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Post by Vale on Oct 13, 2016 10:16:27 GMT -5
Oh good. I was worried you were one of these house flippers. Buying places, evicting people, fixing them up and quickly selling them off for more and fucking up the housing market I don't know the bottom 2, but I feel like I am both of those twins put together. I find the deal, I negotiate it and then I pour my time and sweat into the place. Towards the deadlines I get really stressed, swear I'm not going to do another one unless it's for myself. I'll chill out, take a weekend to myself and I'm back at it again. I went a little over budget for a client this last one. He's not upset, I did what I had to do and he's got a great investment. I just hate not being able to do what I said I would do.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 13, 2016 10:22:09 GMT -5
I really shouldn't get involved because Pinnochio just makes my head hurt but... Something like 13% of the population works off the books/sells drugs/whatever. If you already live in a place, and you make your monthly rental payments, a business simply isn't going to spend the money to keep checking up on you. They are well aware that some of their tenants are not going to show a steady income-that is precisely WHY you only have to when you first apply for the place. And don't try to bullshit me about Missouri-I lived there for more than 10 years. Eviction is a GIGANTIC pain in the ass there. It can literally take 6-9 months (sometimes even longer) and THOUSANDS of dollars. So why in the blue hell is a company going to spend that time and money evicting someone who is current on their rent? Simply put-they aren't going to. The guy is a waste of time buddy. What he is saying is bullshit. I did look at my site that I use for background checks and I can't get some yearly subscription. I have to already pay a annual just to use it for background checks. And when I signed up, I had to have an inspector come out to my office to make sure I had a locking file cabinet to store my info in. The guy is nothing but a waste of time.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 13, 2016 13:39:07 GMT -5
My turn.
On November 8th, my state will be voting to legalize recreational use of marijuana. This bill is going to pass by the largest % margin of any state voting on the issue, including California. I have been preparing for this eventuality for several years now. Three to be exact.
Thus far I have:
Secured approval from the town for construction of a 5000 sq. ft. steel building (with reinforced concrete interior defense walls). I have taken bids and determined which contractor I will be using, and they have been hired. I have gotten Mexico to pay for the construction of the building. Just kidding. The building is being paid for by one of the three primary investors, and it isn't Mexico. But that would be funny. Construction is set to begin two weeks after the election is over. Building will be finished in the first two weeks of January.
I've got a little more than $1M in seed money sitting in an LLC's bank account. (Only $350K of it is my money.) That money will be going towards the interior of the building, all the grow equipment, and all the cool shit we're going to have going on in there that (the overwhelming majority of) other growers aren't using (yet). It will also be paying our electric bills during the first (most expensive and time consuming) crop, as well as paying all the other bills that will have us operating at a loss until one month prior to retail locations have their grand opening. Then we go from the red to the black and never look back.
My current calculation is that after we kick the first harvest out ($375K), we're going to be hiring up to 20 employees between three areas. Security, agricultural, and retail. I'm going to need bud trimmers to trim through around 15lbs of product a day. These people will be making 15 an hour with full benefits. To just sit there and trim buds. I'm also going to need one person to operate the bud trimming machine that will be used to trim/separate particulate and the buds that will be used for concentrates. I don't think there would be anything for you in security or retail, but if you want to trim buds, can pass a criminal background check (centered on drug violations) and likely end up making 70K a year once we're clicking on all cylinders, you could apply. I'm not offering you the job. Just saying you could apply for it if you wanted to actually end up making decent money in your life.
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Post by HankPNW on Oct 13, 2016 14:10:08 GMT -5
What strains are you thinking about growing? Good luck man. I love growing the green.
