I’ve been wanting to write about this topic for some time. In fact, I have no interest in working in the commercial retail cannabis space in the US. I actually believe that Europe is the place for me, largely for obvious reasons for anyone that reads my blog posts. It’s because the EU doesn’t allow for many of the toxic preservatives, addictive chemicals, and dyes the USDA and FDA do allow in our food system. It is my position that largely we have rolled out the cannabis industry in this country the way we have rolled out the fast food system, which is to make products as fast as possible, as cheaply as possible, and give little to no concern about the negative health implications of the end consumer.
My First Experiences With Dispensary Weed in Cali Under Prop 215 and SB 420
Cannabis used to be amazing at dispensaries, as anyone can tell you. During the first medical legalization, which was passed in 1996 in California under Prop. 215 and SB 420, I lived in California in 2006–2007 and I actually had met a farmer that grew for dispensaries. So instead of paying (I believe it was around $80) to get a medical card (which just about anyone could get for just about any ailment, the way it should be), I decided to not buy the cow considering I could get the milk for free. But the cannabis was exceptional, and it was grown outdoor in the Southern California sun.
How New Tech Has Allowed Us to Cut Corners at Every Opportunity in the Cannabis Space
Technology can be a great thing, but it can also be a horrible thing when wielded incorrectly. So processes that rush a plant through its natural growth state and cut corners in post-production create artificial colors, tastes, smells, and weight that probably are not good for the health of cannabis consumers. But I’m not going to go into that here, as I have written extensively on these issues in the past concerning CHS, PGRs, and other terrible commercial grow experiences.
Synthetic Terpenes
Synthetic terpenes are something I have not discussed, but after going to a buddy’s house this New Year’s Eve and smelling some bud that smelled like Skittles, I have to bring this up.
When I was at Indo Expo in 2017, I saw a booth of a company that was developing synthetic terpenes, and they had the oils in jars for everyone to smell. I asked them, “Why would I need synthetic terpenes?” And while they were not explicit, the implication was clear, which is if you have old bud, or bud that didn’t produce the terps you were looking for, we can spray them with this synthetic bullshit and get the smells consumers want. While we may not understand the implications of synthetic terpenes on our health currently, we may find out some very bad things in the future when people have been consuming them for decades.
I don’t believe you have to be a doctor to understand that synthesized chemicals produced in a lab, combusted, and then hard-wired into our brains is probably not okay.
Mold
This is something of an epidemic in the commercial grows that I worked at, not to mention I experienced it firsthand as a consumer buying from dispensaries. Sadly, oftentimes these commercial grows use some really shady practices to hide things like mold spores. One of the things we did at the commercial grow where I worked the longest (75 Farm) was to turn our flower that failed testing with the MED into isolate we then sold as vape cartridges. Yeah, pretty fucked up huh?
Third Day Genetics and How I Modeled It After the California Dispensary Model
Around 2011, I started a black market dispensary in Indianapolis called Third Day Genetics. And like the dispensaries I saw in California, I had branded bottles complete with the Prop. 215 and SB 420 medical cannabis disclaimers because I wanted my cannabis to be seen as dispensary-quality cannabis that came from Cali. Even my distributors didn’t know I was actually growing it until I got busted, so then I came clean. However, now dispensary cannabis has taken a turn for the worse.
How Now I Want to Distinguish My Cannabis I Gift to Friends From Dispensary Weed
For anyone that follows me on social media, I talk shit about dispensary weed all day, every day, and now when I smoke people out or gift people cannabis, I do everything in my power to distinguish my cannabis from anything they could get at the store. I go so far as to put labels on mylar bags of my cannabis with a check list of every deplorable things I saw at commercial grows and a list of how I grow organically and every element of how I grow cannabis cleanly.
Non Stop Pharmaceutical Ads While Cannabis is Still Federally Illegal
Up until about 2005, you couldn’t advertise behind-the-counter / prescription drugs. Well, legislation changed, and now I feel like 75% of the ads I see on TV are for Big Pharma products, which have more side effects than any legal product should. But the side effects are what they want, so they can develop new drugs to combat those side effects, and round and round we go on the US “sick care” model where everyone from health insurance businesses to private hospitals are doing everything in their power to keep us sick and keep us from clean natural organic medicine.
Cannabis Should Be a Solution
Normally, I would say consume cannabis and put down all the pharmaceuticals. I only take two drugs: cannabis and mushrooms. Both made by Mother Nature, not man, and the only side effects are generally some form of euphoria and healthy introspection.
But again, even cannabis we have now adulterated and turned into just one more dog shit commodity like so many of the products we push in the United States today.
I think my readers know where I am going with this: save your money, save your health, and save yourself, grow your own. One Love.
