Rolling Cannabis Politics Thread

Feels like there must be around 30 weed stores/dispensaries in Vancouver now. There's five within 10 blocks of my house. Generally speaking they don't go for the Bob Marley headshop look but instead have an unconvincing medical office sheen and two or three young women giving out business cards outside. And they reek of pot of course. They mostly seem totally sketchy. If anything I prefer the previous model of the seemingly closed shop manned by bikers. Apparently it's $5/gram. The bikers were $10 so there's progress.

they're probably medicinal marijuana though? the recreational ones in WA are pretty gross ime

They are mostly not licensed or legal but just pretending to be - hence the phony medical office schtick. We're in a weird situation right now - the police have busted one or two but generally leave them alone if they are not bothering anyone or doing anything crazy.

One of the ones I went into was all shiny, sort of like an aspiring Apple Store or day spa vibe. The other felt like one of those shitty fly-by-night Halloween stores or something set up hastily in an empty storefront with the money and product behind bulletproof glass like a liquor store in a terrible neighborhood (it was not actually in a terrible neighborhood).

It'll be interesting to see how the aesthetic develops and when all the tacky stoner tropes get discarded.

Rec stores that is, never been in a medical dispensary

when all the tacky stoner tropes get discarded.

imo one part of really doing this would be to abandon all the dumb strain names

and most rec stores also sell medical, right? i've only been in CO where medical is taxed less and has a higher cap on the amount you can purchase

Yeah? Have you tried Ross's Gold

imo one part of really doing this would be to abandon all the dumb strain names

I find this stuff ridiculous (I think it's a holdover from how things were done in Amsterdam?) but some people really dig it, treat it like I dunno the names of wines or beer (which, less face it, are also ridiculous)

but wine is named after region / varietal / makers, not "blotto white" iirc

It'll be interesting to see how the aesthetic develops and when all the tacky stoner tropes get discarded.

Yeah that will happen right after liquor stores get rid of their neon signs and coors light bikini posters.

we've only got the medical weed here in CA but ime the Bay Area dispensaries run the gamut from plush hippie day-spa yoga retreat vibe to Bob Marley-poster sketchfests w lots of neon. I go to this place operated by a former neighbor cuz he is a sweet guy and it is on my way home from work. Everything is behind glass/metal cabinets and there's like four TVs and a bunch of sketchy people in there all the time but who cares.

Yeah that will happen right after liquor stores get rid of their neon signs and coors light bikini posters.

^^^ this stuff is not going to go away ever. it's totemic.

yea, but i think the higher end will develop too. i could see weed agritourism becoming a thing. there are fancy liquor/beer stores along with the neon / bikini stuff

xxp there are many kinds of places to buy your food / substances iirc. personally i find apple store day spa just as tacky as wacky stoner land, would prefer "chill place to buy weed" over all. also strain names vary in aesthetic offensiveness iirc but idk.

i have a friend doing ec dev stuff in vancouver, wa, and i guess coffee-shop type establishments are expected in the near future

chill pnw coffee vibes + weed could be nice

I've just never understood how anyone can make generalizations about the effects of weed, especially a particular strain, given how widely varying people's response to the drug are. And they're always couched in these amorphous, vaguely defined terms (this one's more of a "body high", this one is more of an "intense buzz" okay what the fuck does any of that really mean, clinically speaking). Just give me the weed. I know enough to know that varying strains is a good idea due to tolerance and I can identify cheap/shitty weed that is going to give me a headache on sight, but beyond that I don't really give a fuck what something is called or what "kind" of weed it is.

there's definitely a difference between like a heavily sativa strand and a primarily indica strand (tho as i understand it everything is a mix atm)

yea, but i think the higher end will develop too. i could see weed agritourism becoming a thing. there are fancy liquor/beer stores along with the neon / bikini stuff

the fancier places already exist but they have their own tropes of the new age yoga studio variety.

or what Οὖτις, said earlier

chill pnw coffee vibes + weed could be nice

― hug niceman (psychgawsple), Thursday, October 2, 2014 11:24 AM (51 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is how i picture amsterdam. hey we can dream can't we?

iirc amsterdam coffee shops are no longer permitted to serve foreigners. don't know if that's actually how it works in practice. amsterdam's cannabis laws aren't as progressive as the general perception says they are

Picked up some "Agent Orange" the other day, truly a name that inspires confidence

xp some other Dutch cities have enforced that but not Amsterdam.

There's still only 1 recreational store in Seattle which is ridiculous, but roughly 1.5 million dispensaries on Rainier where I live. At one point literally 3 of 4 consecutive businesses are dispensaries (the other is a Vietnamese accountant iirc?).