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Post by Canuklehead on Oct 13, 2016 14:14:27 GMT -5
My turn. On November 8th, my state will be voting to legalize recreational use of marijuana. This bill is going to pass by the largest % margin of any state voting on the issue, including California. I have been preparing for this eventuality for several years now. Three to be exact. Thus far I have: Secured approval from the town for construction of a 5000 sq. ft. steel building (with reinforced concrete interior defense walls). I have taken bids and determined which contractor I will be using, and they have been hired. I have gotten Mexico to pay for the construction of the building. Just kidding. The building is being paid for by one of the three primary investors, and it isn't Mexico. But that would be funny. Construction is set to begin two weeks after the election is over. Building will be finished in the first two weeks of January. I've got a little more than $1M in seed money sitting in an LLC's bank account. (Only $350K of it is my money.) That money will be going towards the interior of the building, all the grow equipment, and all the cool shit we're going to have going on in there that (the overwhelming majority of) other growers aren't using (yet). It will also be paying our electric bills during the first (most expensive and time consuming) crop, as well as paying all the other bills that will have us operating at a loss until one month prior to retail locations have their grand opening. Then we go from the red to the black and never look back. My current calculation is that after we kick the first harvest out ($375K), we're going to be hiring up to 20 employees between three areas. Security, agricultural, and retail. I'm going to need bud trimmers to trim through around 15lbs of product a day. These people will be making 15 an hour with full benefits. To just sit there and trim buds. I'm also going to need one person to operate the bud trimming machine that will be used to trim/separate particulate and the buds that will be used for concentrates. I don't think there would be anything for you in security or retail, but if you want to trim buds, can pass a criminal background check (centered on drug violations) and likely end up making 70K a year once we're clicking on all cylinders, you could apply. I'm not offering you the job. Just saying you could apply for it if you wanted to actually end up making decent money in your life. Damn, 70K a year to trim buds? Can this foreigner come take that job? I also make killer edibles
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Post by Premier on Oct 13, 2016 14:40:12 GMT -5
My turn. On November 8th, my state will be voting to legalize recreational use of marijuana. This bill is going to pass by the largest % margin of any state voting on the issue, including California. I have been preparing for this eventuality for several years now. Three to be exact. Thus far I have: Secured approval from the town for construction of a 5000 sq. ft. steel building (with reinforced concrete interior defense walls). I have taken bids and determined which contractor I will be using, and they have been hired. I have gotten Mexico to pay for the construction of the building. Just kidding. The building is being paid for by one of the three primary investors, and it isn't Mexico. But that would be funny. Construction is set to begin two weeks after the election is over. Building will be finished in the first two weeks of January. I've got a little more than $1M in seed money sitting in an LLC's bank account. (Only $350K of it is my money.) That money will be going towards the interior of the building, all the grow equipment, and all the cool shit we're going to have going on in there that (the overwhelming majority of) other growers aren't using (yet). It will also be paying our electric bills during the first (most expensive and time consuming) crop, as well as paying all the other bills that will have us operating at a loss until one month prior to retail locations have their grand opening. Then we go from the red to the black and never look back. My current calculation is that after we kick the first harvest out ($375K), we're going to be hiring up to 20 employees between three areas. Security, agricultural, and retail. I'm going to need bud trimmers to trim through around 15lbs of product a day. These people will be making 15 an hour with full benefits. To just sit there and trim buds. I'm also going to need one person to operate the bud trimming machine that will be used to trim/separate particulate and the buds that will be used for concentrates. I don't think there would be anything for you in security or retail, but if you want to trim buds, can pass a criminal background check (centered on drug violations) and likely end up making 70K a year once we're clicking on all cylinders, you could apply. I'm not offering you the job. Just saying you could apply for it if you wanted to actually end up making decent money in your life. When the laws are in the books I'm coming up there. I always wanted to visit Maine. Now I have another reason (Other than meeting Tony of course).
