RI Compassion Centers Get Slammed...lol

[MrCompassion]

I found this article, it shed's light on what's really going on with the centers on Providence Business News website... R.I. compassion center proposals still come up short - PBN.com - Providence Business News... It looks like the one best for us may get over looked if they listen to RIPAC!!!!! So much for patient advocates!!!!!

I verified the articles facts and as shocked to see it's pretty solid...Check for your selves and let us know, goto: Medical Marijuana Program: Rhode Island Department of Health

the look at the Compassion Centers tab on the right and click Accepted For Review+ to see for your self! Don't bother with all the hoopla, go right to the business plan and you can get a 20 page snap shot of each center. Don't be intimidated by the 200 to 400 page monsters, once you find the plan, you learn what you need to know.

Contact your State politicians, RIPAC and let them know who need to be choosen before it's to late. Help them make the decisions that are best for us, let them know who you want to represent RI as one of the nations first non-profit medicenters!!!! Let them know today before it's to late!!!

 

[MrCompassion]

I found this article, it shed's light on what's really going on with the centers on Providence Business News website... R.I. compassion center proposals still come up short - PBN.com - Providence Business News... It looks like the one best for us may get over looked if they listen to RIPAC!!!!! So much for patient advocates!!!!!

I verified the articles facts and as shocked to see it's pretty solid...Check for your selves and let us know, goto: Medical Marijuana Program: Rhode Island Department of Health

the look at the Compassion Centers tab on the right and click Accepted For Review+ to see for your self! Don't bother with all the hoopla, go right to the business plan and you can get a 20 page snap shot of each center. Don't be intimidated by the 200 to 400 page monsters, once you find the plan, you learn what you need to know.

Contact your State politicians, RIPAC and let them know who need to be choosen before it's to late. Help them make the decisions that are best for us, let them know who you want to represent RI as one of the nations first non-profit medicenters!!!! Let them know today before it's to late!!!

Unfortunatly, the original article was accessible via Internet through PBN.COM
for free, now that they are charging, I attached the piece as it was originally written for your review... IT'S WORTH THE READ!!!

Since PBN is now charging people $5 to read the article I posted, looked something like this...


Rhode Islands Hunt for The Perfect Compassion
By Adam Bond

Rhode Island Compassion Centers are supposed to be the "New Age Pharmacy" where patients could go to get Pharmaceutical grade Medical marijuana without fear of getting robbed. Both figuratively and literally. But to date, the media isn't covering this issue from a patient's perspective and what we need. Instead it is focusing on only the participants in these applications, not price, business viability, business focus or who can likely provide the most quality medications. Without this pressure by the press, the Department of Health could be left choosing applicants who are not the best for the patients in the program. And if the wrong centers are chosen, compassion centers will leave patients no better off than they are now.


I am a patient in this program and look forward to the convenience, safety and economical help these centers should provide. Yet, even RIPAC Executive Director, Joanne Leppanen, only seemed to testify for and endorse Compassion Centers that offered more than just overpriced medicine. I, like almost all patients in Rhode Island agree with that woman who boldly said before a near packed room of people at the last MM hearing, "It's not about what your name is, what you ran for, or any of that ...it's about us...the patients" She's right, it's all about discretion, efficiency, quality and safety. It is also about which applicant is capable of making their plans into a viable business. And less face it, most people in today's age would agree that having celebrity and/or a group of politicians on your side is probably more of a burden than a benefit.


I find it interesting to note that RIPAC shares the same office building as one of her endorsees and most of her endorsees provided business plans without adequate financial evidence to show business viability, let alone that they could support additional services offered. It makes one wonder if RIPAC, or any of her endorsees, know how to run a business? As with any business, success requires focus. How can you focus on growing and distributing medicine when you have so many other products and services to worry about? Some of her endorsees, like Greeleaf Compassionate Care Center, plan to offer hemp lines of clothing, paraphernalia, while other like Thomas Slater Compassion Center, wants to offer services like yoga and Reike. Some, like Summit Medical Compassion Center, even offered physician's injection therapies, surgery, and not to mention the plans that even offered referrals to other physicians for "further" services.


The patients have been complaining vigorously that ALL we want is access to pharmaceutical grade medicine at affordable prices ever since the State of Rhode Island granted access to medical marijuana several years ago. That has never changed.


So, why didn't some of the plans who did just that not even get a nod from the very organization that is supposed to be a voice of the people?


So much for being an advocate of the people RIPAC!!!

The lady who spoke up had a very valid point which should be the driving force of the Department of Health's choices. The only question is which applicants can provide Pharmaceutical grade Medical marijuana in the safest, most efficient and affordable manner. These prospective Compassion Centers have to understand that we need them to focus on getting us the medicine in a safe, efficient manner, that's it. Nothing more, nothing less.


Sure, those other options are great in theory, but just not where I get my medicine. Besides, unless the services are free, most of these patients will not be able to afford them, as most can barely afford their medicine. If the services are free, then where's the money coming from and why don't they just lower their prices? Most Compassion Centers have prices at or above the current caregiver situations (with a couple exceptions), so why didn't these applicants focus on lower prices rather than Reike? If the applicants really did their homework and surveyed the market, they would realize patients don't want this other stuff. The bottom line is, we want a pharmacy, not a social center. It deserves the respect as such. You don't see Yoga classes or massage therapy at CVS do you?


