ism or new school ism, will always exist and will never change.

 

[Jhhnn]

We'll see a lot of shady fast buck artists in the business, at least for awhile. Part of what people at the consumer end don't realize is that their efforts are often aimed at un-savvy cannabis investors, people who neither use or understand cannabis. The shops are mostly there as a lure & a cover for operations exporting weed to other weed-poor parts of the country, money laundering machines. Anybody who thinks that the Feds & CO law enforcement aren't paying very close attention to all of this has rocks for brains. They're highly organized, patient & methodical, often taking years to build cases.

When they do, it's hammer time. People who find themselves in such situations need to understand that, make their own choices accordingly. It's smart of the OP to clear out, imho. Growing & getting high is no longer synonymous with being an outlaw. We have alternatives.

I can't say where the market is going, but shit ain't it in the long run. When some of the big retailers figure out how to do it well, and some obviously will, then bunk won't sell to anybody but the tourists.

At this point, it's hard to say what retail buyers want because it's all so new. It won't necessarily be what's been popular in the med market, at all. I really think we'll see brand loyalty develop towards consistent, delicious & aromatic smoke of med-high potency- party weed with an active & sociable high, not one hitter quitters at all. If the ceiling isn't way up there, so much the better, because you can toke all day & all night, bump it back up w/o getting crispy fried. Anybody who can grow that in quantity & market it well will be ridin' the gravy train well into the future.

 

[purple_man]

not to different then illegal cash crops... when big $ is to be made fast, it naturally attracts the shady folks, whose pure motivation is $ ...

blessss

 

[Benjamin Check]

it's all capitalism... if the russians grow shitty weed and sell it for $$$ then they will eventually be driven out of business by good growers.

the key is to educate cannabis consumers , so they don't buy shitty nuted out weed

and theres nothing wrong with making money off drugs and prostitution, my issue with organized crime is that there is always violence and extortion involved.

Educate consumers? People don't even care. All they want is KUSH. They don't give a shit what, where, how, when, who or why. They want product that smells loud and looks loud. Are there "crystals" on it? You west coast and legal med state growers really need to understand the lack of knowledge the average smoker, and ESPECIALLY east coast smokers have. I had a person tell me that they don't smoke that sativa shit because those are the male plants and they don't get you as high. Then proceeded to get mad when I laughed and refused to tell them why. No point in arguing. People over here buying pounds don't even know what they are buying when it's shipped from another state or they don't know the grower. You can literally sell ok outdoor here for 3k a pound. Guess what? That kali mist wont sell for 4k if there's cheaper. Does it smell loud? Does it look loud? That's why those Russians and quite honestly me as well don't give a fuck. Most of the consumers don't know, and quite honestly don't care. People don't care about fancy names, or clean burning white ash. You want to make money? Grow big bud/chronic with high nutes and don't even flush it. I'm talking 1500ppm with the pumps on during harvest. Screw flushing or lockouts. Might as well; you think you're gonna get rewarded monetarily for carefully grown organic kali mist? No. 90% of the people will look at it, smell it, say its amazing.......and buy the stuff that's $100 bucks cheaper at $300 a zip. Either way it's selling for $20 a gram..so what would a mid level dealer prefer? A $1000qp/3200 pound? Or a 4k pound and 1200? You're not going to make more unless you have a very discerning clientele, and the people who buy 2 $400 ounces of dank a month.....those are called gold geese. Hard to cultivate a flock of those.

It's like dealing with people who snort coke, but have only ever had shit that's like 38-45%. When they get some 60% it's amazing. But when the 90% comes and it's 3x the price they don't want it. They want a big fat bag of re-rocked up bullshit. So give it to them. You want to snort giant lines of mostly goodys headache powder and bonita? Be my guest. Please don't be naive. Violence and extortion is part of every business if it's profitable enough. People don't just give away natural resources. When dealing with large sums of money and the opportunity to make them comes risk. More risk=more reward.

 

[steadydets]

Educate consumers?... I had a person tell me that they don't smoke that sativa shit because those are the male plants and they don't get you as high. Then proceeded to get mad when I laughed and refused to tell them why. No point in arguing.

So, why would you refuse to tell them why?

Maybe everyone would benefit if most growers would stop this "unappreciated genius in his own time" attitude towards talking about gear.

You said it yourself, the man made a statement, which was patently incorrect, and instead of correcting him and proceeding to educate the poor man, you rip into him.


Those of us, those of us here who grow in kind, have a special respect for the plant that most don't.

That respect, that admiration you have for nature, because we must all truly appreciate this beautiful bounty of a gift, exists because you cultivated your own curiosity into what you love to do now.

You can be that same type of positive influence in someone else's life if you took the approach of educating them, not talking down to someone, not speaking to them as if they are dumb for not already knowing it.

Would you say an astrophysicist is dumb because he doesn't know what BHO stands for?

Not having information is a lack of access, not a lack of ability.

It may be as easy as going on the internet for some, but we must be considerate of those who don't process the information as coherently as we do.

 

[Fly by Night]

Lusky rusky Bolsheviks spreading bribery and corruption... Tho they do run a nice escort agency!

 

[Primalraindrop]

this thread is interesting as all get out.

 

[that smell]

I believe one of the big issues is the cost associated with trying to get the big grow permits. Big business or big crooks have that type of money. The people who grow an amazing product will never have a chance at owning one of these shops