Fellow Canadians - So What's The Deal With Dispensaries?

Yes, DobeWan, it is hard not to be cynical. We are all assuming that the Feds will follow through & legalize by next July but it is no sure thing. And even if they do, that does not mean the provinces will be ready. Both levels could bog down with committees & studies & surveys etc.

In the meantime, we are in a strange in-between. As a long term user/abuser, it is truly bizarre to walk into a dispensary & walk out with cannabis. Ditto receiving plain brown envelopes through the mail containing cannabis in smell-proof foil envelopes direct to my door. Something I never thought I would ever see.
 
MOMs are 100% illegal. Same as dispensaries. Some claim their bud is generally superior to average street or LP bud. It's generally cheaper too. I've seen LP prices go up to $17.50/g at MedReleaf, which is highway robbery and in my view, exploitative of sick people.

LP oil is edible but not smokeable. The oil I have had is olive oil, sunflower oil, or coconut oil infused with extracted THC or CBD.

Make sure your LP expectations are managed. Yes, you'll get bud to your door quickly. But not all LP weed is great. I'm pretty selective these days about buying from LPs. I bought fairly frequently early on but I'm far more picky now.

One interesting wrinkle. If you go through the ACMPR process to grow at home, you can buy from ANY LP.

Now if dispensaries are illegal, it strikes me as quite odd that there are so many of them around. But I guess if things are going to be changing next year, why bother making a fuss?

So you have some of that oil, eh? Tell me, if you don't mind me asking, what do you use it for, and do you find it effective?

At CannTrust the going price for most types is from $9 to $11, but the one that is recommended for me is only $4.50/g. I'm going to take a guess and say that it's probably leftover sucker buds and stuff. It's listed as mild on the website, but hey, it's at least affordable and I can "supplement" it with what I'm growing when they bud.
 
If anyone cares to listen, dispensaries are not bad and evil. They have been serving medical patients before the LP'S. Just do some research, yeah it's "street weed" but so is everything we all grow. I've personally had great experiences with The Dispensary in BC. Much better pricing than my LP, and more choices, better availability, etc. Dispensaries buy from growers, like us, most with integrity, and morals. People who actually care about their crop.

Well, maybe not all dispensaries are bad and evil, but some are on the seedy side, pun intended. There was one in Halifax busted last year for selling to any and all who wanted something, and one in Moncton (I think) this year for selling weed that was full of pesticides and making people sick.

But yeah, most of what we grow is street weed, although you're probably not going to find much CBD stuff on the black market, which is kind of a shame.

I guess between the LP and my own weed (once it gets rolling) I should be set up pretty good.
 
I actually agree with you both, was just trying to lay out the facts. There are definitely some dispensaries on the shadier side, but I've had some fantastic dispensary bud from places that clearly care about what they're doing. Just like your "guy" - I've had "guys" over the years who have been all over the spectrum. Some of the MOM bud is amazing from what I've heard. I just wish we didn't have sham laws that no one wants to respect or enforce. Once the federal government announced their timeline for legalization, they should have had a better solution to get dispensaries running legally. This was part of the Liberal campaign platform in the 2015 election, and it really seems to me like they're taking advantage of the political appetite for legalization to score political points heading into the Trudeau reelection campaign.

Apologies for bringing politics into it.

Hey, politics is what this whole reform is based around. I know Trudeau used it as an election promise, but even though the date is set for July 1 next year, I still half think that it'll take longer and end up as a re-election promise.
 
Yes, DobeWan, it is hard not to be cynical. We are all assuming that the Feds will follow through & legalize by next July but it is no sure thing. And even if they do, that does not mean the provinces will be ready. Both levels could bog down with committees & studies & surveys etc.

In the meantime, we are in a strange in-between. As a long term user/abuser, it is truly bizarre to walk into a dispensary & walk out with cannabis. Ditto receiving plain brown envelopes through the mail containing cannabis in smell-proof foil envelopes direct to my door. Something I never thought I would ever see.

I still find it bizarre that I can go into a store and walk out with a pack of seeds.
 
