Starting a collective

eoddom

Active Member
Alright so i completely understand all the paperwork and legalities behind starting a collective and how it all generally works. My question is can the collective do the growing for the amount of members they have? Say i start a collective and want to also be growing at the collective for its members...thats legal correct? I'm pretty sure after reading through CA's laws it is but i know you guys actually deal with collectives more directly so you can confirm this for me. My biggest thing is cross breeding different medical strands to try and find things more direct for certain chronic conditions.

Edit: Not to mention after reading how most of you feel about unhonest dispensaries it would be nice for the members of the collective to be able to see what is actually growing if they want and that its actually being grown organically.
 

Dan Kone

Well-Known Member
Alright so i completely understand all the paperwork and legalities behind starting a collective and how it all generally works. My question is can the collective do the growing for the amount of members they have? Say i start a collective and want to also be growing at the collective for its members...thats legal correct? I'm pretty sure after reading through CA's laws it is but i know you guys actually deal with collectives more directly so you can confirm this for me. My biggest thing is cross breeding different medical strands to try and find things more direct for certain chronic conditions
Grey area. I would say yes on growing 6 per patient up to 99 plants total. Depends largely on the county.
 

eoddom

Active Member
Alright. Next question is what would be the best area of CA to be in as far as lax laws and fun living conditions.
 

RPsmoke420

Active Member
Alright. Next question is what would be the best area of CA to be in as far as lax laws and fun living conditions.
Mighty subjective. I'd say take a vacation out this way. Check out the different locations. Get a feel for the area. The place that is right for you, you'll know it. Stay under the 99 plant count, and you should be just fine. Best of luck!
 

eoddom

Active Member
Yeah i definitely intend on taking a few trips to cali over the next year checking out different cities. I also have family in the sacremento area but i dont know how things are up that way. Also have a friend that lives in hollywood.
 

lthopkins

Active Member
sacramento is flooded with clubs but could use a good honest n were patients could take a tour some patience havnt even seen a plant in full bloom up close or any idea of a grow upclose,,, i think it would be cool
 

eoddom

Active Member
Yeah that would be the biggest thing for me....some kind of interaction with the patients. I want them to see where the meds are coming from....see how the process works.

Edit: I also noticed that rent prices in sacramento are pretty low.
 
man, this is an old ass thread but, it came up in search results so here we go...this is why you should consult with people that might know a thing or two or attending a 420 College.
 

phishtank

Well-Known Member
Holy thread revival batman. This shit is old. I can tell you now that attending a 420 college wouldnt have helped me much. I've learned alot since i originally started this thread from my office in nyc. Now that im in cali I have a better understanding of how shit goes and the fact that I'd NEVER be interested in dealing with the headache of owning a collective or dispensary.
 

Dan Kone

Well-Known Member
Holy thread revival batman. This shit is old. I can tell you now that attending a 420 college wouldnt have helped me much. I've learned alot since i originally started this thread from my office in nyc. Now that im in cali I have a better understanding of how shit goes and the fact that I'd NEVER be interested in dealing with the headache of owning a collective or dispensary.
Also a 420 college is pretty useless. You can't learn how to do this sh-t in a classroom.
 

phishtank

Well-Known Member
Also a 420 college is pretty useless. You can't learn how to do this sh-t in a classroom.
Yeah...Definitely something that you need to spend atleast a few years in the game before you even try to attempt...I'd say maybe even longer.

Either way...nothing I ever plan on taking on.
 

ReefBongwell

Well-Known Member
Hey Phish, can you elaborate on the reasons you'd never want to run your own collective? Dispensary I can see for sure... so are you black market? Because from what I've read the only way you can legally sell to someone else in CA is to have a collective.
 

phishtank

Well-Known Member
Hey Phish, can you elaborate on the reasons you'd never want to run your own collective? Dispensary I can see for sure... so are you black market? Because from what I've read the only way you can legally sell to someone else in CA is to have a collective.
You can join a collective and donate meds and in return get compensation for the cost of producing said meds.

If that's black market...then pretty much everyone on here is black market.

Where is Dan Kone he should be able to elaborate on this better.


The reason I'd never want to own a collective or dispensary is because of the headache of dealing with it, employees, customers, vendors, paying off the police to leave me alone (explains why some collectives have been around for quite some time while others in the same cities get shut down) and everything else associated with it. Yeah you could make a great living at it...but if...and i say if because i do not currently grow...i was going to do anything it would be grow and take it to collectives.
 

ReefBongwell

Well-Known Member
Ah that may be the difference I'm not speaking strictly about dispensary model but collectives in general. I don't really see most dispensaries as collectives they may call themselves that but if you're slapping on a huge markup above what the grower gets you're not a collective you're a business.

Someone else on here said (and I don't know if they're correct but nobody said they weren't) that growing for yourself with a med card is one thing but growing for multiple people and particularly transporting, you are supposed to be your own collective. You can sell to the collectives like you're talking about, but your collective grows it and transports it to the dispensary-collective. At least that's how that person is doing it and how he said his lawyer said it needed to be done to insulate yourself as much as possible from legal repercussions.
 

