9 ms·

Weed being legal is cool (and a huge deal and way overdue) but, until I moved to SF, I still bought from a dealer. It was cheaper and I got really high quality

Weed being legal is cool (and a huge deal and way overdue) but, until I moved to SF, I still bought from a dealer. It was cheaper and I got really high quality stuff, got to give feedback to the guy on the strains, chocolates, etc. Plus my guy would smoke me up for free a good amount of the time and we'd just chill and chat for a bit. Legal weed is wayyyy more expensive in my experience and I dislike the experience. I went to an SF dispensary and it was so odd - had to give them an ID, sit there and fiddle with some ipad, etc. Presumably there's a lot of overhead with taxes, employees, property, etc. And apparently artificially keeping prices high... Also a somewhat damning case of "we have no idea how to value this" I don't really smoke anymore, no time, but it was enough of a difference that the novelty of cutesy edibles wore off fairly quickly.

deleted 5y ago
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blamazon 5y ago
Once you learn the system, dispensaries are very convenient. At practically every location you can peruse the menu and place an order ahead of time. Then, at the dispensary, show ID, receive selected cannabis products.
WhyNotHugo 5y ago
Here in the Netherlands tax for weed is really high. 50% if I recall correctly. Not sure I hate the idea -- at least tax money is put to very good use. But for those for whom it's more than merely recreational (e.g.: medicinal use), I wish they'd sell a tax-free version. Too prone to abuse I guess. However, heading to a coffeshop[1] isn't a big deal. It's a person behind the stand, you pic what you want from a menu, and they hand it over. Very nice and friendly, not dissimilar to ordering at a cafe. I don't look under 25, and they've NEVER asked me for an id at any of these places. It surprised me in the US that even to sell alcohol to someone clearly over 40, they still ask for an id. [1]: Stores that sell weed here are called "coffeeshops".
- remirk 5y ago
  I'm not sure on the 50%. I didn't even know there was a separate tax. It seems unlikely to me as weed is still 'illegal'. The police won't look your way if you use it or sell it in shops. But everything that happens before the shop (growing and transport) is still very much illegal and you will get a big fine if you get caught. You are only allowed to have 5 grams or a small amount of plants. The government together with a few selected municipalities is starting an experiment to grow it in selected growing facilities. As far as I know no municipality has started selling those yet.
- ryanlol 5y ago
  > they've NEVER asked me for an id at any of these places Nobody ever carded me in Amsterdam coffee shops when I was 14-15, I don’t think it’s a common practice.
  - bdjddd77 5y ago
    Same actually. But this was 25+ years ago. Oddly think we got IDs for the sex museum though and was it beers in McDonald's at lunch, there some oddities that trip.
- bdjddd77 5y ago
  It's fucking nuts, 40, looking 50, got IDs buying a pack of beers in Walgreens I think, just stopping two night usa back to Europe. She wasn't happy that she couldn't scan the EU driving license but eventually she relented, same next night, I was perplexed, do they not enpower their workers? Uk is over 18, but ask for id if you have any doubt less than 21, 3yr margin, common sense
  - monocasa 5y ago
    > I was perplexed, do they not enpower their workers? No, big chains like that in the US don't even empower middle management.
  - kamarg 5y ago
    No empowement. Mistakes could lead to too much bad PR, court cases, or fines. It also means that if anything bad happens, they can fire the employee that didn't follow corporate's rules and claim it was a mistake by the employee and totally not the company's fault.
reidjs 5y ago
Not everyone was lucky enough to have a chill dealer. It reminds me of joe Rogans bit about how in order to buy this harmless plant you have to interact with a criminal. Oh, and commit a crime. Legalization is 100% the right thing. You can grow it yourself or get it delivered if you hate the dispensary so much.
- dylan604 5y ago
  >You can grow it yourself Yes, you can legally do this where it is allowed, but other than that, it is pretty much a copout. Not everyone can grow things well. Not everyone has a green thumb. Also, weed is not the easiest plants to grow and takes a lot of time and effort to get quality flower. It's also not like you can just walk over to plant(s) whenever you want to smoke up. The plant has cycles of when it is making flower and when it's not. Now, you can trick it out with grow tents, lights, hydroponics, etc, but now you're a freaking grow house and most people definitely don't want that.
  - chillwaves 5y ago
    How much easier can it be than literally growing from a plant?
    - dylan604 5y ago
