Favorite tasting medicine?

[Brandon]

Skywalker was a money maker

[Hollyw00d]

I'm turning into somewhat of a snob. I try to always smoke with matches if I have some

[mrwicked]

Well, this thread sure took a left turn.

The area I live in has taken over from Humboldt/Mendo as the grow capitol. The climate is better and the season is longer.

$50 oz around here, and in Oct you can't give it away.

Yeah, there are home invasion problems, but 99%of that are in-bread young locals ripping each other off.

People up here have guns, so there is a real deterrent factor in that kinda crime.

A few huge cartel grows get busted each year, but that is getting less and less.

 

are those legal growing farms - do they supply the legal shops?

or is it still all under the table.

I'm curious how it works now that the laws are changing.

seems ripe to make $$ now that an entire legal industry is in its infancy.

[Ray McKigney]

i've always thoughtregular  nyquil tasted pretty decent as far as medicine goes

 

 

Same here. Every try it with club soda?

[Homebrewer]

are those legal growing farms - do they supply the legal shops?

or is it still all under the table.

I'm curious how it works now that the laws are changing.

seems ripe to make $$ now that an entire legal industry is in its infancy.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

No they are not commercial farms, but yes, that is where much of the dispensary

stock comes from. Dispensaries buy from anyone with product, not legally, but not illegally either. That is one of the major grey areas with the medicinal laws, and that is what current legislation is trying (unsuccessfully) to address.

There is little to no regulation on where product comes from, how it is procured by the legal sellers...it's nearly impossible to trace anything when it comes to pot.

Right now, cities and counties take precedent over the state when it come to establishing and enforcing rules...this county allows each cardholding patient to grow 10 plants, many counties are going back to zero again, trying to curb associated crime...

It's still a major cluster-f***k when it comes to the laws, and how to enforce them.

[Guest]

guys guys Guys. I bought the most incredible vaporizer ever: 

 

The Crafty by Storz & Bickel (makers of the Volcano).

 

what a time to be alive. 

 

It's so incredibly easy to use, fill, clean, discreet, etc... uses a USB micro charger cable, and is used in tandem with an iOS app. Oh, and made in Germany. 

Edited January 27, 2016 by failos

[Brandon]

Basically, the way that is most legal and what the government prefers is essentially a non-profit.

They basically want everyone with a card to get together (a collective) and grow 10 plants each and spread the costs associated with growing while smoking product for themselves.

In reality, you get dudes like me that don't smoke and coming in with capital, teaming with potheads, and growing large quantities out of some commercial warehouse. We don't care where we sell it as long as we are paid every 13-14 weeks. Whether it's selling to a dispensary or some local gangbanger that takes it across state lines.

As mentioned, there is a ton of grey area in many regards. I've been busted twice and no cops were called, they just asked us to leave....one place I even got my deposit back.

No one wants to lease to you, but what you are doing isn't exactly illegal either. Another issue is its a cash business and banks aren't exactly letting people open bank accounts or depositing funds.

It used to be easy money, but it reminded me of the real estate bubble when bartenders and housewives became realtors. Same shit here, but they have enough legislation in place to charge people that want to open a dispensary a 20k nonrefundable application fee.

[Hollyw00d]

got a cross between fire OG and blue dream

Just tried it, one hitter quitter

[Hollyw00d]

Basically, the way that is most legal and what the government prefers is essentially a non-profit.

They basically want everyone with a card to get together (a collective) and grow 10 plants each and spread the costs associated with growing while smoking product for themselves.

In reality, you get dudes like me that don't smoke and coming in with capital, teaming with potheads, and growing large quantities out of some commercial warehouse. We don't care where we sell it as long as we are paid every 13-14 weeks. Whether it's selling to a dispensary or some local gangbanger that takes it across state lines.

As mentioned, there is a ton of grey area in many regards. I've been busted twice and no cops were called, they just asked us to leave....one place I even got my deposit back.

No one wants to lease to you, but what you are doing isn't exactly illegal either. Another issue is its a cash business and banks aren't exactly letting people open bank accounts or depositing funds.

It used to be easy money, but it reminded me of the real estate bubble when bartenders and housewives became realtors. Same shit here, but they have enough legislation in place to charge people that want to open a dispensary a 20k nonrefundable application fee.