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Post by Deleted on Oct 13, 2016 14:54:33 GMT -5
We're going to have 3000 sq ft. (state maximum for indoors) of flowering space. We're planning on starting with at least six strains and giving each of them about 500 sq. ft. apiece. That might change though. We might go with 12 strains @ 250 sq. ft. apiece. Not sure yet. That'll depend on how many dispensaries the municipalities in the state allow to open (as we're going to be wholesaling about 70% of our crops) and demand for the strains could cause us to shrink from 12. We won't go higher than 12 indoors though. Right now the guaranteed strains (already have the mothers) are:
Girl Scout Cookies (Platinum phenotype) Mother Of Berries (Head grower developed that strain himself) Train Wreck Pineapple Express Grand Daddy Purp Fruity Chronic Juice
We're also kicking around the idea of doing one small 100Sq ft. batch per month that is a "monthly special" and will only be available for one month. I don't know if that's going to be a bigger pain in the ass than it's worth yet. But it would increase our strain count by 12, which might be beneficial down the line.
We're definitely going to expand though. After the first year we're going to be able to start the outdoor grow up on the roof. The current plan is to kinda "Noah's Ark" it on the roof. We're going to grow seedlings of every strain we have and then select one male and one female from each strain. Then we're gonna put them on the roof and let the plants have a vegetable swingers party all summer. Just let the male plants fuck the shit out of (pollinate isn't as fun to say) the female plants. Hopefully introduce some strains to each other that have never met before, but wished they did. This will provide us (hopefully) with some unique seeds. Then we get to grow them and have the genetics tested. If we've got something new, we get to name it. (I'm looking very forward to that.) I'm going to name one strain STFU Jackel. (Not kidding.) Going to also name another one SGM3K. Super Great Marijuana 3000. If we get one that tests really high for THC content, I might name it BigTHC. But probably not, because fuck that guy.
Looking very forward to all of it. If it all comes together as I hope it will, it's going to be far better (both financially and personally) than the real estate stuff my old man was in. I have no passion for real estate. None. It just doesn't interest me the way this stuff does. And I'm not just saying "oh I like to smoke weed". I'm saying that the plant itself fascinates the fuck out of me, that the industry itself fascinates the fuck out of me, and that watching industries spring up and become something massive also interests me. The whole thing is just so...interesting (to me).
For example, I read this report last year that speculated that because of all of the money that is being invested into marijuana cultivation- they believe that the majority of our agricultural breakthroughs are going to be coming from the cannabis industry in the future. I think this is cool but also funny. It's funny because cannabis is a want and food is a need, but we're more apt to spend money on growing bigger marijuana plants just because it is so much more lucrative (and the final product, so much more entertaining and enjoyable) than tomatoes and corn. That stuff just grabs my attention and holds it.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 13, 2016 15:28:45 GMT -5
Damn, 70K a year to trim buds? Can this foreigner come take that job? I also make killer edibles I don't know much about the rules regarding hiring foreigners. Something tells me that would be a no go in the current climate, but I really have no idea. I haven't given that much thought because one of the driving factors behind my licensing is that every penny involved in this venture came from Maine, and every penny of profit will stay in Maine, as well as every salary we pay will be to a Maine resident. The margins in this industry are absolutely ridiculous. Absolutely. Ridiculous. I mean, you have guys in Colorado right now who are making 2-3 million a year AFTER BEING TAXED ON THEIR GROSS! That's 100% unheard of in any other industry. It's mind blowing. That level of taxation would cripple just about any other business. But this one lucratively trudges on in spite of it. And here's the thing for me. When I've looked at the corporate structures of some of the businesses running out in Colorado I see something. I see the exact same bullshit that's going on in every other bigger business in this country regarding the income gap. Yes, the "worker bees" are typically paid better in the marijuana industry, but they could be getting paid even more. When I broke all the financials and projections for this venture down, the amount of money that I'd personally be left with is astrofuckingnomical. Multi million per year. And that's after (millions in) taxes, 1M per year to outside investors, 750K a year in combined executive salaries for the heads of retail, security and growing, 45% profit shares being disbursed to those same executives, and another 3M put in overall operating expenses (including base level employees salaries and benefits). To me, and this is probably my father talking, it makes more sense for me to take less of that money and spread it out among the people who are actually making the entire company function. You don't have to make people rich to improve their quality of life beyond what it currently is. But I know that for some folks, 70K a year would be life changing in a far bigger way than me keeping a few extra million a year would. That leads to happy employees, which leads to the job being done not just right, but well. Since this is what I intend to hand over to my kids someday, I want it to be built to last. tl;dr I maybe could give you that job a year from this coming June. Maybe.