      I love when the inexperienced stand up like an expert. There's a huge difference between having a plant that is alive and a plant that is producing quality flower of enough quantity to make a difference. There is much better info on the web a simple search will show you compared to me describing to someone that already thinks it's super easy.
      - chillwaves 5y ago
        That's not my question. My question is how much easier can it be? I'm just not sure what you are complaining about. Give me an example of a more accessible drug than marijuana.
somehnacct3757 5y ago
The shops on the main roads in SF have a certain aesthetic to appeal to a new audience of smokers. If the new age guru / apple store thing isn't your vibe, look for shops off main roads, they tend to be somewhere btwn the LA medicinal alleyway shop and the apple shop. Bloom Room comes to mind. Small, focused on quality, had (? pre covid) a volcano you could use on premise. It's still a store, they aren't gonna smoke you out and be your friend. But SF weed scene is not yet a techy monoculture
slapfrog 5y ago
I hated the 'dealers system'. I didn't want to give some lowlife drug-dealer my address, nor my phone number. Neither was the idea of meeting such a person in a parking lot somewhere appealling to me at all. Consequently, I virtually never smoked weed at all until it became legally available in stores, except at parties where somebody else had it. Two or three times I bought from a dealer, and each time it confirmed all my biases about the experience.
- humbleMouse 5y ago
  Maybe you should reconsider your bias that all dealers are “lowlifes”
dcolkitt 5y ago
On a gram for gram basis, legal weed may be more expensive. But most people don’t appreciate that legal weed is significantly more potent. (Not to mention the health benefit of smoking less plant material.) The average THC content in illegal states is around 10%. High quality legal strains regularly clock in above 25%. So even if you’re paying twice as much per gram, you’re getting a better deal per mole of THC.
- Talanes 5y ago
  I don't think that necessarily holds true if you're making the choice to buy from a dealer though, as having the choice implies you're already in a legal state. At least in California, I'm under the impression the legal and illegal supply chains are still very intermixed, so the stuff from your dealer is as potent as dispensary. Though I'm not sure how true that holds as you get further from the major growing areas.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
KMnO4 5y ago
When it was legalized in Canada, the legal prices were pretty bad. There were also restrictions on only allowing the sale of flower (ie no edibles or concentrates IIRC). Since then, the government has pulled up their socks. The prices are competitive, the quality is fantastic, and the doses are accurate (as opposed to a “300mg edible” actually having anywhere from 50-500mg THC). As a result, I don’t know anyone who doesn’t buy from legal dispensaries. There still exist some grey area mail order services, but the concept of “texting your dealer” is largely extinct.
- k12sosse 5y ago
  I've been kicking this idea around in my noodle since judgement Day passed: a business like a local wine u-brew, where you come rent a stall in my warehouse and we grow your weed for you, in your name. When it's time to harvest, you can either take it home damp and dry it yourself or pay for us to cure it for you. Secure, safe, convenient. I can currently easily grow a (reasonable) year's supply for someone within the legal 2-plant limit, this just takes all the pains and theft-risk away from the end user (mom and pop Canadian backyard growers) Pretty sure this would be highly illegal under the current laws, but I'm old enough to remember when homebrew was illegal in Canada, too.
  - jareklupinski 5y ago
    just set up streaming webcams :D https://www.twitch.tv/ashevillecraftcannabis https://www.twitch.tv/ashevillecraftcannabis https://www.twitch.tv/directory/game/Always%20On https://www.twitch.tv/directory/game/Always%20On
  - moistly 5y ago
    I believe a company named “True Leaf” (“TruLeaf”?) in the town of Lumby, BC, is doing exactly that.
  - rambambram 5y ago
    This what they do in Barcelona, if I understand you correctly.
  - 5y ago
deleted 5y ago
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campground 5y ago
Weed is a bit more expensive now than when I bought from a dealer, but it’s still seems very cheap for what you get out of it. The amount of modern, high potency cannabis I can buy for the price of two beers would turn me into a complete zombie if I was even able to smoke it all in one sitting, and I’m a habitual user. Of course, I’ve noticed a large variance in how it affects different people.
handmodel 5y ago
