The first in a series of PSAs on “Know your Product, Know your Farmer, Know your Access Point” that I will be offering over the next week. Shop smart. Source your medicines well. Be well.
Greetings to all new recreational patients and also to those still debating between abstinence and sourcing your meds from either the “rec” or the “wild” side. By “wild” side, I mean the illegal non-taxpaying acquisition channel expected to be heavily targeted by enforcement real soon now.
I wish you a happy and successful time during your early days trying to find meds out there that meet your needs and, if you find them, finding where you might best purchase them. I also hope that this heavily distorted market has not priced your meds beyond your means.
For starters in helping you to better know what you are facing — the following word-cloud summarizes brand naming amongst the 929 “Infused Products” that were approved for sale in the Regulated Market as of last week (e.g., for sale in your new dispensaries and the storefronts housing their non-medically-endorsed recreational counterparts). This list includes edibles, drinkables and other things with Cannabinoids infused therein.
Tell me if you see the words suppository or tincture or balm or “chronic intravenous infusion” in there anywhere. I didn’t (except for “tincture … hurray .. my tinc will be ecstatic!!!”).. Of course my glaucoma is acting up since all of the local clinics are gone (I live near the “Clearview” strip of Route 9 once called “Pot Row” and once infamously testified as having something like 17 dispensaries in a 3-mile strip (it didn’t). When you are surrounded by that much medicine day in and day out, a sudden “fall-off-the-cliff” ending is kinda like cold-turkey withdrawal. In compensation, my eyeballs feel like they are going to pop (just kidding … I don’t actually believe that I have glaucoma. The tin-foil hat seems to keep it away.)
It is true that there’s one “blessed” recreational Priority-1 that was granted a monopoly for the area. I’m interested to see how that works out for us, locally, in terms of product availability and pricing. At least I do not count my neighborhood amongst the many unfortunates without legal product being available near where they live.
Not to get worried. Appropriate products will come. Free markets tend to behave that way. and they may even not be centered around CHOCOLATE!
One warning ….. this is not a free market. It is a heavily regulated market. If you find it is not meeting your needs, get involved in the Legislative/Regulatory process for next year. There is at least one very capable organization out there now lobbying on behalf of it’s members. If you’d like a voice, join up and/or otherwise participate. Otherwise, be well (and, preferably, quiet).
I’m going to do a series of very short PSAs (similar to this one in length) over the next few days. Some will call out attributes of the products now available to you and some will call out attributes of the farms producing these products. Others yet will describe retail access points now competing with your pusher for your business and for your hard earned cash. With luck, I’ll be able to help you discriminate (in a good way) between the options that “going legal” puts before you.
All of these posts will be intended as a service to the Patients exploring the regulated, taxed, legal, taxed, surveilled system that is now your only legal way to acquire your meds.
Please feel free to leave your comments below …. I’d love to hear where you find utility in what I say and where you call B-S on me. Both stimulate emotions in me. One helps me learn.
Thanks in advance for your engagement. All the best in ” THE MAN’s Market”.