Hi. My name is Patrick Maravelias and I would like to take this opportunity to say as loudly as I can that I, like countless others, have risked my life, my freedom, my reputation, and my livelihood for the sake of being able to smoke and grow cannabis.
I grew up just outside the Emerald Triangle and I’ve spent the better part of the last 10 years working on grows, trimming, making hash rosin, growing for myself, and everything in between. I’ve been robbed, threatened, extorted, and nearly killed more times than I can remember. Not ONCE during that time did I ever see any of you pocket-protector-wearing, rule-following weirdos in those hills risking life and limb with the rest of us.
I really need to get this off my chest because this bush league shit has gone too far. A multibillion-dollar industry existed for 60+ years in the shadows because YOU sorry fuckers, or your parents for that matter, insisted that it remain there. Your friends didn’t go to prison for growing a plant, ours did. You didn’t have to risk multiple felony charges every time you got in your car, we did. A lot of growers still do for that matter. Weed has been legal in California since 2018 and I can’t even smoke a joint in my backyard without overhearing my neighbor tell her children that we’re disgusting.
All that hard work, all the high risk for minimal reward, all the helicopters coming in to terrorize actual children in the middle of the night for DECADES was all for nothing because you people swooped in with your war machines (Excel spreadsheets) and left the victims of the drug war out to starve. Still to this day people in the triangle who don’t even grow weed have helicopters circling directly above their backyards every single year. Does that seem normal to anyone? Does it seem fair that the legacy growers, in lieu of compensation or even basic acknowledgement for their work, have received abatement notices and annual police raids instead?
To make matters worse, the rural communities that built the cannabis industry and quietly flourished alongside it had their businesses and livelihoods taken by a bunch of asshole lizard people from Palo Alto. Do you know how many of my favorite hill restaurants closed down in the last 10 years? I’m not even exaggerating when I say it’s at least five. They’re all being bled dry. Even the non-growers who just want to live in the mountains are struggling. Cannabis is the backbone of rural America whether anyone wants it to be or not and rural America is not doing well right now.
Now, all you skim-milk-drinking cretins are going to your respective state legislatures whining all the livelong day about the black market stealing your business. First of all, losing business to someone playing with less than 100 plants when you’re playing with thousands of lights and millions of dollars is pathetic. Second of all, can you even blame the black market? Why would any financially literate person want to throw their hat into legal weed in 2022? Anyone who graduated the third grade can understand what a red downward arrow on a graph means. All the farmers “taking your business” are breaking even at best every year for the same reason I’m writing this article: we simply love cannabis and we don’t want you anywhere near it.
For the sake of efficiency and to be perfectly clear who I’m referring to, if I’m ever be crowned King for the day anyone who makes the following list will be charged with high treason and sent to Madagascar to be used in barbaric, gene-splicing experimentation:
- Everyone on LinkedIn. Every last damn one of you.
- All you Patrick Bateman-esque suits spending thousands of dollars on booths at every event only to lose money every quarter because all of your products fall on deaf ears.
- Weed journalists that have never worked for a cannabis company and barely smoke if they smoke at all.
- Anyone who uses the term “scalability” (You also qualify for this if Coldplay’s “Viva La Vida” starts playing in your head when you jerk off).
- Anyone who has never committed so much as one misdemeanor or petty crime in the name of the cannabis industry.
- Marketing vultures who pester cannabis journalists to cover MSO’s. You’re a thieving band of godless Tik-Tokers and I’d rather eat a live hornet’s nest than do your PR for you.
- Concentrate makers who continue to make CRC and distillate despite being unloved by God and their own children.
- If your name happens to be Chad, I realize this is a “couple of bad eggs” situation but I’m sorry, you all need to go
- Every single one of you assholes who made felons out of multiple generations of people only to show up once the risk was gone and say “nice house, we’ll be moving in now.”
Everyone on that list is walking up steps we all built with our bare hands and simultaneously complaining that the steps aren’t up to code. Now we have metric shit tonnes of garbage cannabis that doesn’t sell, events you can’t smoke at, and that headass CEO who won’t let it go that almost nobody wants to drink their weed. I don’t even remember his name.