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Post by MMAJim on Oct 13, 2016 15:50:34 GMT -5
I'd also like to make a trip out to visit the facility. I actually don't even smoke but I am interested in entrepreneurial enterprises in general. I moonlight a tiny bit in consulting small companies, primarily in marketing and company structure. That being said, I would view this as an educational visit with an opportunity to see seemingly well planned true start-up including new construction. Let me know when you're accepting visitors and giving tours. -I forgot to add, no I'm not going to try to sell you any consulting services; probably.
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Post by peAk on Oct 13, 2016 16:18:11 GMT -5
This thread is great
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Post by Deleted on Oct 13, 2016 16:24:10 GMT -5
lol. I'll definitely be sharing pictures and stuff once we get moving. I don't know if we're going to be offering tours or not, I'm not sure what the rules are going to be around that. The current ballot measure has some pretty strict requirements for who is let into the grow area even as employees. I'm not sure if we'll even be able to give tours to the general public legally. But if we can, and it's a thing people are interested in, I don't see why not.
We are going to be doing some cool stuff on the grow side with LED's and sonic capillary stimulation. I'm not the botanist so I don't really know much about the intricacies. But we're combining techniques and practices from places like the biggest LED indoor grow farm in the world (which is in Japan), a bamboo farm in India that uses sound to increase their yield by 30%, and a couple other things that I don't really understand (yet). All I know is that it's already been proven to work in my head grower's current medical operation, and I've watched it consistently work for the last two years. Basically we're just going to scale his existing system up a lot.
Really hopeful it all comes together tight. Don't really have much reason to think it won't, beyond the normal uncertainty that comes from starting anything new.
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Post by ocmmafan on Oct 13, 2016 16:24:45 GMT -5
Tony - what's your take on edibles and what percentage of your business will be edibles? Is the ROI extremely different for edibles and is the shelf life worse, etc? I know zero about the business but thinking rationally of my adult friends and can't imagine many are going to want to inhale but would probably eat.
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Post by boboplata on Oct 13, 2016 16:25:53 GMT -5
My turn. On November 8th, my state will be voting to legalize recreational use of marijuana. This bill is going to pass by the largest % margin of any state voting on the issue, including California. I have been preparing for this eventuality for several years now. Three to be exact. Thus far I have: Secured approval from the town for construction of a 5000 sq. ft. steel building (with reinforced concrete interior defense walls). I have taken bids and determined which contractor I will be using, and they have been hired. I have gotten Mexico to pay for the construction of the building. Just kidding. The building is being paid for by one of the three primary investors, and it isn't Mexico. But that would be funny. Construction is set to begin two weeks after the election is over. Building will be finished in the first two weeks of January. I've got a little more than $1M in seed money sitting in an LLC's bank account. (Only $350K of it is my money.) That money will be going towards the interior of the building, all the grow equipment, and all the cool shit we're going to have going on in there that (the overwhelming majority of) other growers aren't using (yet). It will also be paying our electric bills during the first (most expensive and time consuming) crop, as well as paying all the other bills that will have us operating at a loss until one month prior to retail locations have their grand opening. Then we go from the red to the black and never look back. My current calculation is that after we kick the first harvest out ($375K), we're going to be hiring up to 20 employees between three areas. Security, agricultural, and retail. I'm going to need bud trimmers to trim through around 15lbs of product a day. These people will be making 15 an hour with full benefits. To just sit there and trim buds. I'm also going to need one person to operate the bud trimming machine that will be used to trim/separate particulate and the buds that will be used for concentrates. I don't think there would be anything for you in security or retail, but if you want to trim buds, can pass a criminal background check (centered on drug violations) and likely end up making 70K a year once we're clicking on all cylinders, you could apply. I'm not offering you the job. Just saying you could apply for it if you wanted to actually end up making decent money in your life. Damn, 70K a year to trim buds? Can this foreigner come take that job? I also make killer edibles Reporting for duty!