Dan Kone

Well-Known Member
You can join a collective and donate meds and in return get compensation for the cost of producing said meds.

If that's black market...then pretty much everyone on here is black market.

Where is Dan Kone he should be able to elaborate on this better.
It's not black market while you're in the dispensary, but it is black market while you're in your car on the way to the dispensary. Legally, once you're in a dispensary and you're a registered member, it's just as legal for you to sell your meds as it is the bud tender. But transporting them is still pretty much illegal. Growing them at your house is still a grey area depending on too many variables to list. Technically, if you're a member of a collective running a dispensary, you should be able to claim your grow is actually their property. Problem with that is the dispensary would have to back you up on that, and since they are all completely self interested, they won't.
 

Mithrandir420

Well-Known Member
It's all a business, man. EVERY non profit on the planet is still a business. They have to be.

You're your own collective, The Reef Bongwell Collective. You have paper work for all your patients. Your a member of another collective, "The Mithrandir Collective and Sunday Gospel Hour" where you donate your excess meds for the cost of producing them. You only need your paperwork that's hanging outside of your legal grow if you get raided. The Mithrandir Collective only need their paperwork (where you are listed as a patient/member) if they get raided.
 

Dan Kone

Well-Known Member
Ah that may be the difference I'm not speaking strictly about dispensary model but collectives in general. I don't really see most dispensaries as collectives they may call themselves that but if you're slapping on a huge markup above what the grower gets you're not a collective you're a business.
A collective and a business can be the same thing. Non-profit doesn't mean you can't earn income. It means the corporation has to have a surplus of zero at the end of the fiscal year or justify that surplus.

Someone else on here said (and I don't know if they're correct but nobody said they weren't) that growing for yourself with a med card is one thing but growing for multiple people and particularly transporting, you are supposed to be your own collective.
Growing for multiple people you are supposed to be a collective. Transporting is a grey area. Most cops will arrest you for transporting no matter what, but a lot of people get off in court. Technically you're supposed to be able to transport to a collective but for all practical purposes it's still something you're going to get arrested for and then it'll be a coin flip in court.

You can sell to the collectives like you're talking about, but your collective grows it and transports it to the dispensary-collective. At least that's how that person is doing it and how he said his lawyer said it needed to be done to insulate yourself as much as possible from legal repercussions.
There are no laws on the books for collective to collective trade. That's a grey area too.

The state laws are designed to protect dispensaries and screw over growers or people who make the products that go in the dispensaries. Trade that happens outside of a dispensary is still up for interpretation and kind of depends on the cop and/or the jury.
 

phishtank

Well-Known Member
The only way I see the collective thing even staying in a gray area instead of just being a legal mess is if you are each customers care-giver...or your non profit is. Aside from that most people i know use multiple collectives signing multiple collective agreements. And I don't think the law was built around people have multiple caregivers.


Reef...It all comes down to how good your lawyer is man. Even though mmj is legal...it all comes down to the cops you run into. My one experience with my grow and riverside sheriffs department was very pleasant. They actually gave me a few suggestions on how to keep it from being as obvious so my neighbors wouldnt know what was going on.

But once again...I have zero intentions of ever owning a dispensary or collective. When I originally made this thread I knew nothing about the mmj business and barely knew how to grow. Hell i still dont really know much about either. But the only interest I have now is growing...and mainly for myself and enough extra to be able to enjoy my hobby without having to pay for the costs that come along with it.
 

Dan Kone

Well-Known Member
The only way I see the collective thing even staying in a gray area instead of just being a legal mess is if you are each customers care-giver...or your non profit is. Aside from that most people i know use multiple collectives signing multiple collective agreements. And I don't think the law was built around people have multiple caregivers.
The law doesn't say you can't have multiple caregivers. But it doesn't say you can either. Grey area. Caregiver means absolutely nothing unless you are an officially recognized caregiver which is difficult to do and requires you provide other non-cannabis related services. Even though most dispensaries allow patients to designate a caregiver to pick up their meds, it means nothing legally unless it's officially recognized by the state.

Reef...It all comes down to how good your lawyer is man.
And what county you live in. If you get busted in SF or Oakland it's not likely to be a big deal, if you get busted in somewhere like Orange County, you're pretty fucked. Oakland juries likely won't convict for most non-violent mj offenses, so they don't even bother pressing charges, but in OC, yeah, they will.

Even though mmj is legal...it all comes down to the cops you run into. My one experience with my grow and riverside sheriffs department was very pleasant. They actually gave me a few suggestions on how to keep it from being as obvious so my neighbors wouldnt know what was going on.
Yep. I've heard many stories like that in the bay area.

But once again...I have zero intentions of ever owning a dispensary or collective. When I originally made this thread I knew nothing about the mmj business and barely knew how to grow. Hell i still dont really know much about either. But the only interest I have now is growing...and mainly for myself and enough extra to be able to enjoy my hobby without having to pay for the costs that come along with it.
Probably saving yourself a lot of problems there anyways. The market is shit now and unless you're well established breaking into the business is really difficult.
 
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