I don’t remember any of your names for that matter. I don’t remember your knock off strains or your god awful, mold-infused pre-rolls. I don’t remember your renamed Gelatos and I especially don’t remember strains with a Z in the name that don’t taste anything like real Z. I don’t want your business, I don’t want you reading my stories, I frankly just don’t want any of you here at all.
That said, I’m fully aware this is how things are and how they’re going to stay. But to the specific group I’m talking about, let me assure you that your days making a viable income playing this poor man’s game of copycat are numbered. Everyone that we consider “big money” in weed right now sucked in whatever industry they started in so they figured they’d bring their same dazzlingly average business tactics to an industry full of pot-smoking illiterates and clean up nicely. Doesn’t seem to be going too well for most of you does it? It’ll be going even worse for you when federal legalization happens and the real money comes in.
Now to be fair, it’s going well for almost no one right now, but the OG’s who have been out here risking everything every season just to grow the best weed they can will all survive for years to come because they’ve all seen much worse than this and they have a customer base that is loyal to a fault. I’m talking about brands like Alien Labs, Ember Valley, 710 Labs, Jungle Boys, Jelly Wizard, Fidel’s, anyone with access to real cuts of Zkittlez because they earned them, and a bunch of other people I don’t feel like remembering because I just took a gigantic dab and I can’t breathe.
The point is every single company I named has skin in the game. They have a reputation that precedes them which lets me know they deserve to be playing at the level they are. A lot of cannabis journalists don’t even cover companies that produce true quality. I’m not sure why. Maybe they don’t smoke enough, maybe they’re too busy asking the CEO of Tilray to autograph their copy of Rich Dad Poor Dad. The world may never know.
There are growers known all over the world who refuse to run more than 10 lights per room because they are that concerned with quality. They’re growing the loudest weed this side of the Mississippi but the only people that know about them are the people who understand what quality is. The real smokers will always pay twice as much to their buddy with a one light tent if the weed is better, and it almost always is. The price of real top shelf pounds from trusted brands is still extremely high and those $1,200 dollar organic ounces you hear about in L.A. are one hundred percent real (even if they are overhyped). You can’t fake the love!
That’s the part about cannabis that these suits don’t seem to understand. They’re trying to rerock weed to appeal to people who don’t smoke it. Rather than reinvent the wheel, just grow some good weed! Market to heavy smokers who want to take half gram dabs to the face from sunup to sundown instead of this weirdo boutique shit where we’re supposed to pretend like we can feel 10 milligrams of dogshit distillate in sparkling water. The only reason the black market is still around is because it’s obviously doing a better job.
I’m not here to be a complete pessimist. I love everyone, man. I even love all you second-rate, online-business-school bunch of Mark Cuban wannabes. I do. I just don’t want you taking jobs and money away from MY people. The ones who are in this because it’s what they love. Anyone who truly does what they love to do does not have the option to seek alternative employment and you all keep taking their damn jobs.
However, if you just happened to show up late to the party, I can’t be upset with you for that. Just show some respect! Hire people who did time on illegal grows or time in prison or both. But don’t show up at our house like a walking, talking version of that Steve Buscemi “Hello fellow kids” meme and expect the people who built the damn house to just bend over for you.
So what should all these paper pushers and chronic bedwetters do to earn their place? Well, leaving promptly would be a good start because you all appear to be hemorrhaging money and I’m sure most of your wives are cheating on you by now so you probably have bigger fish to fry than continuing to drive eighth prices up and pound prices into the dirt. I think I speak for the majority of the heads when I say, we got it from here. As kindly, respectfully, and cordially as I can possibly muster: can you all please just fuck off?
In all seriousness though, this part is going to feel like a kick in the dick: at the end of the day we all need each other. The OG’s can grow some serious fire but living in the shadows for decades means they’re not good at abiding by the structure that the legal market demands. The legacy market needs the legal market to help it step into the light a bit and the legal market needs the legacy market because it has no idea which way is up or down without the experience of people who have been doing this their whole lives.
However, I want to be as clear as possible when I say you all need us more than we need you. We did fine for years without you and we’ll continue to out-perform and undercut you at every turn until you give us a rule book we can live with. That’s all I’m asking for. Release the weed prisoners, give the legacy market a substantial leg up in the legal market, require these big MSO’s to hire felons, vote for direct-to-consumer sales, and stop taxing growers back into the Stone Age so they can afford to feed their families.