One day there will be like a Costco for weed, where you pay to be a member and you go into this huge greenhouse where they sell pounds for like 100 bucks

[Hollyw00d]

Or like a bevmo, where they have every strain you could ever imagine and they have "bud tastings" and shit

[mrwicked]

i guarantee you that will be a thing in the not too distant future.

maybe not as big as bevmo, because the market for alcohol is much larger than the market for weed.

but signs suggest it's moving that way from what i gather (which granted it pretty minimal research to this point).

[Brandon]

That fire OG was a majority of our crops. When done right that shit is solid and sells well.

As for the future, the problem is it needs to pass on a federal level for that to become a reality and when it does pass the fed level Philip Morris et al is already prepped and ready to takeover. From already having purchased the land in NorCal to having their people/scientists on deck.

Because the amount of strains, I can possibly see a super store, but from what I spoke with attorneys upon getting setup, it's going to be more like how you go to a liquor store or gas station to buy Marlboros, instead they will have boxes of rolled joints like cigarette boxes.

When the medical aspect was passed that ship has sailed for the most part. The next was people in Colorado, but tightly regulated and like most places only want limited space....it's not free enterprise yet. But when it happens big corporations will take over.

[mrwicked]

Pretty much.

The dispensary method of selling isn't as profitable due to regulation. So you pretty much are dealing with stoners, gangbangers, and criminals which are all beyond sketchy. They'll buy packs from you (if they don't rob you and all want consignment) and either middle man it to someone else making a few bucks or taking across state lines where states where it's not legal will pay about 2-3 times a p....highly illegal and serious federal time.

It's either highly regulated and overly taxed if done legally, if done underneath with essentially a black market it's just beyond sketch. People constantly robbed or have their grows broken into and cut down in the middle of the night while in flower.

People that got in before the huge regulation sweeps made bank. It's was mostly older business dudes that would fund them and back then you could straight sell to dispensaries that were paying about 3-3.5k a p. Now people are trying to wholesale at 2k just to get rid of it and will take any buyer because it's so saturated.

If people got in when Colorado first took off are killing it. But yeah, one of the worst investments I've made and extremely regrettable. I could have found better ways to lose over six figures.

 

Man that sucks! How did you lose six figures?

I'm curious about the business model. Where did that capital go, and why did you not get a return on it?

Edited January 28, 2016 by mrwicked

[Hollyw00d]

F that, I dont want to be able to only smoke joints

That's one of the dirtiest ways to smoke ever, even tho I do love it

[Guest]

Brandon, thanks for those insightful posts. It would be great if you could share some more tidbits about the weed business. 

 

I actually have an online dispensary business model I'm working on. I'm studying CS, so I have some pretty big ideas for the app which I'll be implementing. 

[Brandon]

Man that sucks! How did you lose six figures?

I'm curious about the business model. Where did that capital go, and why did you not get a return on it?

 

Man, pretty tough to answer simply.....a lot went wrong on many fronts. I'll try to be simple.

 

First and foremost, I don't smoke weed nor did I know anything about marijuana. I simply thought like you did and saw $$$. I didn't know anything about the industry and depended on others to be successful and was hands on, but primarily the financial aspect.

 

How it started was my childhood friend hit me up for a hard money loan to start up an operation to coincide with the dispensary they were running. I took a break from mortgages and started personally lending, hard money, investing, start ups etc.....the entrepreneur thing. I told him I was interested in investing outside of the normal scope and was interested in a partnership, which he was cool with. 

 

Long story short, he showed me the ropes and we built a business plan. I thought for the commercial scope we were going for, we would need another person....mainly a consulting and distributing channel. He brings in someone he thinks is hot shit, the psychopath in one of the posts.

 

So there is three of us and to hit more on your questions, the start up capital is extremely large to start not counting your overhead. I knew marijuana was taboo, so I came up with the pretty genius idea as a mortgage server center front.....when I thought about a grow room and specs, they seemed to mirror and commercial server storage/data center....the same schematics that wouldn't raise eyebrows. But more importantly, my attorneys liked the idea because if anyone suspected something, wanted to enter, or had a warrant to search the building, computers, data, storage, etc. require a different type of warrant or the time for them to restructure the warrant that everything could be moved. This also protected us from entry due to fire inspections.