One of the biggest factors in this shadiness you speak of is that fact it's prohibited. People drink and do shady shit all the time, and it's completely encouraged. There's no justification in the laws so discussing it is almost a waste of time. I live in BC, and can legally grow 200 plants, yet I can't go to a store nicer than my doctors office and buy an 8th for the weekend? It's total insanity. In my town they're shutting down everyone dispensary one by one because allegedly someone in city hall has filed complaints. There's one place left here and thousands of customers are heading back to buy "drugs" off the streets. Unlike the drugs in the starbuds dispensary, the growers are not selected, and the meds aren't tested in a lab. Sounds like a win win right? Wait a sec...
 
For the past several years, my black market sources have been supplying nothing but dispensary pot. All nicely labeled in Ziplocs. Train Wreck. OG Kush. Orange Rhino. etc The rise of dispensaries was obviously gutting the previous supply chain. Or was the supply chain just adapting to this new illegal - but not so illegal - dealer network? It would certainly appear so due to the presence of the old school hash varieties available on the shelves. They ain't coming from your friendly basement grower in BC. This is what the gov't wants to change. But it remains to be seen what form this will take. Aphria, Canopy et al are counting on taking the lion's share of the market in what will possibly be an LCBO, SAQ style of distribution. The onus will be on the supplier to adhere to whatever licensing requirements are demanded by the regulator so grow quality will be standardized but variety may suffer initially. That's where the self-grower will win presumably — assuming we have continued easy access to the strains.

Will the small dispensaries & boutique growers be shut out? Or will small scale operations be allowed like the mini & microbreweries? Who knows?

I will miss that old school hash though - for nostalgia if nothing else.:volcano-smiley:
 
The natives have opened dispensaries all over their reserves. The one near us has as many dispensaries as gas stations and smoke shops. Not the best quality but lots of it.
 
The natives have opened dispensaries all over their reserves. The one near us has as many dispensaries as gas stations and smoke shops. Not the best quality but lots of it.

A medical-type dispensary? Are you able to purchase stuff there?.
 
Will the small dispensaries & boutique growers be shut out?

I think I might have an answer to my own question. From an interview in June. Omar Khan is former chief of staff to the Ontario health minister.

"CBC: So where are they getting their supply?

Omar Khan: I don't want to open myself up to defamation. But they're not getting them from the licensed producers because none of them would risk their licence by providing supply illegally.

CBC: The assumption from many of the illegal dispensaries is that they're going to be part of the new regime.

Omar Khan: I think they are dreaming in technicolour. There is no way the province of Ontario or any other province is going to give a retail distribution licence to any entity that's involved in criminal activity."

Source: CBC: Pot insider says
 
So why don't do their own growing, and if they are getting it illegally, then why aren't they getting shut down now? It doesn't make sense.

I'm not saying they should be shut down, just that things should get standardized somehow. I know the political end of it is still somewhat in No Man's Land, but some ad hoc laws could be put in place. It won't affect me in any way since I'll be going through an LP, and I'm not criticizing anything; it just has me curious.
 
My prediction?

In Ontario, all of the present pop-up dispensaries will be shut down. The prov gov't will want to start with a squeaky-clean retail system to please our conservative nature. The present dispensaries – anybody without a provable government approved supply chain history - are tainted due to their sourcing. So, they will be toast by the time the new system rolls. They may or may not be given an opportunity to voluntarily shut down as demanded & re-apply. Realistically, the police could shut them all down overnight if given the directive from above. Mail-order would be tougher to stop unless the provinces co-ordinate their plans.

We will start with a highly regulated system of gov't stores. Probably augmented with selected privately-owned boutiques - like LP producer stores etc. We will not go 'wild west' like Colorado & the PNW (pardon the pun). Just like with liquor, in these stores we will only be ‘allowed’ to buy goods from one of the 54(?) gov’t approved suppliers. It will be up to the LPs to broaden their product lines with hot new strains. Who knows? They might even cap THC levels, only allowing MMPRs access to the highest levels.

Concentrates – BHO budders, shatters, smoking oils etc – which certainly appeal to the younger crowd will be in question. All those impurities y’know? Edibles will likewise be constrained with major packaging and shape demands to reduce child appeal.
 
My prediction?

In Ontario, all of the present pop-up dispensaries will be shut down. The prov gov't will want to start with a squeaky-clean retail system to please our conservative nature. The present dispensaries — anybody without a provable government approved supply chain history - are tainted due to their sourcing. So, they will be toast by the time the new system rolls. They may or may not be given an opportunity to voluntarily shut down as demanded & re-apply. Realistically, the police could shut them all down overnight if given the directive from above. Mail-order would be tougher to stop unless the provinces co-ordinate their plans.