If you’d like to skip all that and earn my respect directly, I have a quicker method you can try: take a full-gram dab of some black or brown 2013 BHO style wax on video and email me the footage. I want to see pain in your eyes before I give you a pass.
Thank you. Capitalism rots and destroys everything it gets its filhy, blood-soaked paws on.
Capitalism has overstayed its welcome and is destroying the planet and democracy. But we’re not going to beat it by fighting to make one new, little industry lean a different direction. – The first order of business is to stop ALL punishment of adult consumers. That means accepting the capitalist model for now. Once we achieve that, we can start looking around to see what the next step should be.
Hi Jaded Prole,
My beef isn’t with capitalism, it’s with men named Chad wearing suits and taking business from my friends. I don’t tend to weigh in in that discussion because I will likely never be President of anything. Thanks for reading.
Yea, the single thing that brought the world kicking and screaming to the pinnacle of tech, healthcare, education, transportation, food production and so on and so forth is the problem.
Sorry but you are a fucking brain dead moron.
And I hate to tell you this, but everyone you extoll the ‘virtues’ of are actually the thing you whine and cry about.
No one is going to spend time learning what strains to grow, what strains to crossbreed, what soil works best, what lighting expedites growth, and finally cultivating the bud just to give it away with no profit. Why would they risk the felony charges, the time in court, and prison if they didn’t MAKE FUCKING MONEY?
You are a fucking idiot.
I shed my blood and risked my life in combat you loud mouthed self important loser. I am not asking for your your permission to use or grow or profit off pot.
Get over your worthless self.
You willingly signed up to go kill people for oil profits, you deserve nothing
he said it, but he’s not wrong!
Spoken like the gutless American hating traitor you are. But I see you use that freedom of speech I paid for in blood you hypocritical loser.
yeah all the people with half a brain are traitors bc you made a shitty life choice…
So what are you a chinese troll, a mulsim instigator, a russion operative, or just another worthless American hating gutless traitor, uselessly plotting the downfall of this great Country because YOU are a weak loser who cannot make it and blames others for being weak?
Yup, I thought so, you loud mouthed cowards are funny. Remember snowflake, when it comes time for the shooting, YOU cowards will be facing us patriots who have already shown a love for this Country that gutless traitors like you will NEVER know. All you know is violence and burn it down . You are like those losers who tried to kill Kyle Rittenhouse, you want the *freedom* to abuse others at well and HATE the fact that real men like me will stop you and make you act like a civilized human being.
Now shoo coward.
You paid in blood for nothing. Not a single member or our military has defended any of our freedoms since 1945. instead, they have been the thugs of corporate agendas killing and destroying any country daring to be free of our corporate dominance. This culture may be sick with militarism an its worship but the truth stands. War and aggressive militarism are terrorism with a devastating climate impact. Better to work for peace and global cooperation. Cannabis consciousness along with class awareness are key.
Another worthless loud mouthed loser living off the freedom I paid for in blood. Another weak coward whiny because he lacks the ability and stones to make it in society on his own.
Blow away coward. You live off the valor of men like me and either are to stupid to understand it or (and most probably) are just a loud mouthed hypocrite.
You add nothing to ANY conversation since all YOU have is hatred of Country and lies to spew.
I am PROUD gutless traitor trash like you abhors real men like me. If I was someone trash like you approved of, a gutless criminal or some other lawless cowardly thug, I would eat a bullet. Now shoo coward, just shoo. You loud mouths are just funny. I’m SURE you are one of the gutless traitor mad that Elon Musk established freedom of speech and parity to twitter because cowards and liars like you HATE the truth and freedom.
Oh and you are welcome for the welfare you live of that real citicens like me pay for.
You were not fighting for freedom of speech anywhere…
Rittenhouse is a pig faced incel that would get his fat ass handed to him in a fight.
You should join your Round Boi Friends in prison. or lube up your pal Guy Reffitt.
The “PATRIOT” that was found guilty of sedition you rat, traitor coward.