In california. I only do edibles. For $1.50 (including tax) I get 5mg so I either spend 1.50 or 3.00 when getting high on a night. Its within walking distance of my house. They do check my ID - but seems easier than dealing with a person I have to meet on a random corner. And if you were a woman or old person - that option would seem even less safe. My yearly budget for pot if probably about $100-150 which seems remarkable low compared to my food or alcohol budget.
- mixmastamyk 5y ago
  Check ID as in verify age >= 21, or put PII into a corp/govt database?
  - Talanes 5y ago
    It's often the second one, as under the prior medical-only regulations, dispensaries were all technically organized as cooperatives. I've definitely been in places in the recreational era where I just had to verify my age though.
  - fernandotakai 5y ago
    i'm not american and i've bought weed from california dispensaries -- just check id to see if you are over 21. in my case, they just looked at my passport and that was it.
opinion-is-bad 5y ago
From my experience, there are huge differences between stores in terms of pricing and customer service. The industry is so new that just having your doors open is a license to print money, but it’ll start to standardize once banks are allowed to enter the field, permitting successful dispensary operations to scale storefronts. I just stopped at a dispensary in CA about and hour and half outside SF and picked up an ounce for $100, which is a better deal than I ever got from a dealer.
hncurious 5y ago
The regulators were way too aggressive. They overburdened farms and dispensaries to such a degree that legal sources are having a hard time competing with the black market even though dispensaries were considered essential businesses (able to stay open) through the pandemic. Now California is bailing out the industry to the tune of $100M. https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-06-14/california-struggling-marijuana-industry-cash-grants-budget https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-06-14/californ...
- travisjungroth 5y ago
  This is the consequence of the “regulate and tax the hell out of it!” policy that some Americans want to apply to all vices.
  - ihsw 5y ago
    The wrong lesson will be learned from this, ie: increased law enforcement to stamp out the black market rather than remove barriers in the free market.
  - Mountain_Skies 5y ago
    But that's what lots of the legalization activists asked for. I heard "just make it legal and you can tax it all you want" for nearly half a century. Well, now they got what they asked for. IIRC, one of the few voices that said "legalize it and don't tax it at all" was Ron Paul. Everyone else was so enthralled with finding a way to get it legal that they really didn't give much thought to how the government could end up making legal weed a lot less desirable than illegal weed.
    - travisjungroth 5y ago
      Not sure why you said “but”. Those are the people I’m talking about. They were wrong.
    - djrogers 5y ago
      Taxing is only half of what GP mentioned - regulations can be even more costly and burdensome than taxes if done poorly (and they often are).
serf 5y ago
>Plus my guy would smoke me up for free a good amount of the time and we'd just chill and chat for a bit. that was my experience with earlier weed delivery groups in SoCal as well, when recommendations were required. A guy with a suitcase of samples would show up to your door, and offer you a sampling of everything he sold. That person would even help you light-up or vaporize the goods if you have a physical disability that prevented you from doing so yourself , or perhaps teach you how to in-case you're unfamiliar with equipment or technique. They would sit there and smoke with you or bullshit for a few minutes about strains/strain-quality/benefits/whatever, make a sale with whatever was chosen during the sampling, and then head out the door. Since those days medical prices have gone down significantly, but the process is now more sterile and 'mass-friendly'. Gone are the days of interactive sampling or someone teaching you how to use a bong or vaporizer -- it's now mostly all 'delivery-fied' : "give me my cash, here's your delivery that I know absolutely nothing about, and i'm gone ASAP." It's a shame in some ways -- the earlier methods were a lot more compassionate towards actual medical patients and actual medical needs for this product -- the status in SoCal now feels more on-par with UberEats-profit-maximization than it does compassionate-care; a shame since 'weed products' have gotten way more complex with the addition of a million different tincture/extract/compound/etc and the various ways to imbibe them.
dpweb 5y ago
In Illinois, I felt the original medicinal stores were more warm and very friendly and helpful esp to first time users. Compassionate to first time users who are dealing with legit pain and medical issues. Newer recreational stores have popped up everywhere with many many more to come, but the few I’ve visited are cold and the staff act like they could give a shit.