We will start with a highly regulated system of gov't stores. Probably augmented with selected privately-owned boutiques - like LP producer stores etc. We will not go 'wild west' like Colorado & the PNW (pardon the pun). Just like with liquor, in these stores we will only be 'allowed' to buy goods from one of the 54(?) gov't approved suppliers. It will be up to the LPs to broaden their product lines with hot new strains. Who knows? They might even cap THC levels, only allowing MMPRs access to the highest levels.

Concentrates — BHO budders, shatters, smoking oils etc — which certainly appeal to the younger crowd will be in question. All those impurities y'know? Edibles will likewise be constrained with major packaging and shape demands to reduce child appeal.

I can see something like that being a logical way of proceeding toward a standardized industry. If dispensaries and boutiques are required to go through proper channels there will be one helluva surge in producers to catch up for the ensuing demand. Not sure how Ontario is WRT to growers now, but BC is the capitol for it out west and here in NB is the capitol for the east and if some of the people that grow now try hard enough and bump up the quality control and stuff I'm sure they could somehow get into the... system, let's call it.

As for stuff with impurities, I know what you mean. Back in my younger and, let's say, less selective days I've smoked oil that was cut with horrendous stuff, to the point that I'm not even going to repeat what it was. As for the budder and shatter and the like, I'm not too well up on that, but it does sound interesting to try. I took some leaves off my CBD plants and did up some cannabutter with them yesterday evening and I just bought another block of butter to do some of my White Widow leaves this evening. Something to tide me over while waiting for the buds to ripen.
 
As for the budder and shatter and the like, I'm not too well up on that, but it does sound interesting to try.

They are all very appealing & Canada (and the LPs) will have to deal with some sort of approach. Once you've started vaping, a stinky joint or a bong just doesn't have the same appeal & to the general population, a loaded cartridge vape pen is an easy no-brainer purchase. I know that that was my 1st buy from a legal shop in Denver in 2014. Budder, shatter, oils, distillates all require vaping hardware & a different ritual. The ones that I have tried are great with mega THC content but I can't see myself investing in a dabbing rig with a butane torch to heat it . . .
 
They are all very appealing & Canada (and the LPs) will have to deal with some sort of approach. Once you've started vaping, a stinky joint or a bong just doesn't have the same appeal & to the general population, a loaded cartridge vape pen is an easy no-brainer purchase. I know that that was my 1st buy from a legal shop in Denver in 2014. Budder, shatter, oils, distillates all require vaping hardware & a different ritual. The ones that I have tried are great with mega THC content but I can't see myself investing in a dabbing rig with a butane torch to heat it . . .

I bought a vaping pen a few weeks ago but I haven't had a chance to use it yet. Although I have a feeling I'll always have a thing for a nice joint. Pipes and bongs are nice I guess, but a good spliff rolled up to my liking definitely trumps them IMO.

But right now I have some fresh White Widow leaves on the stove in a pound of butter, which should be pretty good when it's done.
 
I bought a vaping pen a few weeks ago but I haven't had a chance to use it yet. Although I have a feeling I'll always have a thing for a nice joint. Pipes and bongs are nice I guess, but a good spliff rolled up to my liking definitely trumps them IMO.

Yeah, I hear you.

A little digging . . . BHO is gaining ground in the US where over 1/3 of pot users use it. And usage is growing in Canada as well. High potency leaf along with super high potency BHO & other high-potency concentrates are leading to an increase in pot user visits to emerg. Almost 2% of users in Canada! (facts from Global Drug Survey 2016). That's what makes the lawmakers cautious.
 
Yeah, I hear you.

A little digging . . . BHO is gaining ground in the US where over 1/3 of pot users use it. And usage is growing in Canada as well. High potency leaf along with super high potency BHO & other high-potency concentrates are leading to an increase in pot user visits to emerg. Almost 2% of users in Canada! (facts from Global Drug Survey 2016). That's what makes the lawmakers cautious.

THC sending people to emergency? That's pretty unusual. What kind of leaf would be that potent?.
 
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