What we learned from Rittenhouse is you can’t shoot 3 liberal shitbags without hitting 2 pedophiles.
Glad to know you prefer the company if pedophiles to real Americans.
You should just kill yourself already.
And PM just wanted to get high and make money.
Thanks for your service but you got your wars mixed up.
Nope, the price I paid covers ALL wars. Real AND the made up ones. Folks who have really been to war don’t call bassetball games and other fru-frufery *war*. War is war and there IS nothing like it. And nothing treats post combat PTSD like cannabis. You fight for yourself, I still fight for my brothers.
Legal maneuverings pale in comparison.
The only thing you did was make rich people even richer. Cry about it 🙂
Kani: I’m with you. What did these airheads think when they fought for legalizing reefer? Of course capitalists entered the picture, and they will make consumption cheaper, better quality and without fentynal.
Hi Kani,
You’ll notice I never said anyone needs my permission to be anywhere or do anything. But you do need my permission to think you’re cool. That I will not allow anyone to take from me. For your service, I sincerely thank you. But your service is completely unrelated to any topic brought up in this article. Hell, veterans who switch from war to growing get a pass in my book if you wanted to ask but since you didn’t, YOU sir do not get a cool pass from me. Thanks for reading.
LOL …. cool…… Nope son, I have NEVER been cool nor have I particularly wanted to. I know of very few successful *cool* people, since being *cool* is not really something we worry about. But nice topic change that addressed NOTHINBG I said. But that’s ok, I understand how mentally void people cannot defend theior tripe and have to continuously change the subject to try to get the other to forget what the topic was.
Cool or not son, I do NOT, nor does ANYONE ELSE, need the permission of a hypocritical corporate shill to do ANYTHING.
And make no mistake, HT sold out is IS the big suit wearing monster now that you wrote about. All YOU are doing is bashing the competition as if YOU are somehow cleaner than they.
Head out son. Pull the head out.
And your welcome it was the first article of yours I had read and I wasn’t to impressed with the lack of thought and truth that went into it. I kept thinking about motes and pulling them out of your OWN eyes for some reason.
You think you’re better, just because you served? You’re not.
Sincerely,
Another Vet
The suiting World of Cannabis is truly a pathetic spectacle to behold. I appreciate this commentary, I think it lets the biggest fuckers off the hook. I think no brand has more bastardized cannabis than Cookies and it continues to barrel forward like the fucking Jesus Christ of weed.
I will say, it’s a hell of a lot easier to get cleaner product these days which is pretty nice, never thought weed could be as nice a smoke as it has been come in some markets, the competition has definitely driven up quality if you know where to look.
Ifs basis of a business model people now follow and work off of. You sound like a square ass bitch that’s never sold a lb in his life. Get outta town Berners
Been respected for a decade. You’re a goon get your shit straight and pull your pants up bitch
Hi Steve,
If you don’t like Berner, I suggest you outwork him.
Thanks for reading.
Ah Steve, I owe you an apology. I thought you were flaming Berner at first. But conversely, I will argue Berner’s reputation has been suffering heavily with the community lately, partially for good reason partially bc stoners just do that, and so has the quality of Cookies 1/8’s. He doesn’t get a pass just because he’s been around a while! We need to make him a part of this conversation tho so he can evolve with everyone else. He just may surprise me. Thanks for reading!
Hi Jack, Don’t take my comments to Steve too lightly. I don’t disagree with you re: Cookies but I’m careful with that one, because some good has come from their house and I will not deny that. Also I can’t lie, in terms of corporate people we have to deal with, Ill take Berner over most of the other suits. Lesser of two evils but it’s still important to say I think. I also chose not to make anyone specifically on purpose, because at the end of the day it’s more about the conversation than a take down. Thanks for reading!
Why don’t you stick to writing pro-China articles Patrick? There’s more money for you there. Also, nice suit on your Twitter profile.
Hi Sue,
I wrote about China sending monkeys to space in order for them to have sex for scientific research. If anything that’s pro-monkey. Also my twitter picture is me smoking two cigarettes at the same time. You must have found the work twitter I had to make when I was a lowly news grunt. At any rate, thanks for reading.
