[Stress_test]

A couple of weeks ago I had a power outage that lasted 3 days and several of my nicer mothers were lost. So yesterday I had an appointment with my doctor and was in Spokane, WA and decided to stop in at a few of the dispensaries and see if I could locate some cuttings for about 5 of my favorites; New Holland, Super Skunk X Northern Lights, Bubba Kush, and Bubble Berry and Train Wreck...

The only clones I could locate were from a place on N. Freya, so I went in and checked em out. While I was there I decided to get a couple 20 bags of Train Wreck and Cheese to see how they compared to my own.

Anyway, I went in and they checked to be sure I was legal and all and we went in and looked around.

WOW! I was pretty much SHOCKED!

The place was very poorly lighted and the first impression upon entering was like the images of drug houses like they show on TV. With a few people sitting in a darkened corner smoking weed and listening to some kind of really loud annoying RAP crap music, and a make shift counter/display on the other side of the large room.
I inquired about their clone strains and such and was able to get 4 of the cuts I was after. (Pictures to follow shortly, after my camera battery charges)

I was "invited" to visit their grow room and select my own cuts from what they had.

I wish I could have taken pictures because there is no way anybody would believe that grow room. And I use the term "grow room" very lightly because it was more like a "no-grow room", with 8' cfl's mounted to a frame and hung above a hydro table that was literally covered with clutter and takeout trash. The frame had been designed to raise and lower the lights using a hand crank. Except the cable was broken on 1 end, which had been propped up with one of those yellow mop buckets from McDonalds. Yeah, literally from Micky D's... It even had the M on the side of it.

So the lighting sucked bad, but I picked out 4 of the nicest clones he had, that I was sure I could bring back to life and paid $15 each for em. According to the labels on em they were all cut on January 30.

Last-nite when I got home, I put em inside a rubber-maid tub w/lid and set em in my veg room. This morning I went to inspect the newest addition to my harem. Wisely I had quarantined them instead of just setting em in with the crew. They were infested with the BORG!

So I brought em all out and sprayed em down, then showered so I could work in the veg room. I looked over at my clones and realized that Mine were cut on February 6, and were 3-4 times the size of the 4 I just got.

I stewed over it for about an 2 hours, then I got out my scales and microscope and inspected the 2 bags of bud I had gotten.
Now I can say first hand that neither had the smooth taste that my own does, but neither did they have the potency or even texture and color mine has. But they did have something that mine never has: THE BORG! Tons of dried dead mites impregnated in the buds.

So I called the owner/manager of the place and informed him about his infestation. He promptly informed me that he guarantees his products and if I brought it back then he would give me a refund...

Now I went into that place to buy "medicine", not weed or street pot, but herb which I consume to alleviate pain and help me sleep. What I got drove 3 hours home with was shit that I tossed in the fireplace after paying $40 for it.

Anyway the owner/manager told me that he was sorry, but they were just getting started and were still learning. Now I try and be cool with people and offered my own knowledge, tools, experience etc. to travel back to Spokane with a crew and build a grow op that he could be proud of displaying to his members and the patients who visit the dispensary. All he had to do was cover material and our direct travel and boarding expenses.

I mean wtf? It's a "dispensary". They dispense "medical marijuana".

My grow op is sterile and comfortable. When people visit my garden they feel inwardly soothed and comforted with life and health because everything is alive and thriving and full of color and energy.

This was the first time I had ever visited a dispensary and of the 5 I visited yesterday in Spokane, none of them even came close to meeting my own "minimum standards" for "medical grade marijuana".

I am somewhat discouraged about visiting more dispensaries because of the atmosphere and general feelings I left with after those I have checked out.

Is my experience typical? I mean here in WA or around the USA? My own home and garden are 1000 times more welcoming and healthy than any of the 5 dispensaries I visited.

Because if my experiences are really typical? People we really have a LOOOOOOOONG way to go before mainstream America accepts MMJ as anything more than legal drug dealing.

