[Picarus]

I am making a trip to denver and would love to tour some facilities, especially those who breed. I can offer some fresh seed stock in exchange if interested. I will be traveling this weekend. Not looking for trade secrets just to network and see how you do it!
More power to you for being legal pioneers and can't wait to be in your land.

[monsoon]

I'm thinking it may all be somewhat different than you are visualizing...

This info is a few months old...but I think you may get the drift about how all of this is playing out for the players who are playing, and how little they care about anything other than making huge bank and protecting their grow. In short, the sad truth is that the majority of people who are involved in this new industry are only in it for the $$$.

https://www.thecannabist.co/2014/08/0...website/16664/

Keep all of it on the down low. It's "legal"...it just isn't legal to smoke in public/etc. Check with your hotel as well...as every property owner in CO has the right to allow or disallow use.

have a great trip.

[Jhhnn]

Google "Colorado pot tourism packages" to see what's available.

They're making money off every aspect of cannabis, including letting you see it...

[Picarus]

I was more hoping for some icmaggers to open up a bit... of course I agree most growers are in it for the $, but surely there are some passionate growers who see value in creating a community. The world is changing...
Thanks for the replies but do to illness I have canceled the trip. I will re schedule prob after the new year if any like minded operators care to start a conversation.

[SirStynkalot]

Well, writing us all off as greedy is one way to look at it, certainly.

All I can speak to is WA, so here goes...

There's a bunch of red tape involved in allowing outside access to facilities. Grow ops are by necessity not usually open to the general public. I'd need several days' notice to get the paperwork ready and let the LCB know to look over our shoulders while the tour is on.

Next, allowing outside eyes into grow ops is insanely risky to almost every legal grow op because none of them are fully compliant with relevant state and local law. I promise it. It's almost impossible to be and if they let in an outside person who complains to OSHA, for instance, then they could be out a ton of money for allowing that person to see the violations. It's not even big stuff like Metal Halides in open fixtures. Even little details like not labeling your fertilizers with color-coded, state issued hazmat stickers could catch you heat on inspections.

And, lastly, you're an outside person. You can bring bugs into my op and walk away clean, deliberately or not. I can turn every visitor to my op into a "bubble boy" but that's a huge hassle in and of itself and isolation suits cost money, too.

Then there's the time that either I or my employees have to spend walking through with you, and we're pretty short staffed. Most ops are.

Soooo... yeah. Rules on visits from the public were only finalized by the LCB two weeks ago if I remember correctly, and they're strict. It sucks to charge for it but we're out several hours of labor and have to take on a big risk with every person who walks through the doors. It's not just about money. If it was, a lot more grow ops would be giving them.

That being said, I intend to open my facility up to tours in the first half of 2015. If I do it and I charge for it it's still going to be a massive PITA that I consider a favor to the horticultural community and I promise you I'm not going to be making jack off it. You have to go through the same procedure as what's required to enter an area where they work with effing Ebola, but we're going to make it available. Best I can do.

As far as Denver goes, Lightshade on Holly has a window from the street into their grow op. You can look in and watch them work. Medicine Man out by the airport was also discussing doing tours when I went over to Denver 6 months ago and I was told has been filming a marijuana documentary, so they may have their QA and paperwork procedures for visits more smoothed out than other grow shops.

Also, don't expect to see a lot of legal rec growers wanting to teach their competition. Just saying...

[Picarus]

sr stynkalot
thanks for the reply. I see your perspective and appreciate your insight. I doubt if I am going to see anything I haven't seen before on a tour but I value person to person relationships. I also want to share my knowledge. I want to start networking within the industry and find like minded people who have pride and integrity both with their cultivation side but also their business side.
I want to learn from the experience of others in a similar situation, but most importantly I want to share what I have learned. I also want to share genetics and techniques with other breeders.
Also I am not located in Colorado so I could I be viewed as competition?

[SirStynkalot]

Heck, I said I was going to give tours. I could care less. I think I can make a good product and be profitable too, and if I can convince people that they can make reasonable growing techniques profitable (i.e. proper flushing, curing, minimal pesticide use, etc) then I'm a happy clam. Come, learn, network, whatever. I'm heading to law school so I don't know that my contact will be worth much, but I'm happy to share what I've learned and would LOVE to learn from you.