All this ranting and you support big tobacco lol
Hi Ok,
I quit cigarettes a couple years ago. But I supported the shit out of big tobacco for many years but then one day I ate a big handful of shrooms and never picked one up again. The picture is funny tho.
Thanks for reading.
Not sure why the dummies who got pinched for weed should be given anything – I don’t care about the “groups” who were effected by the drug war, you get points for staying out of the can in my book
hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha oh boy sue, how you’ve miscalculated this situation
I feel embarrassed for you. I read about half of your bitchy rant and still don’t know why high times printed your whiny tantrum. You might not be smoking the great herb you think you are if you’re this wound up about something as little as people making money off a plant. Times change and it’s hard but they do and will continue to change so adapt. We get that you want/need praise for the shit you did but nobody actually cares you didn’t leave a mark in any meaningful way so move on, keep trying, and quit crying. High times should try and publish actual articles not rants by old burnouts.
didn’t leave a mark? is weed on its way to legalization now? did YOU have anything to do with it? no? then there’s a clear mark and you’re not on the team lol
Hi No,
I did nothing. I am nobody. That said, Im for sure smoking some serious hot fire fuego over here, that much is undisputed. I would also argue that no one wants mere praise for their contributions to cannabis, they want to be released from prison and paid what they deserve to be paid. Thanks for reading.
I’ve been a part of the legalization movement for 26 years, and a consumer for almost twice that. Legalization was never about the business. That’s a small, side issue. It has always been about stopping ALL punishment of consumers. It was consumers and their friends who began the grass-roots legalization movement in 1996.
For many years, we would ask those in the business to join our efforts, especially the legal sellers in states that had passed medical marijuana. But they just turned their backs on us. Worse, we have had to fight the greedy sellers against legalization (GSAL) in every state that has re-legalized marijuana. They don’t care about the freedom of their “precious” customers. They only care about their quasi-monopolies and outrageously high prices.
These black-market growers and sellers got everything they deserved, and more, by charging $300 to $400 for an ounce of an easily grown plant. Cannabis does not belong to them and we owe them nothing.
We in the legalization movement have always known that once we succeeded, the big money would come in and take over the industry. In a capitalist country, it could be no other way. So, instead of whining about it, we just look at this as a sign of victory.
Soon, the fraudulently enacted, marijuana prohibition will collapse under its own dead weight. When it does, the national market will quickly develop. Marijuana will be grown in the best climates and shipped everywhere else. Market forces will bring prices down until they reach their natural level – a little above fine tobacco, at $25 to $50 an ounce. It’s just a plant. And it will be sold wherever more harmful beer and wine are available. Circle K convenience stores are already about to start selling cannabis in Florida and other states.
This is just the way we “legalizers” want it. We have worked our hearts out for decades because we don’t want to be criminals anymore. — Get it, GSAL? — Have you noticed you don’t see any illegal moonshiners around anymore?
You’re spot on John Thomas! And people like Patrick can stay stoned all day on $50/oz legal weed. Maybe he’ll get his act together someday and stop whining about the good old days when he could make a living growing 99 weed plants in his back yard in the woods.
Right. – Black marketeers don’t have much to lose by getting arrested and given a criminal record. They just get out quick and keep on growing. It’s their “precious” customers they want to keep criminals like they are that can lose it all from one marijuana bust. Career, house, family. – Gone With The Wind
Hi John,
I don’t know where you’re buying your cannabis but in California I used to buy fresh ounces of delicious outdoor for like 60 bucks a zip at most from people in my community I knew deserved to be supported. and Anything worth smoking at the dispensary now is at least 400 an ounce from people I don’t know. But more to your point, i agree that protecting consumers is of utmost importance. But how is mass commercializing weed to the point that the gas station stuff will likely cause cancer inside of ten years protecting consumers? How is taking away the consumers right to easily accessible, quality cannabis protecting the consumer? The black market was never about greed for the people I respect and look up to, it was about the love of the plant and providing medicine to people and those growers deserve to be paid a livable income for their efforts and the sad fact is the overwhelming majority of them no longer do. And not that it matters, because you’re right Circle K weed is coming and I can’t stop that, but I would never in my life put that garbage in my lungs.
Thanks for reading.
