Making A Living Off Medical Marijuana?

[NorCalFor20]

I wanted this thread to die, but since it didn't and is back at the top I wanna have my say on the whole situation.

It costs thousands a month to grow on that scale, its not like im trying to spend 400$ and sell 30k worth of weed. I have to be able to cover my costs, and pay my house payments- I do it for the sake of helping people but I expect to be re imbursed for my risk/costs

I am for recreational and medicinal use, i don't care if you like to get high or if you have to smoke to keep your HIV medicine down- weed is for everyone. I am a medical user, but I would still smoke even if I had no medical condtion, I am lucky enough to be bodily able and in fairly good physical shape, there are people who cannot make it to their cars to go get groceries- much less go get growing equipment, haul soil, go back and fourth buying nutes making trips to the hydro shop, and dealing with cops.

I see nothing ethically wrong with growing weed for medical patients and making a profit. If I heard of a sick person who didn't have any weed to smoke and couldn't afford to buy any then I would gladly give them some weed for free. I have been there plenty of times, as a matter of fact im in that spot right now but im not beating on dealers doors demanding free weed because I have no money.... For the rest of the people who are not terminally ill should have no problem paying for their medicine. If your not willing to pay for good buds, then grow your own unless like i said earlier, the person is terminally ill/ or disabled.

As far as state law goes I could only sell to authorized co-ops , dispensaries whatever term you use. So I would stick to that until I hear any further..... I am not concerned with federal law as it does not apply to a small operation. In my eyes federal law is un-constitutional due to states rights to make laws as they see fit. If the DEA dosn't like pot being grown in california then they need to go somewhere else. Thats just how i see it. There are more meth labs in Iowa than pot farms in california so i think thats a bigger fish to fry at the moment.

 

[G33k Speak]

No, but then again they don't work for a co-operative.

So many people are throwing around the word dispensaries these days that they forgot that 215 really just allows for co-operatives.

Calling a modern day dispensary a co-operative these days is a joke and an insult to the founders of 215 and sick patients everywhere.

Good post.

A coop was discussed in someone else's post and that sounded like the way it should be done.

 

[G33k Speak]

No the doctor is shady.
The hosptial staff is a business.
The ambulance only wants money so do those hacks that judge people.
No, they are capitalists not humanitarians.

I see your comments as racist against Mexicans. (tip off thread)
How much is the quality worth if the hospital and those are businesses are putting people into debt due to health problems. Also, not everyone is male.

Also, I can see you are tracing my posts, very LEO of you...
besides you didn't even contribute to this thread about this guy wanting to make money off people you only came to comment on my post...again shady.

I responded to your seemingly unrealistic suggestion that everything should be free.
You didn't offer anything about setting up a coop, or anything on how the current situation could be improved.

And sorry to deflate your ego, but I have no fucking idea who you are, nor do I care.
...'tracing your posts??? like with tracing paper so I can preserve your wit and wisdom for the ages???

 

[Whatever]

I see nothing ethically wrong with growing weed for medical patients and making a profit.

There is nothing wrong with that...NOTHING. Just be in INTEGRITY! Somebody has to 'supply' the community. I say displace the scabs. Greed and 'cash cropping' is in the heart. It does not matter if you're growing an acre of ganja or just dealing with 1 400 watt closet grow...either way you can still be a cash cropper...a succubus.

I got a buddy in the federal system who got railroaded for running a straight up outdoor Cali med farm. People judged and criticized him on the forums when his case went public and yet knew NOTHING about the man. A true rasta just living to spread herb, cuts and seeds. The dude didn't even own his own car...most of the meds were just given away.

Such bullshit every time this subject comes up!

 

[SweetNightmare]

I'm sure if norcal could do that n give out tons of free weed he would... but running an indoor setup costs a lot more then having a huge outdoor weed field I'm sure... Even the people who do give away meds to the very sick sell some to the dispensaries to cover their expenses... It's crazy how everyone is criticizing a guy who wants to be able to do something he loves while being able to put food on his table and help others... it's not like he's gunna be selling it for 60 an 8th lol you guys should be going to dispensaries and complaining... I'm pretty sure (most) of them are the ones taking advantage of the laws and the sick people not norcal!