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Post by PatSox on Oct 13, 2016 16:34:40 GMT -5
Oh good. I was worried you were one of these house flippers. Buying places, evicting people, fixing them up and quickly selling them off for more and fucking up the housing market The way me and my broker work, we don't evict decent people. Filthy..gone. Welfare and young...gone. Been there for years raising your family? We won't move ya and we try to keep the rent as low as possible. I actually have triplex on the market right now that if my client would be willing to kick someone out, we could see much more action because of younger and newer investors. Now that all being said, I am part of a "problem" with the rent rising. When we remodel and rent out we get top dollar. We do these places with some style, these places look really nice when we are finished. Now..with that all being said, I am making the neighborhood nicer so... And im not opposed to flipping them. But real estate here is such a good investment that many trust it much more even in a peaking time than they do the stock market. I'd prefer and I recommend to just hang on to them. These places are great suplemental income when it comes down to it. ah shit...........you kinda do sound like a house flipper, Vale
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Post by daywork on Oct 13, 2016 16:39:19 GMT -5
That's great Tony. I'm so jealous. I wanted Arkansas to pass the same bill last year but they didn't. If it looks like it might pass this year. I really will want to come out and visit your business and get some advice from your.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 13, 2016 17:03:21 GMT -5
Yeah, I have a buddy that moved from Virginia to Colorado before they passed the bill and now he is clearing like 300 a year. I told him I would operate a building in Virginia if it ever gets passed. It was an empty offer. I don't know anything about growing it, have no money, and I doubt he would hire me, lol.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 13, 2016 17:42:42 GMT -5
I DO hate Jackel, just in case anyone was wondering.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 13, 2016 18:04:34 GMT -5
Tony - what's your take on edibles and what percentage of your business will be edibles? Is the ROI extremely different for edibles and is the shelf life worse, etc? I know zero about the business but thinking rationally of my adult friends and can't imagine many are going to want to inhale but would probably eat. My take on edibles is that it's gonna be pretty big. Maybe even eventually grow to be bigger than the smoking market. The fact that you have to smoke it is a big turn off for a lot of people, and the rise of the vape pens and edibles seems to show that there are a lot of people who'd be open to trying it if they don't have to smoke it. I watched this video the other day about this chef out in California named Jeff The 420 Chef. Dude figured out a way to make cannabis butter that has zero cannabis taste. He's been making all these high end, fine dining dishes that have the stuff worked right into it, but you can't taste the weed at all. He's carved out a niche for himself, and is getting kinda famous. He might be in your area, you should check him out. It's kinda serendipitous, but the building on the lot next to the one I'm building on has a commercial kitchen in it. So if things go well, we might be able to buy that space and start another aspect of the business and get into the edible side of things. Of course, the edibles are also a big bone of contention for the prohibitionists. Scared kids will get their hands on them. It annoys me because I don't think they realize that they are basically saying that the government can protect my kids better than I can. Every instance of a kid getting their hands on the stuff that I've read about is a result of adult negligence. There are companies that only do edibles. I expect some to start up here as well, and when they do, we'll sell them the concentrates that they'll be using to make their products kick you in the head. It's going to be interesting to see how it all breaks down percentage wise as far as how much is being sold to whom and for what. I expect the bud-smoker side to be the biggest % for awhile. But it won't surprise me in the least bit if that changes as time moves forward and people start finding alternative methods of imbibing it are more to their liking than smoking it.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 13, 2016 18:12:42 GMT -5
That's great Tony. I'm so jealous. I wanted Arkansas to pass the same bill last year but they didn't. If it looks like it might pass this year. I really will want to come out and visit your business and get some advice from your. I will be posting pictures of the construction and the finished product. As soon as we're up and moving, any time any of you are in Maine, just look up Thunder Gardens and shoot me a message on here. I'd be happy to show any of you around.
