[SirStynkalot]

Master - in case you were curious, our government offers tours of nuclear facilities. https://www.hanford.gov/page.cfm/HanfordSiteTours

I don't understand your paranoia. Do you think you have some special, million dollar trade secret to protect? If so I have no idea what it could be because successful warehouse ops do almost everything the same way. Same active canopy to nonproductive floorspace ratio, same HVAC equations, same wiring, same lighting configurations, slight variance in fertigation, etc. The limiting technology for indoor production was designed in the 70s and people have pretty well figured out how to use those lights in the last 40 years. Only reason I can see to hide from the public is if you're afraid you'll do something wrong and get reported for it.

I wish I had gotten a 6 figure guaranteed salary and a 7 figure buyout but I'm telling you flat out that's not going to happen in the rec market at the ground level. You work your ass off for someone else as a master grower for a small stake in the company that you expect to grow in value through YOUR hard efforts over several years. I think you and many others are pricing yourselves out of this market. The hand that writes the checks gets the cheese and if you're one heck of a "try-hard" you'll earn a fraction of what they make for your efforts, which could still come out to be a huge sum of money.

Even so, there are many, many people who can "produce" the same resume you can if one condition of said resume is that prospective employers may not actually investigate it. Has that occurred to you? An NDA completely defeats the point of a resume. That is why the common attitude is if you're qualified for this sort of position, prospective employers will contact you rather than you contacting them. It's assumed you've done some stuff you shouldn't talk about and if you are well published then they can find you without hearing about it. Whether you need an NDA or not is really irrelevant though; that you even thought of it leads to certain assumptions about your moral character and common sense.

Finally, please remember everything you say on the internet represents you and growers have long memories. You can be nice now or have people harass you for it later if you get where you're trying to go. My two cents. Take em or leave em.

Picarus - the Cannabist has a list of places in CO you can go visit. They take cash, not seeds, but a few of them were reasonably priced. And if you have questions about the industry from the business side in WA anyway, Marijuana Venture is a great new magazine marketed directly to I-502 growers. Legal issues involving concentrates, the latest and greatest in marijuana advertising firms, recommended space allocation by percentage for different parts of warehouse style grow ops, and a lot of other fun stuff that no one in their right minds would want to know. Finally hearing about a worthwhile pot magazine has been the best perk of the job.

In regards to how they track plants, they audit growing in CO with RFID tags and in WA with bar codes. I'm not as solid on CO's regulations past that. LCB inspectors come after about 2 months to test video storage capacity on the security systems and then are supposed to be coming on an annual basis afterward. I believe (CO) Marijuana Board inspectors started heading out on a regular basis at the 6 month mark, but they're so understaffed that there's really no reliable way of guessing when long term inspections will be.

OSHA doesn't inspect unless you request it, have an accident, or they receive a complaint. Ecology claims they'll do annual inspections if you are doing something weird that requires special licensing, but their track record isn't stellar in my area and I'm not counting on them showing back up, not that it would make any difference. Building and Planning is really only involved while you're getting built in and don't do follow up inspections often, the downside of that being that if they come back and you've changed something they'll put a stop work order on your door and those don't have the same protections for your crop that the LCB has for disciplinary license suspensions. AFAIK if you get a stop work order from Building and Planning you're required by law to let your crop die in their pots. I could be mistaken, but at the very least it would have the same effect as a severe disciplinary sanction from the LCB since B&P takes three days to figure out where they put their cup of coffee. I would not recommend modifying anything after they've gone, and I promise it's going to be REALLY tempting. I hear it's the same almost everywhere except in a few small areas where the whole B&P department is one or two people who either actually do care about their jobs enough to do them well or don't care about getting fired enough to look twice.

There are some others that I can't remember off the top of my head, but they're less involved. For instance, you have to tell the fire department in addition to whoever else if you make a change to any of your chemicals after you move in so they know not to spray water on an acid spill or whatever. Lots of small things like that that you only really learn by going through the process. But the big ones that can kill the business and won't just get you fined are the LCB, B&P, maybe L&I if something bad enough happens, and in our case Ecology. And, of course, the tax man, but every op has its own accountant. That's not something you leave up to the farmer.