Sorry, but I don’t buy your attitude. — Do you grow everything you eat and make everything 99.9% of the people buy? – I kind of doubt it. But, illogically, you shout that cannabis is the ONLY thing we can’t trust to buy from stores.
Also, do you not appreciate the recourse you have with legal stores when you buy something defective or, worse, something that causes you great loss or harm? – You get none of that protection from black-market sellers.
At least, you SAY: “i agree that protecting consumers is of utmost importance.”
Unfortunately, most of your words belie that. — Legalization was never about the business. It’s always been about stopping ALL punishment of adult consumers. – The business is a small side issue. While stopping the persecution of consumers is a major paradigm change that is urgently needed, the ups and downs of the industry have little effect on the grand scheme of things.
You must admit, that for most black-market growers, they don’t care that their customers are deemed criminals and are persecuted by the government, often destroying their lives. – That’s the problem. We have had to fight against the Greedy Sellers Against Legalization in every state that has re-legalized marijuana.
Rittenhouse is a pig faced incel that would get his fat ass handed to him in a fight.
You should join your Round Boi Friends in prison. or lube up your loaf keeper pal Guy Reffitt.
The “PATRIOT” that was found guilty of sedition you rat, traitor coward.
You forgot cowardly assassin that just got a new AR-15 and was heard saying, “I can’t wait to shoot someone.” – Thanks to an astoundingly biased judge that obstructed every move of the prosecuting attorney, the murderous little thug got off.
Lol!! Another low iq liberal shitbag running his mouth from behind a keyboard.
Rittenhouse proved you can’t shoot 3 liberal shitbags without hitting 2 pedophiles, and 3 criminals.
You should stop sucking dick and get out in the world and see how fucking stupid you are.
Oh, and you should kill your self for the sake of humanity.
Viva black market
No. Lo que trae el mercado negro es crimen, violencia, corrupción, muerte y la disminución de la libertad de todos.
Grow your own, share it around. The best things about legalization are not having to hide and worry about the pigs. I had to deal with arrests and a record that has followed me. The other best thing is lab tested, strain specific weed and available seeds for sale. The laws allow us to grow usually about 4 plants per person and we should. The safest weed (or booze) is homegrown. You know what’s in it and what isn’t. Also, collectively, we and the black market can work to keep the prices reasonable.
Amen!
Pretty pretentious being written by someone under 30 don’t you think? That was quite a slog of repetitive whining. Hope the next articles actually contain well thought out writing.
considering we’re under 10 years into any form of legalization? yeah. also, do you know if his parents were involved in the game? was he bred into it? oh you don’t know? so you’re talking out of your ass?
California passed their robust medical marijuana, where anyone could get it legally by jumping through a couple of hoops in 1996 — TWENTY SIX years ago. — What does it matter if a criminal’s parents were criminals. – Everyone makes their own decision to live on the wrong side of the law.
Hi Power Pat,
I’d like to add to the “someone under 30” and refer you to the very top of the article where I mention being robbed, nearly killed more times than I can count etc etc. I don’t believe that qualifies a person as pretentious but you’re right, the people that came before me took far greater risks. That said, I’ve had the privilege of learning from the people that took those greater risks, and ive taken many risks myself. I don’t feel the need to prove that to anyone, but in the context of this article it feels important to note because quite frankly, I’ve shed real blood for the cannabis industry. Can you say the same?
Thanks for reading.
Clearly the commentators that are giving this article a hard time are the very ones that the article is about. If you never risked your freedom whether it was because of love for the plant or the money that allowed you to live a life on your own terms or both (it can be both!) should really have no say in this. It was made and kept illegal as a pretext of control and now that it’s reached a critical mass of people waking the f*#k up to how ridiculous the war on drugs was/is that those same people who controlled it when it was illegal now want to control it legally and in the process are ripping the soul out of it. Let the MSOs sell to their markets but don’t make the legislation and regulations skew in their favor while crushing the OGs who CARRIED this market/industry/culture into the light. Kudos to this writer and High Times for keeping the flame.
lots of MSO ‘we wanna play too’ energy over here
Hi curtis,
this made me laugh for well over 20 minutes.
thanks for the love and thanks for reading
Can I get a BAAAAAAAA? Do you sheep forget that high times IS the very culprit of corporate greed the writer hypocricizeses about? (it’s a better made up word that most so just hush and roll with it)
They are retailers now not *journalists*. This site is now propaganda for their stores. I get a good laugh every time I see them pretend to be counter culture after the big sell out.