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Post by CaveBearOG on Oct 13, 2016 20:29:53 GMT -5
In a few months I should be fully functional with my prosthetic. Ive been doing pt on my stump shoulder and can move it normally there by allowing me to operate the fake arm. Can I trim Tony.. .
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Post by Deleted on Oct 13, 2016 20:40:55 GMT -5
He'll offer you a gig when you can get flog the dolphin with the prosthetic.
#Goals
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Post by boboplata on Oct 13, 2016 20:49:14 GMT -5
Everyone wants to work for tony now. I just want to see the mountain.
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Post by CaveBearOG on Oct 13, 2016 20:57:54 GMT -5
Everyone wants to work for tony now. I just want to see the mountain. I wanna see Liv...😊
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Post by CaveBearOG on Oct 13, 2016 21:02:25 GMT -5
He'll offer you a gig when you can get flog the dolphin with the prosthetic. #Goals Ha, I have a sweet rubber hand attachment for it. I plan on practicing ALOT!! 😊
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Post by HankPNW on Oct 13, 2016 21:51:26 GMT -5
Since it's MMA related, you should be growing that Kimbo Kush! Beautiful strain.
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Post by boboplata on Oct 13, 2016 21:58:51 GMT -5
Since it's MMA related, you should be growing that Kimbo Kush! Beautiful strain. MMA related strains would be awesome. Go get some p4p botanists Tony. Make some Stockton Slap, Mongolian Chop, Cartwheel Pass, Head Stomp, Portland Spritz, TRTor, etc.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 14, 2016 0:37:21 GMT -5
I am very curious to see what happens to the weed industry over the next few years. I personally hate weed and think it is going to do more for ruining our country than all other drugs combined, however it's going to be legal in 50 states eventually and there is no sense in fighting it.
California is going to legalize it in November and there is already a ridiculous amount of infrastructure in place for commercial grow operations. Very large companies have been buying up property and green houses in anticipation of November, and even the Indians are putting huge money in to warehouses and outdoor grow properties. California is going to be producing an insane amount of weed starting almost immediately, and I am not sure what that is going to do to the market across the country... cause there will be a major surplus here.
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Post by floater on Oct 14, 2016 2:24:37 GMT -5
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
this!
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Post by TitoOrtizIsAPunk on Oct 14, 2016 2:47:48 GMT -5
I am very curious to see what happens to the weed industry over the next few years. I personally hate weed and think it is going to do more for ruining our country than all other drugs combined, however it's going to be legal in 50 states eventually and there is no sense in fighting it. California is going to legalize it in November and there is already a ridiculous amount of infrastructure in place for commercial grow operations. Very large companies have been buying up property and green houses in anticipation of November, and even the Indians are putting huge money in to warehouses and outdoor grow properties. California is going to be producing an insane amount of weed starting almost immediately, and I am not sure what that is going to do to the market across the country... cause there will be a major surplus here. You seriously think weed will ruin the country more than anything else? Alcohol? Heroine? Crack? At least marijuana has a lot of medical uses with a no chance of overdose. I know you live in California and experience it but travel to a state where it's legal all around. The refer madness is a figment of most old folks imagination...
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Post by Angelo on Oct 14, 2016 3:05:52 GMT -5
Missouri is going about it ass-backwards. They decriminalized in various cities/towns already, and now as of January 10 gram state-wide decriminalization minimum (STL and Columbia are staying at 35 grams). The recreational and medical vote failed (pushed against by Tobacco Dems in the state), however the state is ready to collect taxes on it regardless because they are expecting various cities in Missouri to legalize and the state will respect it.
If that happens, the growing is gonna be interesting, town-restricted growth/sales ha.
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