Okay I promised pictures and I am probably going to do a grow report on these.

First pic is my ghetto garden. It's kinda like my nursery because it catches all the temperamental veggies and sick or recovering plants.



Next are the four new additions, from top left to right is New Holland, Bubble Berry and on the bottom are Bubba Kush and SSxNL



This next pic is one of my clones cut on 2-6, beside the Bubba Kush, the healthiest of the clones.



And here are 4 of my clones from 2-6 sitting in the same place as the 4 new.



And just cause I love seeing all the veggies blossoming too:

sounds like a nightmare there. sorry you lost your moms. i pass my cuts often, to share the love and to keep them available for recall.

something good will come along for you

[Mr.Gr33n]

majority do it for the 'love of growing'
others do it for the money.

majority wanna grow the best plants that they can with lots of t l c
a minority do it cuz its easy 'cash in the pocket'

since its legal medicine you would indeed expect the best of the best
and i can feel ya pain from the above msg

[fart star]

no offense meant, but that's what you get in Spokanistan.

Have you seen the thclist/dot/com website? It is a good resource for medical patients in WA. Most all the co-op's are on the west side however and require a drive over the pass.

The only time I visited a dispensary, it was on the West Side and I got the drug dealing vibe. Most of the medicine appeared to be mediocre cali outdoor that I wouldn't touch let alone spend money on. Some of it seemed decent and most of that was pretty fresh. No cure whatsoever.

I visited a dispensary in Salida, CO, just to take a look see and it was a completely different story. Very professional waiting room and excellent supply of high quality buds. 25 strains, all of them cured and professionally presented. It was a high bar to set being the first dispensary I visited. All others have been sub-par and not catering to my understanding of what a medicine shop should be, appearance, quality, etc....

good luck

edit... I shouldn't be so hard on Spokane, since the last time I visited the city I acquired some really, really nice medicine. I was very surprised with the quality actually. It wasn't through a store front however. I don't think that the best cuts/medicine are available in store fronts yet. They're all still underground. Time will tell

[woolybear]

What does it take to open a legal dispensery in spokane wa? From your story it sounds like the barrier to entry is very low, or they were some shady underground dispensers?

Wierd to me, as what from i've read its not easy to get an mmj script in WA...

but DEAD SPIDER MITES in the weed? fukn gross!

Somehow I think there's no state weed inspectors in spokane? or anywhere in WA?


edit: how can you run a dispensery and 'be learning?' holy shit! guess the owner has huge brass balls, or is a complete idiot

[trichrider]

and welcome to my nightmare...won't be visiting a dispicable, uh...dispensible, uh...you know.

[Stress_test]

Freya is a main arterial of Spokane and they had signs and a 1/4 page add in the newspaper so I'm pretty damn sure it wasn't underground.
Good point though on the health inspections. Funny too cause until yesterday I have opposed a new bill which is up now that would require health inspections.

In WA mmj script is super easy to get if you have medical record of a qualifying illness. It literally took under 30 days for me. I asked my usual doc of 15 what he thought about it and from there he set me up with a MMJ friendly attorney who opened a MMJ Clinic. This guy is incredible and a true hero in the MMJ movement. His clinic has stringent guidelines for approval but if approved his firm will defend any client on any MMJ charges at no charge.

Anyway sorry; that almost sounded like pumping for him but I really respect what he is doing. I have almost talked myself into creating a co-op and doing it along the lines of what I actually had expected before I ever visited. My problem with it now is that in my paperwork from this attorney already says that dispensaries and co-op's are a gray area in the laws and would be difficult to defend "if" the prosecuting attorney decided to prosecute. So those that exist now, only do so by the grace of the individual counties' prosecuting attorney.

That just blows my mind the way those places operate. I mean how can they get any repeat business after people see that kind of let down?

Those people over in New Zeland have it made man.

[Stress_test]

Okay well I promised pics so I edited my first post and added them.