In my search for bud, I recently met another chronic pain patient who is a current member of the Medical Cannabis Program. For the sake of this story, let’s call this patient Mary.
Mary hasn’t been in the program very long, but she’s tried a handful of different dispensaries and was mostly disappointed in what she found. Mary likes purple strains to treat her chronic pain, which she has trouble finding. She says she likes the Purple Kush at R. Greenleaf and she brought some to my place for me to try.
The label says the Purple Kush is an indica and has 20% THC and 0.27% CBDs. It had a strong smell, but was so dried out, it crumbled between my fingers. That condition is nothing new, as I found the same problem with all of Greenleaf’s bud when I was in the program years ago. Mary wondered if they microwave it, which is one way some growers use to dry the bud as quickly as possible and to kill germs. But no grower worth his or her salt would even think of curing bud with a microwave. I told her the smell was almost artificial, as if they added it in at some point during the process.
When Mary told me she paid $20 a gram for this bud, I was shocked. Shocked, I say! Not only is this bud not worth that much, it’s not even worth half that much. I told her truthfully that Greenleaf was ripping her off. Poor Mary, she didn’t know there was better bud out there, and at a better price. But not at the dispensaries, which is not only sad, but rather tragic.
Mary says she tried The Verdes Foundation, but they have a problem with running out of bud. And she said they close down a lot, too. (That was also a problem with High Desert when I was in the program.) You can only buy in certain quantities at New Mexican dispensaries, like at Greenleaf, just 1.5 to 3 grams at a time. Then you have to keep going back to buy more, almost every other day for Mary. Because there’s not enough supply for the demand, so the bud has to be rationed. And this, even when more dispensaries have been added since I was in the program.
I told Mary that the Purple Kush from Greenleaf was proof that I made the right decision to stay in the underground. Crappy bud for $20 a gram? Shameful. Just shameful that the dispensaries are ripping off patients like that.
From Greenleaf’s website: “The quality of our medical cannabis rivals that of any you will find in the United States or across the world.”
Bullshit. Total bullshit. Don’t be fooled.
All Things Chronic 
you may be right about all of it, but when it comes down to it, doing it legal saves a lot of worry and headache too. i don’t worry about neighbors smelling it, cause i have a card and i bought it legal. i don’t worry about cops coming to my house bc someone called it in. and i also don’t have to wait for a ‘connection’ to come thru or someone to get busted or just disappear. i can go whenever i want and get whatever i want….and ya, that comes with a premium price (of higher costing bud) but to me its worth it.
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Here in the Q, your neighbors and the cops don’t care about people smoking pot in the privacy of their homes. And the smell only lasts for as long as your smoking it, so it’s not a constant odor. And there are certainly ways that the odor can be masked.
While finding a connection is a lot harder than driving to a dispensary, at least I can count on the underground having better bud than the dispensaries. And with dispensaries not having enough supply and closing down, it’s just like the unreliable underground.
According to my calculations, 80% of the bud I bought from the dispensaries wasn’t strong enough for my pain levels, compared to about 50% of the bud in the underground. When you spend hundreds and hundreds of dollars on weed every month, buying crap that barely has an effect is not part of my budget.
Premium prices should be limited to premium bud. If my cigarettes cost $20 each, I wouldn’t be smoking them.
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They will use all the tricks on people won’t they if they don’t know what to look for…This is so sad to hear of…You know I don’t smoke but still bothers me that this goes on..I know people that smoke and underground well it goes dry for a spell or you get what they call the brick weed sprayed with some awful shitt stinking no good no high ..I wish they would just make it legal everywhere and but then it would be to much competition with the cotton industry and many other things…
Hey so how many joints do you get for 20 a gram? just trying to see the difference in price and weight since I don’t know the above lol..and I know it also depends of the type and things but..just wondering gurl…
Hope your Saturday is treating you good gurl…any plans for today or the weekend??
Huggggggggggs to ya gurl
Suzz
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Everybody rolls joints differently, but I usually use almost a gram per joint. And after you clean the bud before rolling, there’s sticks and stuff you can’t smoke but have to pay for anyway.
