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ronaldmaustin

It's not really free enterprise. The only people who enter the market are those willing to take the risk of a 20 year to life sentence. Some dispensaries say the others do it for profit while they do it beacuse they care about medical patients. Extremely doubtful. These dispensaries have done more damage to medical marijuana than anything else. If we had to vote again today, I don't think the Compassionate Use Act would pass, all due to the negative publicity of these dispensaries. I went from being an ardent supporter of them, to neutral, to my current position which is that they should be shut down or simply allowed to sell seeds or clones.

 

ronaldmaustin

What a compassionate individual ....

"What is clear is that these two boys were assaulted, one was killed, and we're looking for these suspects," Modesto Police Depatment spokesman Doug Ridenour said. Witnesses told police that Shryock was among a group of five teens who were walking down McHenry Avenue and throwing eggs at cars. They said that two of those cars chased Shryock and the group to Merryhill School, blocked the exits, and three suspects got out and assaulted Shryock and the other victim. Witnesses said they saw the driver of one of the cars, identified as Anthony Blair Durham, 22, and an another suspectm, identified as Luke Scarmazzo, fighting with the victims. The third suspect has not been identified, but is believed to be a Hispanic male.

From: Teen Killed After Alleged Egg-Throwing Incident - Sacramento News Story - KCRA Sacramento

Manda Oakley said ... "I had to speak on this matter because the victim in question, John, was my cousin. It upsets me to see people saying my cousin was a "stupid punk" and "deserved what he got". I had known John my whole life and he would have never wished bad on anybody, he was one of the sweetest, most caring people you could ever hope to meet. I don't know every detail of what went on that night, but I do know that John hung around "friends" that he had known since childhood and found it very difficult to tell them or anybody "no". The police have even said that they're not sure whether or not any eggs hit the Dodge and Kia, and they don't even know if John was even the one throwing the eggs. After they blocked off the parking lot exits with their cars they began to assault one of John's friends. John didn't stand there and watch, he kicked one guy (Scarmazzo) in the head. That's when Durham reached over and sliced the back of John's leg. The police think that's when either John fell and hit his head on the cement, or the third party, beat him in the head with the metal pipe, while Scarmazzo held him down and Durham stabbed him. At this point, all of John's "friends" hid in the bushes and listened while he screamed for help.
Is that really something John deserved?! The day after, I went to that school parking lot and saw John's blood covering the cement. Now he's gone, and it's been 2 and a half years. His mother, my aunt, has still not recovered, and I can say honestly that neither have I. I just wanted to get this out there because it's really stupid for people who didn't even know John to call him a Punk and say that he was stupid and deserved to be stabbed and beaten to death. I will agree that if John had been the one throwing the eggs that he did deserve and good ass beating, but not a beating with a metal pipe and kicking and stabbing. Thank you to those who have some sympathy for others, and acknowledge the fact that maybe John didn't deserve everything he got."

From: 1 killed, 1 injured after egging cars, on the main crusing street in town - Page 4 - Off Topic - Honda Civic Forum

Plainsman1963

What's wrong with sick folks being gouged for their medicine? I'm not talking about the ones that are "sick" just to get the recommendation, I'm talking about the bona fide patients that use cannabis as medicine. Just as I am sure they are "more than willing" to pay for prescription drugs that are marked up 300%, it isn't really a choice they have. Are you so forgiving of the pharma companies gouging them on that?

Yes, they could grow their own for 40 bucks an ounce or less, but some just aren't able to do that. They aren't well enough to care for a garden, or their living conditions preclude them from being able to grow safely. If it were about recreational users buying from the black market, I would agree with you. But this isn't about that. That's why the "not for profit" provision was included in the law, to hypothetically stop this kind of shit from happening.
Sadly, yes it is.

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JohnBoySmoker

Different circumstances are present with Big Pharma . Are you aware of the cost involved in bringing a drug to market or of all the failures that occur before a valuable or worthy drug is found?
In the case of growing MJ.....put a seed in the ground and you're done.

Plainsman1963

I won't get into a big discussion on off topic drugs, but you just helped prove my point.

Price gouging cannabis to medicinal users should never ever ever be forgiven.

 

dedbr

Plains....

Not for profit is pure horseshit. Horseshit. No one is going to do anything for free. How are they supposed to provide for themselves if there's no profit?

If the dispensaries are closed we are right back to square one, price gouging drug dealers. Is that what you want? Instead of a safe environment to buy and use in, we get to go back to street corner and back alley drug dealers. I'm sure that's conducive to a healthy environment, huh?

Nobody wants any one to make money from the patients but the sorry fact is nothing is for free. The big drug companies get ahold of this and get control of it and you won't be able to afford it....


Some Where In Ded Land..........

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Plainsman1963

Your opinion and you're entitled to it. Even if I think your opinion is horseshit. Pure Horseshit.

