CA - "Wal Marting of weed"

redburns

Member
Hi Guys, I'm a newbie who has been designing and working towards getting a nice grow facility set up, as a believer, for fun, and hopefully as a new income source for my family. The plan has been to keep everyting 100% legal per CA state and federal laws. And I've been excited.

Then I read articles like this one:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100718/ap_on_bi_ge/us_pot_city_cultivation

I'm curious to know if you guys think the legalization of recreational marijauna and cities such as Oakland and Berkeley issuing these commercial grow permits may sap the small supplier guys, such as myself. Will there always be a place for us or am I making a mistake by investing $8,000 to $9,000 in my facility?

Your thoughts are appreciated.

:-|
 

NLXSK1

Well-Known Member
How much do you smoke? Figure out on average how much you spend on weed a year and how quickly you will make your money back from your investment.

Even if prices drop you still have a stable pure source of smoke for yourself.
 

bajafox

Well-Known Member
IMO, the sooner you start any grow, the sooner you can get a full cycle in before November. At least by then you can try to unload your inventory and hopefully make back the money you put into your investment. Whether Prop 19 passes or not, you should have at least broken even by then

Good luck
 

redburns

Member
The Pro-19ers will have you believe it'll be nothing but rivers of cannamilk and honey oil should this crap legislation be passsed, but I strongly suggest you take the time to read the bill in it's entirety and then take a look at this article:

http://votetaxcannabis2010.blogspot.com/2010/07/why-pro-pot-activists-oppose-2010-tax.html

The last thing we need is the Wal-Mart model or the McDonald's model to be applied to cannabis.
So, other than sending an email to all of my CA contacts asking them to vote no on prop 19, is there anything else that can be done to weigh in on this?
 

TokinPodPilot

Well-Known Member
At this point, pass the article around and keep passing the word every chance you get. We may need to organize eventually to make sure this abomination of law doesn't pass, but until then, we go the way of the grass-roots movement. How appropriate, eh?
 

chef*bob

Member
its not going to affect the price of tea in china.
think about it, 10's of millions of dollars in licensing and insurance, plus a ridiculous overhead. and the grass roots...only people who dont know where to get bud will make up the consumer force.
how often do people switch it up when they already got a great supply? shiet i dont, not unless i got damn good reason to.
so with that said can they make the money back? yes
can they keep up the overhead? no problem
can they turn profits? i think so
will this affect the price of weed? nope.
am i still a little bit worried? yea sure, the unknown worries me.

things will be ok redburns
 
k, I am here for information, not politics, but I can't stop myself from replying, but then I am out..... (this is something I typed last night, for Marc Emerys FB, and just cut it from there, and it is my humble opinion (read fact... jk... kinda)

Look at it this way. When the prohibition on alcohol ended, it pushed the gangsters to go legal, go nascar or go home. It had and still has it's big players, but what about the thousands of microbrewery and microdistilleries that provide hundreds of thousands of jobs, millions if you count distrubition, and the millions of tax dollars that keep us all comfortable within our little communities. You can buy booze anywhere, even teens have no problem getting the stuff, and at any price point from .99 cents to $9,999 per drink, and everywhere inbetween. Yes, some gangsters and some hillbillies lost out, but it was for the greater good. Now, take alcohol which kills, and replace with marijuana which heals, and other than that it is the same situation. Yes, there is a big tobacco company which has bought land to grow if this passes, but this is america, and you don't have to buy that brand, but you should feel proud to live in a country where a big company and a home grower have the same chance!
 

TokinPodPilot

Well-Known Member
k, I am here for information, not politics, but I can't stop myself from replying, but then I am out..... (this is something I typed last night, for Marc Emerys FB, and just cut it from there, and it is my humble opinion (read fact... jk... kinda)

Look at it this way. When the prohibition on alcohol ended, it pushed the gangsters to go legal, go nascar or go home. It had and still has it's big players, but what about the thousands of microbrewery and microdistilleries that provide hundreds of thousands of jobs, millions if you count distrubition, and the millions of tax dollars that keep us all comfortable within our little communities. You can buy booze anywhere, even teens have no problem getting the stuff, and at any price point from .99 cents to $9,999 per drink, and everywhere inbetween. Yes, some gangsters and some hillbillies lost out, but it was for the greater good. Now, take alcohol which kills, and replace with marijuana which heals, and other than that it is the same situation. Yes, there is a big tobacco company which has bought land to grow if this passes, but this is america, and you don't have to buy that brand, but you should feel proud to live in a country where a big company and a home grower have the same chance!
And I see no one actually studies history. There were thousands of small and medium sized alcohol industry-related companies all over the country before Prohibition. During Prohibition, the only companies to survive had out of country facilities, found alternate industries to switch to, or were just big enough to outlast Prohibition. Following Prohibition there was a a whole rash of drastic regulation, new fees and the usual nonsense such that only the larger entities were able to reenter production and thus secured an oligarchic monopoly that was to last until the past couple of decades. The microbrewery movement is something fairly contemporary and it's taken this long to get it going thanks to the debacle that followed Prohibition. You can continue to pretend that this hasn't happened before and that Prop 19 isn't just a repeat of history. I am proud to live in America, where we can vote stupid legislation like this down.
 

CSI Stickyicky

Well-Known Member
When beer became legal again after prohibition, there was mass produced shit beer. BUT there is still a major market for the small time, microbrews.

