[SeniorBuzz]

The Legal but Largely Unregulated World of Pot Merchants Thrives

In his nondescript San Francisco flat, Kevin Reed operates a sleek, efficient marijuana delivery service.

Five drivers deliver the product — glistening green buds in white paper bags — to neighborhoods throughout the city. Two operators work the phones. Flat-screen TVs display security feeds of the surrounding neighborhood.

Mr. Reed, who had a clean-shaven head and wore a pinstriped shirt, calls his business the Green Cross. It is the only pot delivery service in San Francisco with a city permit, for which Mr. Reed paid $15,000.

Getting the permit was a laborious, three-month process, and this is why Mr. Reed is watching the proliferation of rival pot delivery services — none licensed — with dismay.

“I have to compete with the guy who has 2,000 plants in a field behind his house,” Mr. Reed said in a lilting Alabama accent as he smoked a joint. “And is selling his pot for $200 an ounce in the newspaper, delivery fee included. And not paying Uncle Sam a dime.”

In the new marijuana economy, the guy with the pot field behind his house is increasingly at odds with a growing class of Bay Area cannabis merchants.

A patchwork of local, state and federal laws — some in direct contradiction to one another — has led to a freewheeling marketplace for Bay Area pot, some of the world’s finest. With a state ballot measure to legalize the drug set for November, the economic activity has reached a fever pitch, drawing in local politicians, trade unionists, doctors and a variety of entrepreneurs.

Some of the activity is still blatantly illegal. In Oakland, a house where growers surreptitiously used eight car batteries to cultivate 300 pot plants recently burst into flames. And, in a practice that growers now say is widespread, pesticides not meant for consumable crops are being sold in hydroponic “grow” shops throughout the region, often in unlabeled vials.

Other activities occupy a more informal gray area. Posts on Web sites like *********.com propose to exchange marijuana for Nintendo systems and offer warnings about “rippers” who cheat or steal from suppliers.

With so much cash flying around, these transactions also attract crime. Last week, a San Francisco State student who ran an unlicensed delivery service out of his apartment took an order over the Internet. When he went to deliver a pound of marijuana to Richmond after midnight, the student was robbed of the pot and $1,000.

Still other activities are perfectly legal. The 29 licensed medical marijuana stores, or dispensaries, in San Francisco, Oakland and Berkeley are prohibited from turning a profit, but many are thriving. Harborside Health Center in Oakland is the largest medical marijuana store in the world — it shares 52,000 registered members with a sister location in San Jose. Harborside puts these earnings into free programs — like yoga classes and cannabis for low-income members — and makes charitable contributions.

”Some people think that our movement is being hijacked into big business,” said Jeff Jones, a proponent of the legalization initiative and a longtime medical marijuana activist. “I think we are just maturing.”

To read the full story click here.

[Yukon Cornelius]

Inspirational

[SeniorBuzz]

A patchwork of local, state and federal laws — some in direct contradiction to one another — has led to a freewheeling marketplace for Bay Area pot, some of the world’s finest. With a state ballot measure to legalize the drug set for November, the economic activity has reached a fever pitch, drawing in local politicians, trade unionists, doctors and a variety of entrepreneurs.

and here we are, right in the middle of all of it.

how lucky can we get

it's chaos

and it will never fly

TC2010 should be voted down simply because of the union affiliation

The Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010
https://www.taxcannabis.org/index.php/pages/initiative/

don't allow this to become a political football

it's time to agree with the state as to where mmj dispensaries aren't allowed

it's time for commercial growers to step forward to present their own acceptable common-sense growing standards

it's time for mmj to be inspected, tested, and stamped

here's what the state is shooting for (subject to debate)

Marijuana Control, Regulation, and Education Act. AB 2254
https://bit.ly/besEZw

if you can, in part, agree to most of the content
collective growers can probably successfully negotiate some benefits

[vta]

Originally Posted by SeniorBuzz

TC2010 should be voted down simply because of the union affiliation

care to explain?