 

[inflorescence]

I have to be able to cover my costs, and pay my house payments-

I think we all can agree you should be entitled to cover your growing costs but why on earth do you think you should be able to sell it at a high enough rate to cover your house payment.

Please don't explain to me that your house would be considered part of your grow cost, as in maintaining a dwelling for the manufacture of MJ because that would be ludicris.

I suppose if I lived in a million dollar house I should be entitled to sell the MMJ I produce at such a rate to pay off that house.

 

[HenDokuYaku]

I think we all can agree you should be entitled to cover your growing costs but why on earth do you think you should be able to sell it at a high enough rate to cover your house payment.

Please don't explain to me that your house would be considered part of your grow cost, as in maintaining a dwelling for the manufacture of MJ because that would be ludicris.

I suppose if I lived in a million dollar house I should be entitled to sell the MMJ I produce at such a rate to pay off that house.

Inflorescence,

Should the grower not be reimbursed for their time as well? As we know that managing even a medium garden can be a full time proposition. If I'm spending a large part of my time tending a garden it is time that I could be otherwise making some sort of income.

It sounds like you expect people to provide high quality medicine while living below the poverty line.

 

[trybud]

Im totally for making a living off of supplying meds. earning your keep and getting rich are 2 different ends of this issue. I have friends in my circle that sell $20-25 1/8ths and $175 oz (year round and high quality) to other 'qualified' patients. They dont own Cadillacs but they have dependable cars and their rents are paid on time......Anyone see anything wrong with that? i supply clones in my area (on a small scale)and do that on sliding scale according their income($1- $15 w/ most going for around $5) i probably give away 10% of my nicer clones and always give my culls away. HUGE profits are the enemy, along with those 50 card holder commercial gardens; no matter how well intentioned.

 

[Rainman]

In my eyes any profit made in this community is made on the backs of the sick and dying which I cant in good conscious or karma screw with. I have a full time job, own a house and have a med garden. I supply sick friends and not sick friends with my herb, pass along seeds and clones to the whole community. I charge nothing and never would. I am all for cash croppers doin their thing and makin all the money they want. Just dont ask me to condone them doing it for the sake of profit on sick people. Grow as much and as big as you want but dont ask to have it both ways when the cops show up. I think it is cowardly to hide behind a medical card anyway when your only motive is $$$ or to make payments. (That isn't what the law was made for!) Until we get legislation like that introduced in Mass. today that will possibly legalize MJ for the whole state on a personal level then I feel we have to keep the two completely separate and goin on our own paths. The two have totally opposing goals at this point.

 

[socioecologist]

The Modern Hippocratic Oath

The Modern Hippocratic Oath

I swear to fulfill, to the best of my ability and judgment, this covenant:

I will respect the hard-won scientific gains of those physicians in whose steps I walk, and gladly share such knowledge as is mine with those who are to follow.

I will apply, for the benefit of the sick, all measures [that] are required, avoiding those twin traps of overtreatment and therapeutic nihilism.

I will remember that there is art to medicine as well as science, and that warmth, sympathy, and understanding may outweigh the surgeon's knife or the chemist's drug.

I will not be ashamed to say "I know not," nor will I fail to call in my colleagues when the skills of another are needed for a patient's recovery.

I will respect the privacy of my patients, for their problems are not disclosed to me that the world may know. Most especially must I tread with care in matters of life and death. If it is given me to save a life, all thanks. But it may also be within my power to take a life; this awesome responsibility must be faced with great humbleness and awareness of my own frailty. Above all, I must not play at God.

I will remember that I do not treat a fever chart, a cancerous growth, but a sick human being, whose illness may affect the person's family and economic stability. My responsibility includes these related problems, if I am to care adequately for the sick.

I will prevent disease whenever I can, for prevention is preferable to cure.

I will remember that I remain a member of society, with special obligations to all my fellow human beings, those sound of mind and body as well as the infirm.

If I do not violate this oath, may I enjoy life and art, respected while I live and remembered with affection thereafter. May I always act so as to preserve the finest traditions of my calling and may I long experience the joy of healing those who seek my help.

 

[Whatever]

In my eyes any profit made in this community is made on the backs of the sick and dying which I cant in good conscious or karma screw with.