The point is if you grow REALLY GOOD herb, there will be a market for it. Always. so just concentrate on growing the best, and you got nothing to worry about.
 

Fungus Gnat

Well-Known Member
Yes, there is a big tobacco company which has bought land to grow if this passes, but this is america, and you don't have to buy that brand, but you should feel proud to live in a country where a big company and a home grower have the same chance!
The home grower has no chance against a corporation... look at Monsanto, Tyson ect. look what Tyson did to meatpacking, they bought out all the meatpacking plants and replaced 18 dollar per hour jobs with the minimum wage. Prices are the same but corporate profits are up, which they use to hire lobbyists to get subsidizes and regulations in their favor.

So no it is not anywhere close to a level playing field.

Back on topic....If the ballot measure passes the feds under pressure from other states will threaten to withdrawal federal funding. States can pass any law they want but they aren't going to give up federal funding to do it. If the ballot measure is about political grandstanding then why isn't it just full decriminalization?
 

whiteflour

Well-Known Member
Yes, there is a big tobacco company which has bought land to grow if this passes, but this is america, and you don't have to buy that brand, but you should feel proud to live in a country where a big company and a home grower have the same chance!
This is nothing but rumor mill propanda. The tobacco industry can not get involved out here. You know why? They are controlled by the FDA you see. So unless this gets rescheduled theres no way there going to touch it.

I can tell you first hand, they are "interested", but they aren't going to move to California, sorry. They don't like this state and they're move is to Central and South America. Puerto Rico too but that has too much connection to the US so they'll dip out of their eventually as well. Taxes killed tobacco in this country, a booming export business, only so the feds could learn how to better squander money.
 

Yota

Well-Known Member
Ca Walmarting of weed is a very scary thought. Just like cooperates do, they will try to monopolize on growing, and screw over the working class people who want to make a business. This is a volatile time for Marijuana, starting in Oakland today. Get to city council meetings.
 

MuppetMan1989

Active Member
this world to me in my point of view is just shit. now dont get me wrong it has it's good. I'm saying it's we the people who give the other people the power to do this to us.
 

Seaghost

Active Member
Yeah this deal in Oakland is just scary, it will give other cities the same idea. Also as an interesting note the true gain to Oakland in dollars is estimated to be on the order of $58 million :shock: The report I read in the LA Times said that they will raise that amount due to proposed taxes on the sales of the expected to be very huge amounts, in just one factory that was proposed the design called for 57k square feet double level growing space :shock:

Holy crap, that's gonna be a huge harvest, over 600 lbs a week is what they were estimating I believe. And that wasn't even Lee's proposed factory which I heard is supposedly even larger. No wonder he's also heavily invested in Prop 19, we've managed to let the fox into the hen house :evil:

All the more reason to get the word out about the evils of Prop 19 and what Lee and company are trying to accomplish.

Peace out :weed:
 

naturalhigh

Well-Known Member
supply and demand..one of those factories said they will be doing 26,000 lbs of weed a year,haha try to compete with that with your basement job..i would be very worried if i was in calli.. prices will drop to like 1000 a lb...and drive out all the little guys cuz can they cant make a profit...do your history..this is one big companies will do..if they were do to that for 2 years...sell weed for 1000 a lb...to every dispenserary u little guys couldnt turn a profit and would go under...
 

vradd

Active Member
The Pro-19ers will have you believe it'll be nothing but rivers of cannamilk and honey oil should this crap legislation be passsed, but I strongly suggest you take the time to read the bill in it's entirety and then take a look at this article:

http://votetaxcannabis2010.blogspot.com/2010/07/why-pro-pot-activists-oppose-2010-tax.html

The last thing we need is the Wal-Mart model or the McDonald's model to be applied to cannabis.

if you believe all those 'facts' on that site your a tool. no offense but a lot of that stuff are ignorant facts. does it take away from the small time grower, yes!. but why are people trying to capitalize on something EVERYONE is supposed to agree on? weed is supposed to be the universal peace remember? if a few big shops want to become the big players, more power to them. as long as the weed becomes plentiful= cheaper. i garauntee you the users will outnumber those who want to flip this into a money game. were all supposed to be happy that we can enjoy it freely just like a cold beer. if it becomes to a point where varieties are scarce due to only US GROWN being available, im down for that also. with all the varieties of weed as is people can enjoy it for what it is or compare it to exotic foods from other countries.
 

igothydrotoneverywhere

Well-Known Member
you cannot get the love out of factory grown weed as you can from homegrown. look at the heirloom tomato market and other vegetable markets. same correlation, then add organics. the small time grower will be able to succeed through the quality and taste of organics, heirlooms, and connoisseur varietals and hybrids. big business sucks at quality, you always have to go to the small town mom and pop to get quality, that will never change. and the areas with the most numbers of potheads will decide what those mom and pops will be paid.
 
I'm voting NO on Prop 19. Would it be unethical of me to find out which friends of mine actually plan on going to vote to support Prop 19 and get them way too high to make it to the polling station?
 

igothydrotoneverywhere

Well-Known Member
I'm voting NO on Prop 19. Would it be unethical of me to find out which friends of mine actually plan on going to vote to support Prop 19 and get them way too high to make it to the polling station?
Why are you voting no?
Are you gonna bite off your nose to spite your face?
You better take what you can get, full legalization will never ever happen!
 
Top