Business
Wait, Should I Buy Weed from My Dealer or That New Dispensary on the Block?
The question of where to get weed from should be expected to have a straightforward answer right? Wrong. For many cannabis users, this choice of where to get the desired product remains a big issue that many haven’t settled. Some are unaware of the benefits that getting cannabis from a trusted source brings. Well not to worry, we will take you through the pros and cons of both sources. Ultimately, you should be able to decide after reading this article if you should buy your weed from your dealer or dispensary.
Sources of cannabis products
The emergence of legislation that allowed for recreational marijuana and medical marijuana promoted the growth of cannabis dispensaries. Before this period, the illegal classification of marijuana meant that it was sourced from illicit markets that are unregulated. Many cannabis users today grew to believe that dealers are the only available source of marijuana. However, the prominence of legal markets in different states in the country has opened up cannabis dispensaries as the accepted source.
Dealers have wrongly been seen by many as stoners who are by the roadside or in shady places exchanging ditch weed. The advent of legalization has seen many cannabis dealers upgrade with the trend and the value of their services. This has repeatedly kept them relevant in the market among cannabis users despite the fact that their activities are illegal. Most dealers in the market to are more sophisticated than ever before. They have a wide range of selected products to offer which makes them an option for many cannabis users.
Cannabis dispensaries are the structured framework under accepted regulations licensed to dispense and provide cannabis products. Dispensaries have budtenders who provide customers with adequate information on the strains as well as expected effects. More cannabis dispensaries are being opened in legal states nationwide with some providing delivery services.
Dealer or Dispensary
The choice between either getting cannabis products from the dealer or dispensary depends on different factors. There are a number of pros that favor the use of dealers (not that we are advising you to) and also those that favor dispensaries. In order to be fair, we will look at some of these factors holistically and see how both sources look with respect to the factors.
Legality
This is perhaps the most important factor that characterizes these sources of cannabis products. While dealers are legally backed by regulation agencies, dealers are characterized as illicit, unregulated, or grey markets. Cannabis users who purchase products legally from dispensaries are free of worry as they are on the right side of the law. This is however not the same for those who possess cannabis illicitly from cannabis dealers. Though it seems regulation bodies haven’t been too tight on those who patronize dealers in states with the legal market, a simple move could correct that. The implications can be very bad for those caught on the wrong side.
Availability
Dealers mirror less the community pharmacies when it comes to cannabis products. This is because they are close to the users and readily made the drug available. Dealers are present in the cities and states and perform delivery services which prompt many users to use their services. Cannabis dispensaries are less mobile as only a few have delivery services which means most times users need to physically to the dispensaries. This can be a downside for some cannabis users who are seeking privacy.
Price
Price is a major factor that tends to affect the choice most users make on where to get their cannabis products. Dealers as expected have lower prices for their products which attract many users to patronize them. Dispensaries on the other hand have higher prices for their products. This is largely due to the presence of excise, sales, and local taxes on the products. Likewise, cannabis dispensaries also need to pay for staff and other logistic requirements which have an effect on their prices.
Environmental sustainability
This factor is more of a continuation for prices in terms of cannabis dispensaries. The tax levied on cannabis products is being used by the government for environmental sustainability. It is readily used to promote health, education, drug abuse research, and so on. Dealers on the other hand have the leadership potential for environmental sustainability. This is because their activities tend to deplete the integrity of structures within the environment.
Safety and Quality
Cannabis dealers provide users with products whose safety and quality cannot be verified. Users get products that they have no inkling as to their source or constituents. Some of these products can have serious health risks to the user thanks to the presence of pesticides, heavy metals, and other residues. Alongside, dealers give estimates of the THC potency of products which can be false as there are no testing processes performed on the products. Products procured from cannabis dispensaries on the other hand are very safe as they would have passed through different stages of analysis to establish the safety of the products. Such products are free from harmful materials like pesticides and heavy metals. The quality of the products is also assured as proper testing is carried out to ascertain the potency of the product.
Bottom line
The truth is the choice of where to procure your products ultimately lies with you. However, considering the factors laid down above, there seems to be only one logical choice. This is the choice that keeps your civic character in the proper state by not putting you at loggerheads with the law. This is the choice that ensures that the proceeds of your procurement go towards the sustenance of your community and environment. This is the choice that ensures you get products that are safe to use without health risks. This is the choice that ensures that what you ordered or required is what was delivered. We need not say more, as you already know the choice to make.
New Mexico regulators fined a cannabis operator nearly $300,000 and revoked its license after the company allegedly created fake reports in the state’s traceability software.
The New Mexico Cannabis Control Division (CCD) accused marijuana manufacturer and retailer Golden Roots of 11 violations, according to Albuquerque Business First.
Golden Roots operates the The Cannabis Revolution Dispensary.
The majority of the violations are related to the Albuquerque company’s improper use of BioTrack, which has been New Mexico’s track-and-trace vendor since 2015.
The CCD alleges Golden Roots reported marijuana production only two months after it had received its vertically integrated license, according to Albuquerque Business First.