I guess you were to stoned to notice lol.
No. Black-market sellers didn’t “carry the market into the light.” – It was the legalization movement, powered primarily by consumers. You got ALL your reward, recognition and more by charging $400 an ounce for an easily grown plant. I would love to know how many black-market cheerleaders in this discussion were part of the large force of Greedy Sellers Against Legalization that fought against our freedom in every state that has re-legalized marijuana. I’m betting it’s at least half, and the rest weren’t much better because they SHOULD have put the pressure on those traitors to stop fighting against legalization. But they just kept quiet, hoping the active traitors would win, just to protect their quasi-monopolies and outrageously high prices.
So it’s really you black-marketeers that should have no say in the new world of legal marijuana. – Your day is over. Count yourselves lucky you were able to price gouge consumers for decades. Everyone has known legalization was coming and should have been preparing themselves financially and psychologically for the big change. Be a part of the legal industry, or go the way of the illegal moonshiners.
Well said!
Thank you for the love, Wizard. And it is funny isn’t it that i only mentioned two specific people, neither of whom are in these comments I assume, and all these other people are standing up and saying “hey! this is about me isn’t it!”
Thanks for reading.
I’ve been In the growing wholesale game for 14 years. I’m 29 and am a Lifer. We’re about to rip this shithole industry in half and recreate this. Much respect to Berner. Ay shout out to these shit businesses that are fuck curaleaf, native roots, green solution silver stem, star buds, medmen
It doesn’t matter who sells marijuana until we stop the insane, government persecution of consumers. I’m so tired of fighting for legalization against the black-market and monopolistic “medical” marijuana sellers. I would almost prefer the government sell the marijuana, like some states have ABC alcohol stores. At least that way, everyone would be on the same page.
Everyone made fell under the fuck off list😂
The so called “Legacy Growers” are just bootleggers now that prop 64 passed. Sure the State botched the transition, but Patrick Maravelias is just an angry whiner who rather be a criminal benefiting from high prices created by prohibition than man up and attempt to go legal.
Hi Bob,
Patrick Maravelias is a humble, typically broke writer with a one light tent who only wants to hang out with his plants and his kids. I don’t want to be a criminal, that’s kind of my entire point.
Thanks for reading.
Sorry. That doesn’t excuse you from misleading others. If you don’t want to be a criminal, join the legal industry. – By far, the most important thing is to STOP ALL punishment of adult consumers.
If you know anything about the government, you knew that when cannabis was made legal big business was going to take over. I remember in the 70’s and 80’s there were rumors that big tobacco was already to start selling packs and cartons of joints. I have always said that when the feds get involved the price will go up due to the taxes and red tape. It is great to see the price drop but like other growers the price drop does hurt us more. I grow for quality and though my profits are not as much as they used to be my friends know that they can still get the same high-quality cannabis that I have been growing for years. I listen to them complain about the crap they are getting and read about all the crap the dispensaries are selling and swag weed. Like any business there are people who will take advantage and that sucks big time. I have always bought seeds from seedbanks or clones from the emerald triangle.
Black market smoke will always be here just like black market cigs, liquor who really wants to give anymore more money to the feds then we already do.
The people here bitching about how capitalism has ruined the industry, think again if it was not for the greedy capitalistic businessmen weed would not be legal as they can see how much money can be made and have poured millions into states that where it was illegal to make it legal so that they can be the first to get their foot in the door in that state. Yes, that sucks but it is what it is. Anyone that has been growing for years does not like the downturn in prices, but it is what is. We reaped the money from the early days and people who think growers are not capitalists need to rethink that statement. Growers that grow the very best cannabis have always set the price ever since the early days of California Red Hair Sinsemilla. Capitalism was always the beast that would kill freedom we had as growers. Now we will be taxed and taxed and regulated to death.