deleted 5y ago

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blamazon 5y ago

Once you learn the system, dispensaries are very convenient. At practically every location you can peruse the menu and place an order ahead of time. Then, at the dispensary, show ID, receive selected cannabis products.

WhyNotHugo 5y ago

Here in the Netherlands tax for weed is really high. 50% if I recall correctly. Not sure I hate the idea -- at least tax money is put to very good use. But for those for whom it's more than merely recreational (e.g.: medicinal use), I wish they'd sell a tax-free version. Too prone to abuse I guess. However, heading to a coffeshop[1] isn't a big deal. It's a person behind the stand, you pic what you want from a menu, and they hand it over. Very nice and friendly, not dissimilar to ordering at a cafe. I don't look under 25, and they've NEVER asked me for an id at any of these places. It surprised me in the US that even to sell alcohol to someone clearly over 40, they still ask for an id. [1]: Stores that sell weed here are called "coffeeshops".

remirk 5y ago
I'm not sure on the 50%. I didn't even know there was a separate tax. It seems unlikely to me as weed is still 'illegal'. The police won't look your way if you use it or sell it in shops. But everything that happens before the shop (growing and transport) is still very much illegal and you will get a big fine if you get caught. You are only allowed to have 5 grams or a small amount of plants. The government together with a few selected municipalities is starting an experiment to grow it in selected growing facilities. As far as I know no municipality has started selling those yet.
ryanlol 5y ago
> they've NEVER asked me for an id at any of these places Nobody ever carded me in Amsterdam coffee shops when I was 14-15, I don’t think it’s a common practice.
- bdjddd77 5y ago
  Same actually. But this was 25+ years ago. Oddly think we got IDs for the sex museum though and was it beers in McDonald's at lunch, there some oddities that trip.
bdjddd77 5y ago
It's fucking nuts, 40, looking 50, got IDs buying a pack of beers in Walgreens I think, just stopping two night usa back to Europe. She wasn't happy that she couldn't scan the EU driving license but eventually she relented, same next night, I was perplexed, do they not enpower their workers? Uk is over 18, but ask for id if you have any doubt less than 21, 3yr margin, common sense
- monocasa 5y ago
  > I was perplexed, do they not enpower their workers? No, big chains like that in the US don't even empower middle management.
- kamarg 5y ago
  No empowement. Mistakes could lead to too much bad PR, court cases, or fines. It also means that if anything bad happens, they can fire the employee that didn't follow corporate's rules and claim it was a mistake by the employee and totally not the company's fault.

reidjs 5y ago

Not everyone was lucky enough to have a chill dealer. It reminds me of joe Rogans bit about how in order to buy this harmless plant you have to interact with a criminal. Oh, and commit a crime. Legalization is 100% the right thing. You can grow it yourself or get it delivered if you hate the dispensary so much.

dylan604 5y ago
>You can grow it yourself Yes, you can legally do this where it is allowed, but other than that, it is pretty much a copout. Not everyone can grow things well. Not everyone has a green thumb. Also, weed is not the easiest plants to grow and takes a lot of time and effort to get quality flower. It's also not like you can just walk over to plant(s) whenever you want to smoke up. The plant has cycles of when it is making flower and when it's not. Now, you can trick it out with grow tents, lights, hydroponics, etc, but now you're a freaking grow house and most people definitely don't want that.
- chillwaves 5y ago
  How much easier can it be than literally growing from a plant?
  - dylan604 5y ago
    I love when the inexperienced stand up like an expert. There's a huge difference between having a plant that is alive and a plant that is producing quality flower of enough quantity to make a difference. There is much better info on the web a simple search will show you compared to me describing to someone that already thinks it's super easy.
    - chillwaves 5y ago
      That's not my question. My question is how much easier can it be? I'm just not sure what you are complaining about. Give me an example of a more accessible drug than marijuana.