The biggest problems in this industry are really the same as almost every other legal business but seem a bit more exaggerated to me. Training and managing employees is a miserable headache, supplemental capital is nowhere to be found and there's an ungodly amount of paperwork both at the start and once you get going that you'd damn well better stay on top of. The real industry specific problems have been land zoning and availability, and if you're outside of a city, water rights. Properly zoned land has at least tripled in price, and in most of CO and a few places in WA water rights are federally owned and the feds would stop us from using the CO2 in the air for our plants if they could. Oh, and we get almost no tax breaks, so our costs are WAY higher than any other legal business and WAY higher than medical. "Waaah waaah medical is legal and we're all above board" is the rallying cry of the medical market in my area until the IRS comes calling or someone sets themselves on fire or something. Then they just shut down and open up on the other side of the city with a different name on the paperwork six months later. It has been going on for over a decade. I know of one guy who's about to close down his third store.

Medical and recreational are entirely different animals in WA. I hear it's different in CO but how much I couldn't say.

Hope that helps and if you go tour some ops I'm sure we'd all really appreciate a follow up post to share your thoughts on the experience!

[wordsux]

I guess the master is on that nuclear cannabiz

[Picarus]

Sir,
You seem like minded and competent. I appreciate you candor and knowledge. Once I get the pm I will reach out to you further. Thank you for your response.

[SirStynkalot]

No problem! I like to talk and anyone and everyone on this site is free to PM me. Just trying to help out. I have taken a lot from here over the years.

[snooze]

Originally Posted by The Master

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.

What a completely inappropriate response. I love ICmag and been coming here since 07 because of the community and the sharing vibe that has always been present here. This kind of attitude is unacceptable, take it to a different forum.

Sorry, I know this thread is a bit old, but I really really hate reading negative posts on ICmag, this is not the place for it and I had to express my 2 cents on it.

As far as tours, I'd imagine not many would be open to doing that, mainly because of bugs, and safety.

I do however have a pipe dream of starting a seed exchange club one day. We have them all over the city for Tomatoes and whatnot. Would be a great way to network with other folks that are into the hobby aspect of growing vs the $$ aspect.

[DumbName]

Originally Posted by The Master

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.

Wow

[homebrew420]

yeah I work in the industry and tours are few and far between, and certainly not anyone. I could give my friends a tour but honestly it is a service reserved for family visiting and investors...ok sometimes to show off. haha
I wish you luck in your endeavors.

peace

[saluki]

I toured a medicinal dispensaries warehouse facility in CO, one of their many. Helped that I knew an employee, it was very clean and professional. To the person that started this thread, don't be lazy. Try to network and be social and you will find what you are looking for. It's not as easy as trading seeds for easy open access.

[nattynattygurrl]

Hey guys!
Glad to hear you are planning to visit colorful Colorado! You will love it here!!
I realize I’m a bit late to the thread, however I wanted to share a couple tips to anyone thinking about visiting…

There are now a few “Bud & Breakfast’s”, that will supply toking supplies and even pair the perfect strain with your meal, (google “Bud & Breakfast”), which is a great idea for someone flying in and needing help getting meds. Since there are only a couple hotels that are truly “friendly" and welcoming of cannabis tourists, so I suggest looking at Air B&B…It’s a great resource for people wanting to visit CO and there are a number of really nice listings that are welcoming to tokers, (keep an eye out for spots with a porch or backyard! Most people are cool with you toking outside, as long as they have a private backyard or porch if you are respectful and considerate…i.e.: try to be clean and respectful.) Most places post a smoking policy in the description: look for something like “smoking ok outside”. I saw lots of places that mentioned "smoking is ok outside", a few were even more specific, saying “no cigarettes, cannabis ok”, etc.

The last time I was in Denver (Oct.) my whole family came out and we stayed for a week in a beautiful historic home in LoDo, (I’m out in the boonies of western CO, so we usually get get a place when we go down to Denver); there was even a silicone cannabis leaf pot holder, (or bong coaster), in the kitchen, lol…a sure sign I had picked the right place!

Just keep an eye out for listings that say it’s ok to smoke outside/on a porch. If you are respectful, courteous and willing to jump through the one or two (minimal) hoops, and you will have a great time! (Just don’t forget, you can’t toke in public!!!) If you need any other tips or suggestions on where to stay, don’t hesitate to PM me- I’d be glad to help.

Welcome & enjoy!!!

[b3fr33]

Surely inviting people on growroom tours is a recipe for disaster, regarding spidermites, etc