That anti-competition vibe was what I got while from a couple places while I was in Denver though. Heck, I asked the same question you did when I went down there (also not competition, my WA driver's license kinda proves it) and I had one budtender ask me "So what's your angle? Are you looking for a job here or what?" and then shooed me out the door. I was mostly trying to warn you more than anything else, although my boss might feel differently. A lot of the people who had enough money to fund a grow op out of pocket aren't big ganja fans and were looking at the profit margins. Research where you want to hit before hand and assume a stereotypical potrepreneur wants to see you clean shaven and in a polo and dress slacks. Business casual would probably meet more of them on their level and get them to open up to you more.

Regarding breeders, that's CO only. I know nothing about that. I heard Red Eye was getting into I-502 up in my neck of the woods but don't know for sure and breeding is an ex-nay in this state. We didn't legalize home growing. More's the pity - might have kept our tax structure more honest if they'd allowed the "fuck it, I'll do it myself" competition. Gripe for a different thread though...

As far as integrity in business practices goes, we're literally under surveillance by the state 24 hours a day. Anyone you meet is going to have integrity or is going to be out of the business sooner or later. I've kept my ear to the ground locally and the LCB has been very, very attentive to issues that could attract federal attention. Cheating in business would be one of those. Everyone can cheat us but the gods forbid we forget to cross a "T." Pride in the process may be *a bit* harder to find. You WOULD NOT believe the costs involved in rec growing. The desire to squeeze your crops for everything they're worth isn't motivated by greed, it's motivated by the desire to stay in business. Development of this industry DID NOT go down as advertised.

[The Master]

Originally Posted by Picarus

I am making a trip to denver and would love to tour some facilities, especially those who breed. I can offer some fresh seed stock in exchange if interested. I will be traveling this weekend. Not looking for trade secrets just to network and see how you do it!
More power to you for being legal pioneers and can't wait to be in your land.

Picarus, who the fuck are you that you get a tour. Ed Rosenthaul, George VanPatten? CNN? Go show up at a nuclear facility and say you have some seeds to trade for a tour. I would never let you into my facility or a facility I work with. Go to Iran and ask for a tour of their nuke facility. I take my business as serious as the government takes their nuke facilities.

your the fucken greedy one offering seeds for a tour. Clearly you don't know the value or you do and want to exploit.

[mistermagoo]

master, thats rough. You are on a whole different vantage point from this guy.

That is a trip how different you see things from Picarus. I hope soon cannabis breeders will be able to patent and protect their genetic work like other agribusiness genetics companies. Like Monsanto or DuPont or Pioneer HI-bred, or any other major agricultural genetics company. My father retired as a senior plant breeder at one of these and he'd really enjoy having students follow him, was passionate about his work... he didn't smoke or breed pot though... once Monanto employees stole some Pioneer genetics and the court battle went on for damn near a decade it seemed... but I digress... and they only produce homogenous F1 lines of seed corn for farmers... every plant, every row, is identical...but you could have limited access to visit their facilities if you asked the right people.

As this emerging industry legalizes and moves mainstream, it will be interesting to see how well different players position themselves and who remains relevant and competent to compete. Right now you have people winning by creating unstable polyhybrids and growing out a bunch, keeping the winner cut to compete with, and selling 10 pack seeds that often won't be like the winner cut... for the moment some pollen chuckers are able to make a dollar and walk tall on the forums before actual geneticists come in and establish homogenous f1 lines across the board of whatever people want, gmo's resulting in unforseen tastes, smells, smoothness, medical efficacy, etc... with gene splicing the opportunities are endless...

Seeing the denver commercial facilities would be a dream for many people vacationing to Colorado, if only because these people are living in places where they have to fear jail for even a small closet grow. I hope you come to appreciate those who take interest in your work as a plant breeder.

What cup winner did you breed?

[Picarus]

The Master,
I can tell by your self gloss how you feel about yourself, but not every grower is capable of such ego. Colorado has led the charge into legalization and I am interested to see how people are getting along on the business side. What are the pitfalls, how are they auditing the growing, how are local gov't inspecting them etc. What are the challenges going from a medical non-profit into a for profit business?
I, unlike you, have a lot to learn from others and am more interested in community and effecting real change rather than profit.
I don't enter into competitions myself, but when my donation was entered in by a dispensary I work with, I won first prize. 2013 Sf medical cannabis cup. Take you accolades and go pound sand. Good luck with your 7 figure buyout. I'm sure you and your new boss will get along well.