Yeah, like Spokane has a third the population of Seattle but has 5 stores right now; I read something about how it was always so easy to get in Seattle with delivery services and thousands of medical dispensaries that there's really no rush to get rec stores up and running. I think there were only a couple medical places in Spokane and they were always getting shut down and such.

and most rec stores also sell medical, right? i've only been in CO where medical is taxed less and has a higher cap on the amount you can purchase

Not in WA; part of the reason it took so long to set up is that they basically scrapped or ignored the medical places and started totally from scratch for the recreational ones - licenses awarded by lottery, etc.

my dispensary actually has a yoga studio on premises

I went to a cannabis club in Barcelona, it was my first time buying sort of legally. The place was ok but from what I heard after it's one of the more modest places as some of them are supposed to be rather done up. The one I went to had a small bar with food and drinks. They really incourage you to hang out and chill which is cool i guess.

honestly I don't want to fucking sit around and smoke weed with a bunch of stoners, I just want to take my sack back to the privacy of my home and not have to deal with anyone's weed culture

otm

There's still only 1 recreational store in Seattle which is ridiculous

2 now, one opened in the CD on Tuesday

I just want to take my sack back to the privacy of my home and not have to deal with anyone's weed culture

^^^

yeah totally

http://www.yorkdispatch.com/opinion/ci_26678769/letter-small-mediocre-minority-thwarts-medical-marijuana :(

2 now, one opened in the CD on Tuesday

― Starland Vocal Gland (sic), Friday, October 3, 2014 1:36 AM Bookmark

oh word?

I've been twice!

(discovered it by accident on opening day)

"Mass. has Banked Over $3M in Dispensary Fees & Not a Single Marijuana Seed Has Been Planted" http://bostinno.streetwise.co/2014/10/13/massachusetts-medical-marijuana-dispensary-application-fees-costs/

"To date, MassDPH has banked $3,271,500 in application fees from prospective dispensaries. Consider that 181 applicants paid out $1,500 apiece. When that number was trimmed down to 100, they subsequently paid out $30,000 each in order to move on. Just 11 dispensaries stand to open their doors at this point.

The fees are nonrefundable for the hopefuls that didn't make the cut.

But that's not all. Dispensaries that are approved for licensure will have to pony up annual fees of $50,000 for registration, $500 for dispensary agent registration and another $50 for patient registration. And then there's an architectural review of the premises that will cost at least $1,500."

http://www.golocalworcester.com/news/ma-marijuana-dispensaries-raise-state-millions-remain-unopened

Despite raising more than $3 million in nonrefundable application fees from potential medical marijuana dispensaries throughout the state, Massachusetts has yet to see a single marijuana dispensary open its doors, or even be completely approved by the state for that matter.

As dispensaries continue to battle through inspection processes, they continue to have to pay fees; fees that have even translated to patients through the state’s recently announced registration system. Combined with the many delays to the dispensary process and other problems that patients are currently experiencing, many marijuana advocates are becoming increasingly upset in regards to how the legalization of medical marijuana is playing out in the Commonwealth.

my optimist guess that it will be late 2015 before we see a dispensary, and this law was passed in fall 2012

MA bringing some serious drug cartel game there

haha it is some serious swindeling

Yesterday Oregonians voted to legalize recreational marijuana, including the ability to grow one's own plants for personal use. I never thought I would see the day, especially during the darkest days of Reagan/Meese and Just Say No, when marijuana was routinely lumped together with cocaine and heroin.

Thank you, Colorado, Washington State, and Obama/Holder for laying the foundations for this one.

Now comes the spectacle of gold rush mentality and unbridled greed mobilizing to get in at the ground floor. Oh well, that's part of the price to pay.

our new governor is pro medical marijuana so god willing this'll help push some legislation along in PA

four plants per adult household member :) xp

I was going to say, the four plants setup (no registration, no checking) sounds VERY sane. Basically so long as you don't have a brown thumb you're kinda good.

Strongly feel that this will be a role model for passage in California in 2016.

:) :) :)

rad!

Alaska legalized as well, plus DC. Here's some looking ahead info:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/11/05/marijuana-legalization-next-steps/18540353/

While California is expected to be the highest-profile state where legalization will be decided in 2016, voters in Arizona, Maine, Massachusetts and Nevada probably will vote on the issue.

Legalization advocates also are targeting legislative measures at lawmakers in Delaware, Hawaii, Maryland, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont.

"Now that it's been shown that putting marijuana legalization on the ballot can succeed even in midterms, we can expect to see a huge surge of additional states voting to end prohibition during the 2016 presidential election," said Tom Angell of Marijuana Majority. "And because the issue has been proven to be mainstream as far as voters are concerned, we may even see lawmakers in several states jumping ahead to legalize marijuana legislatively in the meantime."

delisting would be a welcome development