LOL...an overwhelming majority of people who smoke/eat cannabis can easily get by without it and DO NOT need it for severe medical conditions. Most people who smoke, regardless if a med state or not, do so because they ENJOY the influence. The people who truly need it, and yes cannabis helps with a wide variety of issues, should have inexpensive access.

Just dont ask me to condone them doing it for the sake of profit on sick people.

They're just basically 'feeding' the general market and the people in true need of it as medicine for serious conditions are a small part of it.

I think it is cowardly to hide behind a medical card anyway when your only motive is $$$ or to make payments.

I know people from those growing a few plants each year outdoor for personal use all the way to commercial growers supplying herb to a circuit that has existed long before the whole 'medical' thing broke loose. They're all my friends and don't judge em for how they choose to live their lives. I'm only interested in cannabis...and if anyone says they have a problem and need help I'll do what I can for em.

What needs to happen is legalization for all...whether for RECREATIONAL use or for GENUINE medical reasons. This plant don't care either way...it just wants to grow. It's people and their minds, opinions, judgments that want to qualify it somehow. What a folly.

 

[Rainman]

Whatever - Your response doesn't address the issue discussed above!!! It makes no sense and to say that sick people are using it because they enjoy it, is immature to say the least. The people I give meds to aren't just sick they are terminal. Any extra quality of life I can give by sharing my garden is nothing for me and everything to them. And the kicker is most ingest it in food form for ailments like Chemo tx and keeping HIV meds down after swallowing, hense no getting high for the feeling. As for inexpensive meds, what is that when you are laying around waiting to die? Is that the price they have to pay in $$ or something else? Think about that as you hang with your friends you are not judging.

"for the sake of profit on sick people" Profiting on the backs of the sick is exactly what they are doing. To say they that the sick market only makes up a small part of the overall general market just shows us that the business plan of the cash croppers does include that type of profit on the sick. Even if it is a small part of their business model. If it wasn't clear before you just made it clear for us all. Look, I never said I was against growing comm. but again if you have been doing it for years before, then why now do all the cash croppers want have med cards and get that protection it affords from prosecution?

Folly- Lack of good judgment and an act of foolishness. Folly would be to think that med users need or want the type of business model you propose! One where the sick pay way too much for meds and drug dealers get rich off the disenfranchised and terminal. We got that system in place already with big medicine. I will repeat myself! If you are growing pot for the purpose of selling it to poor sick people for any profit then you are a COWARD!! That is just how I feel and I dont care who you are! To ask a dying person to give you cash for something that they could have grown themselves but were just too sick to is pathetic and lame of you. You can try to give me the bs about I know this and them and they are good people trying to make a living, yada, yada, yada! If they are doing what I just described then they are what I said they were. COWARDS!!! Friends or not and I dont care when they got into growing!! and a folly is exactly what it should be for cash cropper when they charge sick and dying for something that"just wants to grow"!! "an excessively costly and unprofitable undertaking" See!! I like Webster's other definition better.

 

[kmk420kali]

Whatever - Your response doesn't address the issue discussed above!!! It makes no sense and to say that sick people are using it because they enjoy it, is immature to say the least. The people I give meds to aren't just sick they are terminal. Any extra quality of life I can give by sharing my garden is nothing for me and everything to them. And the kicker is most ingest it in food form for ailments like Chemo tx and keeping HIV meds down after swallowing, hense no getting high for the feeling. As for inexpensive meds, what is that when you are laying around waiting to die? Is that the price they have to pay in $$ or something else? Think about that as you hang with your friends you are not judging.

Bro...pls keep it real-- Whatever is right...most of the meds that are used, are not used bu the terminally sick-- I have worked in dispensaries, and grows...and there is much love going out for the terminal and seriously sick--
But to count everybody else as fakes...is wrong-- I have my 215 because of my back...I have labored hard all my life, and it is trashed-- Do I medically need MJ for my ailment?? Hell yes-- Do I deserve to get it free?? Not so much--

then why now do all the cash croppers want have med cards and get that protection it affords from prosecution?