 

Basically what we did was lease a commercial warehouse and I built what is basically a secure/sound/smell proof four room home inside the warehouse. The build out was expensive as it was done right. The equipment on a commercial size is pretty sizable, as well. There basically four phases to the grow process....while electricity and possibly water based on your method are your main overhead items. Electricity on my first operation was anywhere from 2-4k a month with as many lights, ac, dehumidifiers, fans, etc that were ran. You'll want at least 100k (probably a bit more, one solid ac unit is about $10k alone...and you'll want a few) to start a commercial grow with $25-50k in reserves for overhead and on the fly expenses.

 

Skipping some steps, the psychopath and my buddy unfortunately didn't know as much as anticipated. So I have a huge build out (those that have seen pics said it was one of the best in SoCal) and our first crop is shit. The psychopath is off the rails and I kick him out of the project. Luckily, I had met two guys that were the same setup as my buddy and I, one was the money while the other was the grower. They also had their own project. The four of us work together, but change from a soil based grow method to a hydroponic method....aka more money.

 

We started off solid until one day I am at a bar with friends and my phone is blowing up from the maintenance manager at 10pm....I already know what is about to happen getting a call this late.

 

Basically, my buddy cut a hose to short in one of the reservoirs and we flooded our building as well as the one next to ours. The maintenance guy broke open my "server room" door, saw what was going on, and I thought definite prison. Long story short, they simply kick me out with no cops involved. The demo and moving aspect was beyond expensive, plus the money guy of the new partnership decided to simply bail and I'm stuck with all the overhead bills, as well.

 

So two runs and $0 to show for it but a lot of debt. I have no building, but am a pretty hot commodity because I have a shit load of quality equipment. My childhood friend brings in a new guy who does grow some pretty killer shit and has a distribution network....basically what we wanted out of the first guy. Luckily, with my network, I get us another building and the same "server room/clean room" setup.

 

Over time money is getting tight, but we manage a run after a bunch of hiccups that cost a lot of money.....any time there is an issue during the growing process you basically have to scrap your run and start over. The plants just stress out and you end up with the same shit run like my first one. After mites and various electrical issues we have a mildly successful run. Not as good as we would have liked, but I think we got enough to be sustainable. Each cycle is basically 3 months....and breaking down the math, I suddenly see there isn't as much money to make when you chop up profits and pay overhead.

 

My childhood friend leaves as he isn't making enough, but also brings nothing to the table. This leaves the new guy and me. Eventually I leave him everything (I still have a % and vested interest, but take myself out of the day to day and offer up a buyout) and leave myself after being tired of chasing bad money. I keep in touch with him and we basically just got kicked out of the place I setup as the main 5 year fire inspection was due and we tried to be honest, but he had got popped for having people grow before by the city and asked us to leave.

 

So that's kind of the overall view and how/why things went wrong. Bad business partners, grows that didn't perform or make it all the way, not enough capital (actually, if done properly, there was), probably not the best distribution channels, and just bad luck. I can tell you every aspect of the business model...what to do and mainly what not to do. I've covered the business partner aspect previously, where it's basically drug dealers and not actual business minded people. I've met good people along the way, though. I didn't know my industry (which is probably investor rule #1) and instead of starting small, went extremely big.....which I don't think was a mistake, but you need the right people to make it work. Also, when I look over the books and finances (plus now having the industry experience) I was taken advantage of and had money stolen by the psychopath initially....."Hey, we need x amount of thousand for this, this, and this" when in reality it cost much less.

 

From what I've learned, I'd love to give it another go but it would have to be the right circumstances. I tried to run it like a business and stoners or drug dealers don't work or operate like that. I had all the initial prep and start up on point though, plus the CPA and legal team to be successful. Sadly, just some small tweaks and if some of the business partners were in place sooner it would have been successful.

 

But yeah, I could tell you everything. There will always be a market for the product. You get the right people in place and can make money. It's saturated to where you won't make much like the runs I had, but it's good residual income. The two dudes I teamed up with for a bit there in the middle of story seem to be fine with their own project. One dude owns his own company and puts all the money up, the other is a friendly stoner dude that is just good enough to make the day to day stuff work. They have a little group that trims and a hook up with MS or the Mexican Mafia and distribute through them, I believe....I'm not 100% sure because keeping your connects a secret is just as important as growing good shit.

[Brandon]

Brandon, thanks for those insightful posts. It would be great if you could share some more tidbits about the weed business. 