Is that we wanted we when wanted cannabis legalized? For me it isnt. I just to grow, sell to the people I care about and give them the best possible cannabis that is all dried out, low terps, shitty aroma, and prices that are way to high for the swag they sell.
Buy from your local cannabis provider get better quality and pricing. We all have out got to guy for smoke. Do not forget about them in these trying times of crappy legal cannabis
That’s not my experience or that of anyone I know. The best cannabis we’ve ever had is from the legal stores. – The only people who are calling legal cannabis “no good” are the greedy sellers against legalization.
See the big picture. Your situation was ONLY created by the fraudulently enacted marijuana prohibition. Mankind has been consuming cannabis for at least 4,000 years, with no problems. It was just the fraud of prohibition that twisted things in 1937. Now we are going back to legal marijuana. These decades of prohibition will just be a bizarre blip in history.
With the imminent collapse of the federal prohibition, the national market will develop quickly and it will force prices down to their natural level, of $25 to $40 an ounce. – It’s just a plant.
Hi John,
Let me assure you that the best cannabis does not come from legal stores, it comes from cute little old lady’s gardening in their backyard, and small scale craft growers who have been doing it their entire lives. No one who understands quality is under the impression that the rec market is doing better than the legacy market in terms of quality. If you need proof of that, come smoke what I’m smoking. if it’s not the best weed you’ve ever had in your life I’ll buy your next awful $25 ounce of dirt
That’s just self-delusion. — If the marijuana in the legal stores was not good quality, they would be out of business, quick. – Instead, they are growing like gang-busters. — You are asking people to deny their own lived experience. – That’s not going to happen. —– Again, consider where are all the illegal moonshiners now. — And does that mean the alcohol you buy in stores is no good?
Get real.
RIDICULOUS article. Smdh… #boomers
Hi ThaBiz,
Thanks for reading and improving my article metrics by commenting. Also I’m not a boomer I’m a millennial, though I imagine that makes it worse for you.
You are a fucking moron who whines and cries.
You whine and cry about people with resources you can’t begin to access moving in on the ‘industry’, because you will not make as much money. You are a fucking little bitch.
I guarantee 90% of the shit you posted about yourself is nothing but bullshit self aggrandizing.
I
Best commentary I have read on the inane “product”ization of weed. Most of what is sold in dispensaries has as much cardboard packaging as cannabis and for the quality you might as well smoke the cardboard. Want to grow a plant that’s not a clone? Ten dollars per seed? Don’t get me started. That’s the minimum. No effing diversity from Mother Nature anymore.
When black-market growers say the cannabis in the legal stores is no good, you just destroy your own credibility, since everyone knows you can get fantastic quality there from their own direct experience. It’s kind of pathetic watching you folks perform these, absurd, nonsensical theatrics.
Also, just as with alcohol and tobacco, most cannabis will be sold in the big stores, but there will always be a niche for specialized growers and products. – We can have it ALL, except for the black-market. — That’s enough for everyone. The black-market was an interesting (but HORRIFIC) experience. It’s time to let it go.
“If you’d like to skip all that and earn my respect directly, I have a quicker method you can try: take a full-gram dab of some black or brown 2013 BHO style wax on video and email me the footage. I want to see pain in your eyes before I give you a pass.”
although I agree with most of what you said, I have NO respect for anyone who thinks their bragging that their high tolerance levels is a badge of honor. Anyone who smokes that much has a real problem and is apparently too stupid to do something about it. So you are definitely NOT a good candidate for poster boy for Cannabis acceptance. Take a tolerance break or go to rehab….. You sure as shit are not my ideal of who should speak for the rest of us!
I’ve been to rehab good sir, and daily cannabis use is one of the few things standing between me and going back. I will also add, I smoke a reasonable amount of weed now. Maybe a few joints and a dab daily. That example was meant to serve as something real smokers remember from back in the day, which is why I specified 2013, before I went to rehab.
Now that that’s out of the way, let me assure you that the way you went about this comment is not how you get drug addicts to get help. Please consider going about this a different way when speaking to your own loved ones about addiction. Addiction is a disease that cannabis can help treat, and I’m almost five years clean from all that other garbage so respectfully, take your judgement elsewhere this is not the place for it
Great article. Distillate sucks.