Agricultural cooperatives that share marijuna

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Possession of up to an ounce of weed has been legal here in Virginia for about 3 years. We were supposed to have retail stores by now but the legistaure put it on indefinite hold. Shortly after these stores starting appearing all over, Pop Up stores they called them. If you bought a T-shirt or something inexpensive you got “free” weed. There was some question from the state in the beginning as to whether or not this was legal but it was eventually decided that it was not, which makes sense to me from a legal starnpoint.

A couple of weeks ago I was driving through downtown and I saw a store with a sign that had a big marijuana leaf on it and I asked about it in one of the vape stores in town, which used to sell Delta 9 gummies until the state made those illegal.

The way the co-op works is you pay a $20 membership fee, which is good for 10 vistis. You then make a cash donation, $15 gets you a gram of good weed, although you can get larger amounts.

I love it. As Newman in Seinfeld said about fat-free yogurt, “I’ve been waiting for this for years, and now it’s finally here!”

Will the state take this away too? It is certainly legal to have an ag co-op and charge a membership. In VA each individual is allowed 4 plants. How many ounces can you get from 4 plants? And they do sell grow lamps and other stuff to help growers. I have no idea how many members there are growning weed and how many donators there are. They must be listed as a non-profit.

They must have done their research. The vapes stores had the Delta 9 hidden in the back for a whlie after it was made illegal. This place is in a prime retail spot with a big sign out front and the bags of weed are in a drawer under the front counter.

2

In Canada canabis is totally legal. Prime Minister Trudeau’s mother was famous for smoking it in the 1970’s so I presume he did it as a favour for his mom. There are canabis stores everywhere, they pop up like weeds. (sorry) If anything, too many.

I’m sure it’s coming where you are.

3

I was just near Canandaguia visiting a friend upstate NY. But where I am is southwestern Virginia. You can’t drive 2 miles without seeing a Trump sign, nor 10 without seeing Trump merchandise for sale

4

As there doesn’t appear to be a question in this post, I’m moving it from factual questions to MPSIMS.

5

I had NO idea that was a thing. I bought weed in VA back in March and I just tapped my card for my bud.

It was very odd, nobody really cared about my ID and I was able to use my credit card. Other dispensaries in other states weren’t as strict on the ID as AZ, but I’ve never been able to use plastic to buy weed.

So…I’m in WV now, do you have any info about pot co-ops close to the border? I’d sure love to check them out! PM me, I only have half an ounce left so was planning on going to Ohio…but if I could join a bud co-op it would be worth the drive.

ETA the store I visited had the green cross most commonly displayed for real dispensaries. Vape shops are the ones who show the leaf.

6

I get medical in PA, but a friend has a camp near the PA/NY line. He’s been running up to reservation weed stores, getting all sorts of great deals. They wanna sell more volume, so he cooperates as they drop the price.

He came home a few weeks ago and played Santa.

7

I tried to buy some pot in Virginia last year and ended up in a hilarious situation with my cousin. I was able to eventually buy a CBD joint and have a funny story for the ages.

8

Love those unexpected Christmases lol!

I have been going to Michigan for the last several years. Their weed is phenomenal.

I like to buy pre rolls which PA does not sell for some reason.

Will be giving Maryland stores a shot this year when I visit family in Virginia.

9

You’re in Pennsylvania, right? I’m so happy we got medical passed. I worked hard to help get Wolf elected and he kept his promise.

10

Yes I am in Pennsylvania. Very happy about the medical.
It was a bit of a fight but Wolf came through. Thank you for your hard work!

I have just been lazy about getting my medical card but it’s on my to do list lol.

11

The reasoning is, since it’s a medical program they want to concentrate on health. We are supposed to vape leaf or oil or concentrates. The program forbids combustion, though most of us do. So they don’t sell pre rolls cause we aren’t supposed to be “smoking”.

Our next hurdle is allowing home growing.

12

Oh I do understand. I only use it every once in awhile and haven’t kept up with the newest technology to partake with.

I need to do that as I recently tapered off almost 30 years of opiate prescription use and having a bit of a struggle.

13

I know a great doctor in Verona if you need one for getting your card, just PM me.

14

OK will do!

Message sent…at least I think I did it correctly lol.

15

I wasn’t originally sure if the last line was figurative or literal, so I checked.

https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacodefull/title13.1/chapter3/article2/

Seems to indicate it’s a requirement:

§ 13.1-312. Liberal construction of article.

It is the declared policy of the Commonwealth, as one means of improving the economic position of agriculture, to encourage the organization of producers of agricultural products into effective nonprofit cooperative associations under the control of such producers, and to that end this Act shall be liberally construed to accomplish its purposes.

Which sounds great, and also a fine way for people to unload from the four plants they can grow if they don’t need it, but while growing weed (from people I know, I don’t bother despite it being legal here in Colorado) isn’t super hard, growing the good stuff can take a lot of effort and investment.

And a co-op makes a certain sort of sense, as here in Colorado, I’ve seen plenty of people go into MJ with an intent to make profit, but as legalization goes nationwide step by step, there’s less and less money to be made from out-of-staters, which leads to quite a bit of competition and price wars. Which can be terrible if you were undercapitalized.

I know Virginia has done a lot of successful co-ops, so I’m not doubting the ability, but all it’s going to take is a couple of people who swear, cross their heart, that they’re just growing a few, and have a whole greenhouse back home or on the outskirts, and then all such co-ops will be tarred with the same brush.

And someone’s bound to go past that line - it’ll be too temping, and I’m far too used to seeing otherwise enthusiastic and honest MJ businesses get destroyed because someone in the chain, in a largely cash-only business, getting greedy and dragging down the rest.

16

No others. Are you close to Blacksburg?

17

About three hours, but it would be a beautiful drive. Ohio will be closer, but I do like the idea of a co-op.

By happy coincidence, my new doctor is also licensed to certify folks for MMJ cards so that is in the works as well.

18

The Liberals had been trying to decriminalise for years before Justin even was in Parliament:

  • Chretien introduced a bill to decriminalise mj in 2003, but it died when the election was called in 2004;
  • Martin introduced a similar bill in 2004, after the election and when he had a minority government, but it died when the minority government was defeated in 2005;
  • Justin was first elected to the Commons in 2008;
  • The Liberal party included decriminalisation in its party platform in 2012, when Bob Rae was the interim party leader;
  • Justin won the leadership a year later, in 2013.
  • Cannabis Act passed in 2019, after extensive public consultations.

But sure, the only reason all that happened was so Justin could let his mom toke up.