somehnacct3757 5y ago

The shops on the main roads in SF have a certain aesthetic to appeal to a new audience of smokers. If the new age guru / apple store thing isn't your vibe, look for shops off main roads, they tend to be somewhere btwn the LA medicinal alleyway shop and the apple shop. Bloom Room comes to mind. Small, focused on quality, had (? pre covid) a volcano you could use on premise. It's still a store, they aren't gonna smoke you out and be your friend. But SF weed scene is not yet a techy monoculture

slapfrog 5y ago

I hated the 'dealers system'. I didn't want to give some lowlife drug-dealer my address, nor my phone number. Neither was the idea of meeting such a person in a parking lot somewhere appealling to me at all. Consequently, I virtually never smoked weed at all until it became legally available in stores, except at parties where somebody else had it. Two or three times I bought from a dealer, and each time it confirmed all my biases about the experience.

humbleMouse 5y ago
Maybe you should reconsider your bias that all dealers are “lowlifes”

dcolkitt 5y ago

On a gram for gram basis, legal weed may be more expensive. But most people don’t appreciate that legal weed is significantly more potent. (Not to mention the health benefit of smoking less plant material.) The average THC content in illegal states is around 10%. High quality legal strains regularly clock in above 25%. So even if you’re paying twice as much per gram, you’re getting a better deal per mole of THC.

Talanes 5y ago
I don't think that necessarily holds true if you're making the choice to buy from a dealer though, as having the choice implies you're already in a legal state. At least in California, I'm under the impression the legal and illegal supply chains are still very intermixed, so the stuff from your dealer is as potent as dispensary. Though I'm not sure how true that holds as you get further from the major growing areas.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

KMnO4 5y ago

When it was legalized in Canada, the legal prices were pretty bad. There were also restrictions on only allowing the sale of flower (ie no edibles or concentrates IIRC). Since then, the government has pulled up their socks. The prices are competitive, the quality is fantastic, and the doses are accurate (as opposed to a “300mg edible” actually having anywhere from 50-500mg THC). As a result, I don’t know anyone who doesn’t buy from legal dispensaries. There still exist some grey area mail order services, but the concept of “texting your dealer” is largely extinct.

k12sosse 5y ago
I've been kicking this idea around in my noodle since judgement Day passed: a business like a local wine u-brew, where you come rent a stall in my warehouse and we grow your weed for you, in your name. When it's time to harvest, you can either take it home damp and dry it yourself or pay for us to cure it for you. Secure, safe, convenient. I can currently easily grow a (reasonable) year's supply for someone within the legal 2-plant limit, this just takes all the pains and theft-risk away from the end user (mom and pop Canadian backyard growers) Pretty sure this would be highly illegal under the current laws, but I'm old enough to remember when homebrew was illegal in Canada, too.
- jareklupinski 5y ago
  just set up streaming webcams :D https://www.twitch.tv/ashevillecraftcannabis https://www.twitch.tv/ashevillecraftcannabis https://www.twitch.tv/directory/game/Always%20On https://www.twitch.tv/directory/game/Always%20On
- moistly 5y ago
  I believe a company named “True Leaf” (“TruLeaf”?) in the town of Lumby, BC, is doing exactly that.
- rambambram 5y ago
  This what they do in Barcelona, if I understand you correctly.
- 5y ago

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

campground 5y ago

Weed is a bit more expensive now than when I bought from a dealer, but it’s still seems very cheap for what you get out of it. The amount of modern, high potency cannabis I can buy for the price of two beers would turn me into a complete zombie if I was even able to smoke it all in one sitting, and I’m a habitual user. Of course, I’ve noticed a large variance in how it affects different people.