Because cannabis takes longer than two months to be cultivated, the CCD was suspicious of the report.
After inspecting the company’s premises, the CCD alleged Golden Roots reported cultivation, transportation and sales in BioTrack but wasn’t able to provide officers who inspected the site evidence that the operator was cultivating cannabis.
In April, the CCD revoked Golden Roots’ license and issued a $10,000 fine, according to the news outlet.
The company requested a hearing, which the regulator scheduled for Sept. 1.
At the hearing, the CCD testified that the company’s dried-cannabis weights in BioTrack were suspicious because they didn’t seem to accurately reflect how much weight marijuana loses as it dries.
Company employees also poorly accounted for why they were making adjustments in the system of up to 24 pounds of cannabis, making comments such as “bad” or “mistake” in the software, Albuquerque Business First reported.
Golden Roots was fined $298,972.05 – the amount regulators allege the company made selling products that weren’t properly accounted for in BioTrack.
The CCD has been cracking down on cannabis operators accused of selling products procured from out-of-state or not grown legally:
- Regulators alleged in August that Albuquerque dispensary Sawmill Sweet Leaf sold out-of-state products and didn’t have a license for extraction.
- Paradise Exotics Distro lost its license in July after regulators alleged the company sold products made in California.
Golden Roots was the first alleged rulebreaker in New Mexico to be asked to pay a large fine.
Source: https://mjbizdaily.com/new-mexico-cannabis-operator-fined-loses-license-for-alleged-biotrack-fraud/
Four marijuana companies, including a multistate operator, have filed a lawsuit against U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland in which they allege the federal MJ prohibition under the Controlled Substances Act is no longer constitutional.
According to the complaint, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts, retailer Canna Provisions, Treevit delivery service CEO Gyasi Sellers, cultivator Wiseacre Farm and MSO Verano Holdings Corp. are all harmed by “the federal government’s unconstitutional ban on cultivating, manufacturing, distributing, or possessing intrastate marijuana.”
Verano is headquartered in Chicago but has operations in Massachusetts; the other three operators are based in Massachusetts.
The lawsuit seeks a ruling that the “Controlled Substances Act is unconstitutional as applied to the intrastate cultivation, manufacture, possession, and distribution of marijuana pursuant to state law.”
The companies want the case to go before the U.S. Supreme Court.
They hired prominent law firm Boies Schiller Flexner to represent them.
The New York-based firm’s principal is David Boies, whose former clients include Microsoft, former presidential candidate Al Gore and Elizabeth Holmes’ disgraced startup Theranos.
Similar challenges to the federal Controlled Substances Act (CSA) have failed.
One such challenge led to a landmark Supreme Court decision in 2005.
In Gonzalez vs. Raich, the highest court in the United States ruled in a 6-3 decision that the commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution gave Congress the power to outlaw marijuana federally, even though state laws allow the cultivation and sale of cannabis.
In the 18 years since that ruling, 23 states and the District of Columbia have legalized adult-use marijuana and the federal government has allowed a multibillion-dollar cannabis industry to thrive.
Since both Congress and the U.S. Department of Justice, currently headed by Garland, have declined to intervene in state-licensed marijuana markets, the key facts that led to the Supreme Court’s 2005 ruling “no longer apply,” Boies said in a statement Thursday.
“The Supreme Court has since made clear that the federal government lacks the authority to regulate purely intrastate commerce,” Boies said.
“Moreover, the facts on which those precedents are based are no longer true.”
Verano President Darren Weiss said in a statement the company is “prepared to bring this case all the way to the Supreme Court in order to align federal law with how Congress has acted for years.”
While the Biden administration’s push to reschedule marijuana would help solve marijuana operators’ federal tax woes, neither rescheduling nor modest Congressional reforms such as the SAFER Banking Act “solve the fundamental issue,” Weiss added.
“The application of the CSA to lawful state-run cannabis business is an unconstitutional overreach on state sovereignty that has led to decades of harm, failed businesses, lost jobs, and unsafe working conditions.”
Alabama regulators are targeting Dec. 1 to award the first batch of medical cannabis business licenses after the agency’s first two attempts were scrapped because of scoring errors and litigation.
The first licenses will be awarded to individual cultivators, delivery providers, processors, dispensaries and state testing labs, according to the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission (AMCC).
Then, on Dec. 12, the AMCC will award licenses for vertically integrated operations, a designation set primarily for multistate operators.
Licenses are expected to be handed out 28 days after they have been awarded, so MMJ production could begin in early January, according to the Alabama Daily News.
That means MMJ products could be available for patients around early March, an AMCC spokesperson told the media outlet.
Regulators initially awarded 21 business licenses in June, only to void them after applicants alleged inconsistencies with how the applications were scored.
Then, in August, the state awarded 24 different licenses – 19 went to June recipients – only to reverse themselves again and scratch those licenses after spurned applicants filed lawsuits.
A state judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by Chicago-based MSO Verano Holdings Corp., but another lawsuit is pending.
Source: https://mjbizdaily.com/alabama-plans-to-award-medical-cannabis-licenses-dec-1/
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