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Buzzby

There is a type of licensed growing operation. It's called a "patient collective". Patients can assign their needs to appointed caregivers to grow their medicine. This is entirely legitimate under California law and some organizations, like WAMM, are doing just that.

Where the feds are winning "the heart and minds" of the general public is when they demonstrate that most dispensaries are big-money for-profit drug-dealing operations. There is no reason a growing cooperative would be charging patients $400 for an ounce of weed. There should be standards and checks for doctors making recommendations, such as random independent evaluations of the patients they recommend for mmj.

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hash pancakes

As we know, Prop 215 wasn't talking about clubs & dispensaries, it was about growing your own, on your own or in a group. The clubs weren't really factored in when it was first starting, these are businesses not charity organizations. But you can be both. You don't HAVE to charge high prices. You CAN BE HAPPY with what you have & not have to make a buck on everything. It's become a career choice. You can spend that college tuition on growing equipment, get rich, & go to school on-line while waiting on your clones. Or you can be glad you're alive & have great medicine without organized crime prices. If you don't like your local club, start your own. There's no reason you can't. Community is good, and like-minded people working together can be so uplifting & beneficial in many ways. And sure there are expenses! But you can always share the costs & help those with less than yourself.
Pricey clubs are an easy target for the feds, a shining example of "all that's wrong with drugs" for the people who want to see it that way. In a real collective, members all have a say, they're not customers.

Viper420

Clubs HAD to have been factored in with Prop 215. Not everyone can grow medpot. Some people just don't have a green thumb or don't have time to wait 3 months for a crop to mature. Anyone who thought out this proposal had to know that there had to be some form of distribution system.

Buzzby

Prop 215 allows patients to assign a caregiver to grow or procure marijuana for them. That's the only provision made for patients who are unable to grow or otherwise procure marijuana for themselves. That concept was expanded to allow for patient collectives or co-ops to grow their medicine.

It was never intended for illicit growers and for-profit dispensary owners to make a fortune selling medical marijuana at street prices to medical marijuana patients (and others). More than anything else, this has made the general public doubt that medical marijuana is for real and not just a scheme for recreational pot smokers to get high without legal consequences.

Viper420

It gets even worse when people go to lame ass doctors with phoney claims about needing med pot. On that episode of 60 minutes, they showed undercover news reporters obtaining med pot cards without so much as an exam by the doctor, just paid the fee and got the card.

 

hash pancakes

Good point. When you get a prescription, you take it to 1 pharmacy. You don't get to take it to every drug store & fill it, as many times as you want. Clubs should be having patients sign "exclusives" which means you can only fill your script there. I have been involved with collectives in the past & that's how it was. What is needed is knowledgable doctors who can prescribe a dosage instead of some vague amount, not just the amount you can afford. Of course there are some doctors with this knowledge, these are the ones that testify in court cases when the patient's have had their medicine seized.
For example, Humboldt County allows 99 plants, but you can only have 8oz medicine. You've got to be a piss-poor gardener to only get that much from 99 plants! Yet you can have more IF you can find a doctor to say the amount you need.
I'm confident that we can make this work. We know where the problems are, we know Prop 215 wasn't perfect, but I have hope.

Viper420

No, you take it to A pharmacy. Any pharmacy will fill your drug prescription.
The same thing should apply to medpot.