handmodel 5y ago

In california. I only do edibles. For $1.50 (including tax) I get 5mg so I either spend 1.50 or 3.00 when getting high on a night. Its within walking distance of my house. They do check my ID - but seems easier than dealing with a person I have to meet on a random corner. And if you were a woman or old person - that option would seem even less safe. My yearly budget for pot if probably about $100-150 which seems remarkable low compared to my food or alcohol budget.

mixmastamyk 5y ago
Check ID as in verify age >= 21, or put PII into a corp/govt database?
- Talanes 5y ago
  It's often the second one, as under the prior medical-only regulations, dispensaries were all technically organized as cooperatives. I've definitely been in places in the recreational era where I just had to verify my age though.
- fernandotakai 5y ago
  i'm not american and i've bought weed from california dispensaries -- just check id to see if you are over 21. in my case, they just looked at my passport and that was it.

opinion-is-bad 5y ago

From my experience, there are huge differences between stores in terms of pricing and customer service. The industry is so new that just having your doors open is a license to print money, but it’ll start to standardize once banks are allowed to enter the field, permitting successful dispensary operations to scale storefronts. I just stopped at a dispensary in CA about and hour and half outside SF and picked up an ounce for $100, which is a better deal than I ever got from a dealer.

hncurious 5y ago

The regulators were way too aggressive. They overburdened farms and dispensaries to such a degree that legal sources are having a hard time competing with the black market even though dispensaries were considered essential businesses (able to stay open) through the pandemic. Now California is bailing out the industry to the tune of $100M. https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-06-14/california-struggling-marijuana-industry-cash-grants-budget https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-06-14/californ...

travisjungroth 5y ago
This is the consequence of the “regulate and tax the hell out of it!” policy that some Americans want to apply to all vices.
- ihsw 5y ago
  The wrong lesson will be learned from this, ie: increased law enforcement to stamp out the black market rather than remove barriers in the free market.
- Mountain_Skies 5y ago
  But that's what lots of the legalization activists asked for. I heard "just make it legal and you can tax it all you want" for nearly half a century. Well, now they got what they asked for. IIRC, one of the few voices that said "legalize it and don't tax it at all" was Ron Paul. Everyone else was so enthralled with finding a way to get it legal that they really didn't give much thought to how the government could end up making legal weed a lot less desirable than illegal weed.
  - travisjungroth 5y ago
    Not sure why you said “but”. Those are the people I’m talking about. They were wrong.
  - djrogers 5y ago
    Taxing is only half of what GP mentioned - regulations can be even more costly and burdensome than taxes if done poorly (and they often are).

serf 5y ago

>Plus my guy would smoke me up for free a good amount of the time and we'd just chill and chat for a bit. that was my experience with earlier weed delivery groups in SoCal as well, when recommendations were required. A guy with a suitcase of samples would show up to your door, and offer you a sampling of everything he sold. That person would even help you light-up or vaporize the goods if you have a physical disability that prevented you from doing so yourself , or perhaps teach you how to in-case you're unfamiliar with equipment or technique. They would sit there and smoke with you or bullshit for a few minutes about strains/strain-quality/benefits/whatever, make a sale with whatever was chosen during the sampling, and then head out the door. Since those days medical prices have gone down significantly, but the process is now more sterile and 'mass-friendly'. Gone are the days of interactive sampling or someone teaching you how to use a bong or vaporizer -- it's now mostly all 'delivery-fied' : "give me my cash, here's your delivery that I know absolutely nothing about, and i'm gone ASAP." It's a shame in some ways -- the earlier methods were a lot more compassionate towards actual medical patients and actual medical needs for this product -- the status in SoCal now feels more on-par with UberEats-profit-maximization than it does compassionate-care; a shame since 'weed products' have gotten way more complex with the addition of a million different tincture/extract/compound/etc and the various ways to imbibe them.

dpweb 5y ago

In Illinois, I felt the original medicinal stores were more warm and very friendly and helpful esp to first time users. Compassionate to first time users who are dealing with legit pain and medical issues. Newer recreational stores have popped up everywhere with many many more to come, but the few I’ve visited are cold and the staff act like they could give a shit.