Many not for profits around that are doing exactly what they want to accomplish. NORML is one of them. Amazingly, there are people in this world that don't do everything they do for profit. Co-ops (or community gardens) have been operating in Oregon and Colorado since the passing of their medicinal marijuana laws and they operate not for profit.
Again, amazingly Oregon and Colorado seems to have avoided all these problems and they have medicinal marijuana laws that are doing just fine.

The California law is flawed. It's been flawed from the get go and has opened the door for profiteers to take advantage of the sick and it will continue until they set up a law like seen in Colorado or similar. I have no problem with these particular folks going to jail. None at all.

dedbr

Plains....

Your absolutely sure that the co-op's you speak of never recieve profit? Someone profits or it wouldn't make it. I'd almost bet on that.

Of course that's just my opinion.......

We need to stop beating around the bush and legalize it. That's the only solution to the whole thing, in my opinion......

Of course, that's been my opinion from the very beginning............


Some Where In Ded Land.........Full of shit, as usual.......

Buzzby

I guess you did.

I'm sure the "sick" people, like the ones who get recommendations for hangnails and have good jobs, are willing to pay black market prices. There's a definite advantage for them in not having to worry about getting busted and no loss because they'd be paying black market prices anyway. I'm much more concerned about the really sick people, the ones who have to depend on their meager disability checks to survive.

Sure. Making astronomical profits is the dream of every entrepreneur. Unfortunately for the dispensary operators that's against the law in California. Dispensaries are supposed to serve the needs of sick people. They're not there so potheads can get high with impunity. They're certainly not there so dope dealers can get rich with impunity.

Because they're in competition with black marketeers. They match the black marketeers prices, because they can, but don't share their risks (if they don't break the law). This means more profit for them and less risk for their well-to-do customers. The folks who get left out are the very ones the law was implemented to help.

Let's confine the discussion to those with a legitimate need for medical marijuana. The majority of herb smokers are recreational users and shouldn't be using the medical marijuana laws as a front.

To date, California is the only state with dispensaries, and that's what we're talking about. In California, anyone with a medical marijuana recommendation can grow legally, as can their designated care givers. Designated care givers could include dispensary operators.

In the case of people with a real need for medical marijuana, they're often too damn sick to do it. Again, I'm not concerned about the guy with the $100,000 salary and a hangnail. I'm concerned with the guy who has AIDS and has to figure out a way to stay alive on $14,000 a year.

You don't seem to understand the principles of a non-profit business. Employees get paid a reasonable salary. Prices reflect costs (including employee salaries). There is no return-on-investment for the owners.

If the dispensaries are kept open under current conditions, we've already got price gouging by drug dealers, some "legitimate" and some not.

What I want is for medical marijuana dispensaries to provide medicine only to people who are really in need of it for medical reasons. What I want is for these dispensaries to charge their customers based on what it costs them to get the product to market, not on what the market will bear. What I want is to see the current crop of for-profit dispensaries disappear and be replaced by real non-profits and collectives, as the California medical marijuana law requires.

Who said anything about it being free? When you charge a customer $400 for something that costs you $40 to bring to market, then $360 of that is illegal profit. Charge $40 for it, collect your salary, and don't drive a Mercedes on the backs of people who have to choose between buying food and paying for their medicine.

I have no idea what this has to do with the current discussion.

Co-ops, by definition, don't make profits. At the end of the fiscal year, if there is money left over after salaries and other expenses, it is divided among the members.

That's a different discussion, but I'll bite. That's the only solution for recreational marijuana users. We manage to sell opiate pain killers to sick people without making it legal to buy morphine over the counter. Why don't you think that's possible with marijuana?

Are you a paid lobbyist for the American Dope Dealers Association?

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ronaldmaustin

Buzzby and Plainsman1963,

I'm in agreement with you all the way. But what can be done given the state of the law, public opinion, and cases like Scarmazzo which we can choose to support or distance ourselves from. That's the real quandry. It was a brilliant coup by the US Attorney to pick this guy because, no matter what, the medical marijuana people seem to line up behind whomever is charged. They need to do an endrun here and be supporting the US Attorney and distancing themselves from that behaviour. The need to draw some distinciton between the good dispensaries and the bad ones. But, when you think about it, what's the distinction? Even the dispensaries don't stand behind "their own". They're too busy making money. The poor saps who get reamed by the dispensaries are the ones picketing outside federal court saying essentially, "Medial marijuana patients support Scarmazzo". There are plenty of people in jails for pot offenses that don't belong there. Get behind those people. Not the ones making millions of dollars. They made that kind of money, they can hire a lawyer. The issue is what can be done to make public perception of dispensaries better and insure that when the feds raid them, the public as a whole will get behind them? I say the law needs to chage to define "profit" and the state needs to arrest dispensary owners making more than $100,000 a year profit. Then the feds can't justifiably step in and show rap videos and equate that with medical marijuana.