 

I actually have an online dispensary business model I'm working on. I'm studying CS, so I have some pretty big ideas for the app which I'll be implementing. 

 

No worries, ask away.

 

I'm not sure what you are going for, but be very careful with anything web based because you can't 100% control where weed is shipped to and not only is state lines federal, but maybe just being online is federal.

 

But to be honest, I don't know anyone that has done anything online outside of legal stuff like accessories, packaging, etc. 

[Hollyw00d]

Yeah you can't sell drugs online.

You can sell seeds and equipment but that's as far as it goes

[mrwicked]

Yeah you can't sell drugs online.

You can sell seeds and equipment but that's as far as it goes

 

sure you can.

you just don't dot it on the public, indexable web. 

that's what the deep web is for.

Edited January 29, 2016 by mrwicked

[Hollyw00d]

Sooooooo

I just google it?

[mrwicked]

you must introduce me to morpheus someday

 

come stay in wonderland.

and i'll show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.

[Guest]

No worries, ask away.

 

I'm not sure what you are going for, but be very careful with anything web based because you can't 100% control where weed is shipped to and not only is state lines federal, but maybe just being online is federal.

 

But to be honest, I don't know anyone that has done anything online outside of legal stuff like accessories, packaging, etc. 

 

It would be a similar model to greenly: order and pay online, then deliver the order to the individual. Obviously I wouldn't be shipping it with UPS, lol.

[Brandon]

I'm not that deep in it, but the two buddies I mention doing it well opened up a delivery service. Seem to do well.

[Homebrewer]

Man, pretty tough to answer simply.....a lot went wrong on many fronts. I'll try to be simple.

 

First and foremost, I don't smoke weed nor did I know anything about marijuana. I simply thought like you did and saw $$$. I didn't know anything about the industry and depended on others to be successful and was hands on, but primarily the financial aspect.

 

How it started was my childhood friend hit me up for a hard money loan to start up an operation to coincide with the dispensary they were running. I took a break from mortgages and started personally lending, hard money, investing, start ups etc.....the entrepreneur thing. I told him I was interested in investing outside of the normal scope and was interested in a partnership, which he was cool with. 

 

Long story short, he showed me the ropes and we built a business plan. I thought for the commercial scope we were going for, we would need another person....mainly a consulting and distributing channel. He brings in someone he thinks is hot shit, the psychopath in one of the posts.

 

So there is three of us and to hit more on your questions, the start up capital is extremely large to start not counting your overhead. I knew marijuana was taboo, so I came up with the pretty genius idea as a mortgage server center front.....when I thought about a grow room and specs, they seemed to mirror and commercial server storage/data center....the same schematics that wouldn't raise eyebrows. But more importantly, my attorneys liked the idea because if anyone suspected something, wanted to enter, or had a warrant to search the building, computers, data, storage, etc. require a different type of warrant or the time for them to restructure the warrant that everything could be moved. This also protected us from entry due to fire inspections.

 

Basically what we did was lease a commercial warehouse and I built what is basically a secure/sound/smell proof four room home inside the warehouse. The build out was expensive as it was done right. The equipment on a commercial size is pretty sizable, as well. There basically four phases to the grow process....while electricity and possibly water based on your method are your main overhead items. Electricity on my first operation was anywhere from 2-4k a month with as many lights, ac, dehumidifiers, fans, etc that were ran. You'll want at least 100k (probably a bit more, one solid ac unit is about $10k alone...and you'll want a few) to start a commercial grow with $25-50k in reserves for overhead and on the fly expenses.

 

Skipping some steps, the psychopath and my buddy unfortunately didn't know as much as anticipated. So I have a huge build out (those that have seen pics said it was one of the best in SoCal) and our first crop is shit. The psychopath is off the rails and I kick him out of the project. Luckily, I had met two guys that were the same setup as my buddy and I, one was the money while the other was the grower. They also had their own project. The four of us work together, but change from a soil based grow method to a hydroponic method....aka more money.

 

We started off solid until one day I am at a bar with friends and my phone is blowing up from the maintenance manager at 10pm....I already know what is about to happen getting a call this late.

 

Basically, my buddy cut a hose to short in one of the reservoirs and we flooded our building as well as the one next to ours. The maintenance guy broke open my "server room" door, saw what was going on, and I thought definite prison. Long story short, they simply kick me out with no cops involved. The demo and moving aspect was beyond expensive, plus the money guy of the new partnership decided to simply bail and I'm stuck with all the overhead bills, as well.