My plans are to hibernate until I can find some bud, which means I’m either a bear or a hermit. 🙂
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Oh I have seen those sticks and shitt that I know you have to pay for anyways not kool..grinder baby lol..
awww I bet you look cute either way…a lil bear or a lil hermit lol..I know what you mean ..I usually take some out of the stash so when they run short I have some to puff puff pass …so when times get hard I have a lil to give to better half..
At least you don’t turn into a bear lol and growl at others lol…..Ok yes, that is what I figured some due it thicker or thin ones I have seen ..and yeah I was told after asking lol a gram per joint so I am learning …lol..Thank you gurl for that information I forget or don’t know so that is why I ask…
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We can still get regular here 35.00 a quarter ….and no telling what the government is telling the farmers that grow this to spray on it ..just like our food and shitt… I rather like I said above keep getting it underground..or make it legal everywhere like fuck in a regular store and not sprayed with god knows what and what all is in it..from the government…
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This is William Ford, the Chairman of the nonprofit organization R. Greenleaf Organics, Inc., and I don’t agree. Please don’t listen to the critics – our medicine has a 100% guarantee so if you don’t like it or if it doesn’t do what you need it to do for you – simply return it for a replacement or full refund. And BTW – there are no medical strains that cost $20 a gram at R. Greenleaf, in fact, all of our strains are the same price (because we believe that electricity and water always cost the same) and that price has been lowered three times in the last year to be $12 per gram (including tax.) Please let the quality speak for itself – you have nothing to lose – and it really is the best New Mexico has to offer!
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Thank you for visiting my little corner of the internet, Mr. Ford. I would’ve been more impressed if you had commented on the issues raised in my review of your dispensary, found here:
https://painkills2.wordpress.com/2014/12/10/strain-reviews-for-r-greenleaf/
Instead, all you did was leave an advertisement, and not a very good one, at that. Yes, R. Greenleaf has a money-back guarantee, but I don’t buy medicine with the thought of having to return it. I shouldn’t have to return it, not if it’s quality. And considering the restrictions on the amount of bud a customer can buy at one time from your dispensary, having to return any of it is more hassle than it’s worth.
Which begs the question, how many of your customers have taken advantage of the money-back guarantee? And what happens to the returned bud, is it resold? If I had to guess, I’d say that most of your unhappy customers just go elsewhere, if they’re able. I tried 50% of the dispensaries before all of my money ran out.
It appears Mary was lying to me about paying $20/gram for the Purple Kush. I guess she thought she’d make quite a profit if I wanted to buy from her in the future, since the sample was free. I’m also guessing that Mary thought she was dealing with someone who didn’t have a lot of experience with cannabis — someone easy to rip-off, when ironically, she was the one being ripped off.
How many of your customers are trying to make money on the side from your products, Mr. Ford? That’s obviously a concern for your bottom line, but to me, it says that your products are too expensive. And my experiences of the last 2 years in the underground market have proven that to be true. While I was paying $21.87 per joint for one of your quality strains, Grape Ape (which I see you no longer carry), I’m paying about $9 per joint right now for an even better quality strain. (Price per gram is not the only way to measure cost.)
I can’t be the only person who has been terribly disappointed with this state’s program. Now that I’ve been able to compare the products in the legal and underground markets, I can’t think of anything that would convince me to re-enter the program. Even if I won the lottery and was rolling in cash, I wouldn’t waste a dime of it on this state’s program. But the reality is that the program has already taken thousands and thousands (and thousands) of my dollars, giving me very little in return.
So, a customer has “nothing to lose” by trying out your dispensary? I beg to differ. However, the 5 months I spent with R. Greenleaf weren’t all bad. But in the end, my conclusion was: “At this point, I don’t see any reason to keep experimenting with this dispensary.”
Mr. Ford, you can’t say that I didn’t try. You can’t say that I don’t know what I’m talking about. Very few patients go to the extent that I have to learn about this plant. I was going to suggest a tour of your grow facilities, but to be honest, I really don’t care how my bud is grown. I’m only curious about the growing part of it because I want to know how to make better choices. After all, every choice I make is an expensive one.
I didn’t move all the way from Texas to join a program that I cannot afford and that lacks quality. But your business has done nothing but grow, Mr. Ford, and it appears you have plenty of customers, so surely my opinion can’t be very important to you. I guess the opinions of potential customers are what’s important, and they now have more information than I did to make their own decisions.
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