Uhhh...because it helps them avoid the prosecution/persecution that they have never deserved-- Once again, filling a market and making $$ is not evil-- It can live in harmony with compassion--

Folly- Lack of good judgment and an act of foolishness. Folly would be to think that med users need or want the type of business model you propose! One where the sick pay way too much for meds and drug dealers get rich off the disenfranchised and terminal. We got that system in place already with big medicine. I will repeat myself! If you are growing pot for the purpose of selling it to poor sick people for any profit then you are a COWARD!! That is just how I feel and I dont care who you are! To ask a dying person to give you cash for something that they could have grown themselves but were just too sick to is pathetic and lame of you. You can try to give me the bs about I know this and them and they are good people trying to make a living, yada, yada, yada! If they are doing what I just described then they are what I said they were. COWARDS!!! Friends or not and I dont care when they got into growing!! and a folly is exactly what it should be for cash cropper when they charge sick and dying for something that"just wants to grow"!! "an excessively costly and unprofitable undertaking" See!! I like Webster's other definition better.

Once again, you are correct that the terminal/serious patients should be taken care of-- That accounts for about 2% of the MJ needs in Cali alone-- The rest is just free enterprise--
There is nothing cowardly about living in a large grow...(1000+) I did it last year, and I will tell you that I earned my $$...granted I had a limited amount, as I was just a worker, and not the owner-- But I was there through it all...and the stress and hard work that go with it are unbelievable-- But once again...if it wasn't for that, if ppl had to rely on only MJ grown in accordance....then it would be much more expensive and hard to find--
I respect your opinions...and will continue to give mine--

 

[wick650]

The self-righteousness of some of you guys is rediculous. I'd like to meet & shake the hand of the growers living in multi-million $ houses, commuting to the local chemotherapy spot in a sports car to slang dubs of taxed mersh.

 

[Haps]

Is moral court in session here, or is it the holier-than- thou club? When does a regular mmj client become worthy of charity? Does every body have local holy friends to help them? Is it all black and white? Do you not know people who operate with morals and ethics in this arena? If a "coop" operates at a moderate profit, enough to ensure continuation of the service, will they not be there to help folks that need the meds, free or at reduced cost? Do you need any more questions?
H

 

[inflorescence]

If a "coop" operates at a moderate profit, enough to ensure continuation of the service, will they not be there to help folks that need the meds, free or at reduced cost? Do you need any more questions?
H

Some of these co-ops are pulling in a mil every year or two.

I may not have an MBA but it doesn't take a genius to know that it doesn't take a mil to CONTINUE a business.

 

[inflorescence]

Uhhh...because it helps them avoid the prosecution/persecution that they have never deserved

Hate to say it bro, but under the way the law is set up right now prosecution is exactly what is deserved.

Is is it right. Hell no. Is it fair. hell no.

But to hide under the guise of another law is cowardly like rainman said.

HERE IS A CLUE TO ALL THE CASH CROPPERS LIVING UNDER THE GUISE OF 215, IF YOU DON'T FARKIN LIKE THE LAW THEN CHANGE IT JUST LIKE US ILL PATIENTS DID FOR OUR CAUSE.

 

[HenDokuYaku]

business

business

Some of these co-ops are pulling in a mil every year or two.

I may not have an MBA but it doesn't take a genius to know that it doesn't take a mil to CONTINUE a business.

Why shouldn't the business pull in a mill or two as long as patients in need are getting taken care of? With all due respect, you seem angry at these people for running a successful business. I'm sure it takes a lot of work to make something llike that succeed. It is true that there are a lot of people who take advantage of the system and other people. That seems to be everywhere and part of human nature. The thing I noticed is that just about everyone in mmj is willing to help out a patient in need.

I love the discussion. Thanks very much for sharing your point of view.

 

[kmk420kali]

Some of these co-ops are pulling in a mil every year or two.

I may not have an MBA but it doesn't take a genius to know that it doesn't take a mil to CONTINUE a business.

And the ones that are doing that...once you consider buying a secure property, setting up a major grow, paying employees...gas, water, electric....nutes, fans, construction, maintenance, security-- The number shrinks significantly--
If you lose a crop for whatever reason...it can set you back tens of thousands of $$--

 

[inflorescence]

If you lose a crop for whatever reason...it can set you back tens of thousands of $$--

and this is different exactly how from the millions of "legit" farmers in this country who are working just as hard yet producing crop (food, textiles) that are 1/50 the value when sold?