If you want to grow for anyone other than yourself you will have to get a 'growers license' and only be able to legally grow in places zoned for agriculture and you must sell to dispensaries only.
Ok, I have to agree on many aspects of what the Colorado government (mainly Romer) is trying to do. To be totally honest, I agree with quite a bit of it. I do not currently live in Colorado, but as soon as I am out of, ummm my job, then I will be moving to Colorado w/ my family and a long list of qualifying ailments for me to be a MMJ Card Holder. All that being said, I could care less as long as I have the right as a MMJ patient to grow MY OWN medicine. I will probably never buy from a dispensary, nor will I ever have the need for a caregiver. My wife is extremely versed in, in home health care amongst other facets of the medical fields. I do have some compassion and sympathy for the caregivers and patients that definitely won't benefit from a few of these changes, but I refuse to believe that it's all for the worse. Think about it, they would just be cementing in what we, as avid marijuana advocates, have worked so hard to achieve. That is a solid base for legal marijuana in the US.
So what if you have to pay a little more money out. So what if you can't run your scams on people in becoming their caregivers. So what if you can't hide extra curricular activities through your dispensary. So what if you're a fake "patient" just trying to get high. Regulations on age and ailment are a good thing to have in this aspect. Proper zoning to keep dispensaries away from schools and churches are a good thing. Proper taxing ensures that there is no under the table action going on and if there is then it makes it easier to be caught. Legalizing the dispensaries with NO gray zone will halter incoming trafficking so much, that this "War on Drugs" will slowly turn away from marijuana and face where it needs to be faced. I could go on for days about the good of some of these proposals.
Now here's the bad. Federal still hasn't accepted State laws. Having to have a license to own/run a dispensary as well as a license to grow, as well as having to pay all the above taxes puts your name out there across the board. This may be Romer's plan all along. Put the dispensary owner's names out there and that will make them decide what's really worth it in their minds. Helping patients? Being a FULL MMJ Advocate? Loving to grow? Making lot's of money? Or will they be asking themselves if it's all worth possibly having a Federal indictment slammmed down on their ass.
I also have one more thing to address that has been bothering me about all the whining and bitching by the dispensaries. They are claiming that because of the additional taxes and licenses that will be required by them, which by the way would make them no different than any other business today, that they will have to raise the prices on their medicine. Therefore affecting the patients and caregivers ability to get good medicine at a low cost. I call BULLSHIT. I used to sell, illegally which believe me is way harder than selling legally. I know what it costs for an 1/8 up to a pound or more in the streets. I'm not talking about some schwagg here either. I'm talking about some dank, stinky, digustingly good buds (that most dispensaries don't have anyway) All of the dispensaries over charge for their shit anyway. Come on $70 an 1/8?!?! $20 + a gram?!?! Get the F outta here with that shit. That's freakin highway robbery. We all know what it really costs to have a decent harvest. We also all know that if you claim that you will have to jack up the price because of these new proposals, then you're full of shit. So who's really screwing over the patients and caregivers? Not Romer. It's the dispensaries.
Anyway, like I said, as long as I can still personally grow my own medicine, my own 6 plants and 2 personal ounces, w/o having to have a license, then I could care less about the dispensaries and I'm sure others like me feel the same way. That's all I got for now. You wanted an educated thought process or debate in the matter right? Well here it is.