 

So two runs and $0 to show for it but a lot of debt. I have no building, but am a pretty hot commodity because I have a shit load of quality equipment. My childhood friend brings in a new guy who does grow some pretty killer shit and has a distribution network....basically what we wanted out of the first guy. Luckily, with my network, I get us another building and the same "server room/clean room" setup.

 

Over time money is getting tight, but we manage a run after a bunch of hiccups that cost a lot of money.....any time there is an issue during the growing process you basically have to scrap your run and start over. The plants just stress out and you end up with the same shit run like my first one. After mites and various electrical issues we have a mildly successful run. Not as good as we would have liked, but I think we got enough to be sustainable. Each cycle is basically 3 months....and breaking down the math, I suddenly see there isn't as much money to make when you chop up profits and pay overhead.

 

My childhood friend leaves as he isn't making enough, but also brings nothing to the table. This leaves the new guy and me. Eventually I leave him everything (I still have a % and vested interest, but take myself out of the day to day and offer up a buyout) and leave myself after being tired of chasing bad money. I keep in touch with him and we basically just got kicked out of the place I setup as the main 5 year fire inspection was due and we tried to be honest, but he had got popped for having people grow before by the city and asked us to leave.

 

So that's kind of the overall view and how/why things went wrong. Bad business partners, grows that didn't perform or make it all the way, not enough capital (actually, if done properly, there was), probably not the best distribution channels, and just bad luck. I can tell you every aspect of the business model...what to do and mainly what not to do. I've covered the business partner aspect previously, where it's basically drug dealers and not actual business minded people. I've met good people along the way, though. I didn't know my industry (which is probably investor rule #1) and instead of starting small, went extremely big.....which I don't think was a mistake, but you need the right people to make it work. Also, when I look over the books and finances (plus now having the industry experience) I was taken advantage of and had money stolen by the psychopath initially....."Hey, we need x amount of thousand for this, this, and this" when in reality it cost much less.

 

From what I've learned, I'd love to give it another go but it would have to be the right circumstances. I tried to run it like a business and stoners or drug dealers don't work or operate like that. I had all the initial prep and start up on point though, plus the CPA and legal team to be successful. Sadly, just some small tweaks and if some of the business partners were in place sooner it would have been successful.

 

But yeah, I could tell you everything. There will always be a market for the product. You get the right people in place and can make money. It's saturated to where you won't make much like the runs I had, but it's good residual income. The two dudes I teamed up with for a bit there in the middle of story seem to be fine with their own project. One dude owns his own company and puts all the money up, the other is a friendly stoner dude that is just good enough to make the day to day stuff work. They have a little group that trims and a hook up with MS or the Mexican Mafia and distribute through them, I believe....I'm not 100% sure because keeping your connects a secret is just as important as growing good shit.

Even one failed crop, especially the first one in an indoor, can spell doom.

An experienced and capable grower with lots of experience is so crucial.

And as you say, putting together the right people is the whole deal...and much, much, harder than it sounds.

I've passed on more than one opportunity, just because of the people involved.  

It takes a team of people that all have the proper mindset.

[Brandon]

A lot of it was some of the guys I knew had a decent product, but for whatever reason everyone in the industry is trying to mess with formulas, feeding schedules, etc. Not even guys I worked with, just in general you always here stories how they "tried something new" and got a less than stellar crop. New products and methods flooding the industry and seasoned people suddenly don't know what they are doing.

 

If you can eliminate the self induced errors you still are not out of the clear always looking out for mites, pm, root rot, etc.

 

The people aspect is tough. People get in this industry to make (easy) money, so the type of person you work with is usually some unmotivated stoner or someone a bit lazier. It reminds me of when I was doing the music/band dealio....trying to get multiple people on the same page or working towards the same goals is beyond tough.

 

Very tough industry to make it in if you are strictly growing.

 

If there was money to be made, I would think it would be with growing your own product and selling yourself. You see the profit margins of dispensaries, but they are so regulated or have a daily fear of being shut down.  So what a lot of people are doing is growing and doing the delivery service. Growing is still sketchy unless your landlord is cool with it. The delivery method keeps the overhead low as well as you can just store the weed at home and deliver like pizza to patients. Not sure what the compliance is though with verifying their patient card or record keeping.