I only hope the Department of Health hears our pleas and makes it easy. Secure, safe, cost effective and efficient. That's what the patients of Rhode Island want, and that's what the world wants to see, not the nightmare scenarios of California or Colorado. Let's be the first state to get it right it! But to do this, the decision of which compassion center is selected should be based on the proposals and nothing else.


Unlike some patients here in RI, I fortunately have more than a decade's worth of experience, writing and review business plans as well as ample growing experience. The one thing you learn in reviewing business plans is the best way to determine if someone can run a business is to look at the financials. After all, if they can't get them right, what are the chances that the rest of the plan is going to be correct? Upon looking at all 18 applicants' numbers, most were just awful and inaccurate. Specifically, many had unrealistic patient growth projections, excessive profits which could be remedied by dropping prices, and most didn't break out their financials more than a 3-year roll up summary. In the general marketplace a business plan would not even be considered complete if it does not show month-by-month budgets, pro-forma P & L and pro-forma cash flow statements. The best plans, in my opinion, were Hope Apothecary, The Rhode Island Compassion Center, Thomas Slater and Greenleaf, however even one or two of these were weak in this area.


In my findings, after reading all the applications, I was shocked to realize how almost none of the applicants seemed to focus on just producing pharmaceutical grade medical marijuana except for one or two. And I was dismayed at how prices were often higher than many patients are currently paying.


The four mentioned above seemed to have adequate numbers, with Hope Apothecary being by far the most detailed. But when it comes to price even some of these best plans were flawed. Greenleaf, for example is charging $35-$55 for an eighth, which equates to $280-$440 an ounce! And what is worse, their pricing is based on "strain quality" versus financial capability. I know for a fact that it doesn't cost anymore to grow different strains with regard to electricity and nutrient, so why are they charging more? What this says is that those who can't afford it can only get the "low quality" strains. This misses the point of the non-profit.


And Greenleaf isn't alone. Thomas Slater quoted, under their Pricing Strategy section, that their "Center's pricing will be intentionally set at or above the midpoint of the scale locally, largely due to the higher quality of medicine it will offer to patients". How is this necessary when others, like Hope Apothecary, who have biopharmaceutical and cultivation experts on staff and can therefore also offer high quality medications, but plan to offer sliding scales based on income and not product quality with prices ranging from $125 to $275, with an average price of $200 (year one) and $75 to $250, with an average price of $158 (year two and beyond). And notice that they are the only center I noticed that planed on reducing the cost of medicine between start-up and year two as revenue grows! In my opinion, Thomas Slater is pricing their medicine "intentionally above the midpoint" because they are offering free services that no patient wants at their pharmacy anyway.

With regard to business plans in general, many had a ton of holes in how many patients they claimed they could get, how much it would cost to set up a top quality grow facility and didn't show basic — Budget, Profit & Loss accountability in actually building such facility. I, like most of us every election year, just have to choose the best out of the bunch. "Thomas Slater" anticipates spending $434K with monstrous annual budget increase for their security plan with consultants from infamous "Blackwater Security" (who were besieged with tons of problems over in Iraq) at the helm. This is not a strong selling point! Especially when some plans have security on staff that has experience securing stealth fighters, strategic security analysis skills of military snipers, and for far less cost too.


By the way, if you want the Compassion Center to be successful, don't choose an applicant that has retired police on board, it makes many patients feel very unsafe with the fact that they are in a position to leak information to Federal agencies anonymously. Regardless of how much you try to convince the Medical marijuana community it won't happen, people simply will not believe you and the center will most likely fail on that point alone.
In summary, I was shocked to realize how almost none of the applicants seemed focus on just producing pharmaceutical grade medical marijuana and just medical marijuana except for one or two. Most were horrible at justifying a lot of high ticket cost, used way too much money to fund their business and only a few seemed to have the desire to grow pharmaceutical grade medications. Granted, many had top growers from around the world lined up, but only 1 or 2 applicants had the ability to grow pharmaceutical grade medication in my opinion. And out of all 18 applicants, only 3 were offering medications around $200 an ounce. These are the main things that matter to us patients in Rhode Island


But again, this is Rhode Island! Odds are the ones recommended by RIPAC, who are selling the most expensive medicine and offer the most congressional letters of recommendation will probably get the nod to open one of RI first compassion centers. But as a patient I certainly hope this is not the case.


Rhode Island has a chance to make history being the first state in the country to possibly get the Medical marijuana Industry pointed in the right direction. With so many states having problems getting it right and abusing the system, why the press in not giving this more coverage is beyond me??? The people have a right to know how the Health Department evaluates the applicants and how each selection is made. Without media involvement covering this issue from a patient perspective, rather than that of "who's who in Rhode Island", this will never happen.

So please get involved, as this is really a pivotal point in our nation's history as we start taking our first steps into the unknown once again. All we need is the Health Department to hear what patients want and Rhode Island can build a program that can change the way the world looks at the Medical marijuana Industry in America...