420 Magazine Speaks Out About Marijuana - CNN iReport Exclusive

[Ms. RedEye]

The 420 Magazine message of Cannabis Awareness has spread to the mainstream media outlet, CNN. Journalist Chris Morrow's popular CNN iReport "420 Magazine Speaks Out About Marijuana" shows Ron Cabrera, 420 Magazine Spokesman, visiting a medical Marijuana facility to purchase his medicine.

Ron suffered broken vertebrae after a fall in Army Infantry Training. Like many of us, he has found medical Marijuana eases his pain and suffering. Ron steps in front of the camera to demystify the experience of visiting a Cannabis dispensary in California.

We urge you to watch the video clip on CNN's iReport. This story of Cannabis Awareness can be found on CNN's main page under the iReport.com title "Touring a Medical Marijuana Facility."

Please help us create more awareness by posting a comment on the iReports article!

THANK YOU.

 

[Keith Lake]

What a great job representing the site!

I loved the part where he's standing in front of the dispensary with the cop parked there, making the point that the officer won't bother him because it's ok by state law.

It's normal to go the store to get the medicine you need

Progress is beautiful

 

[medMUser]

I liked the part where he said "no back ally, no gang members". Also the cop across the street means gang bangers are not going to be there either.

Every 'illegal' grower takes a small bite out of gang & cartel profits.
To me that is wonderful!! If every one could get their MMJ from a legal store the violent, deadly cartels & gangs would lose a lot of $.
Works for me!!

 

[Keith Lake]

^^ Exactly, this will be the end of more than half of the Mexican Drug War problem.

Not to mention all the freedom and financial benefits to the US citizenry

Go Team

 

[randi2u]

I have a herniated disk, and my spinal cord was pinched in 1986. I found it necessary to buy from "The Gangs", and unshady characters.

Since my neurosurgeon and GP have both died I followed my nerosurgeons advice (before he knew he was going to die). He said "Your going to California's High Desert, you won't find any good medical treatment out there, so go to the methodone clinic and tell them you are addicted to opiates (Vicodin)" I was and I did, but marijuana helps so much more, instead I'm forced to be addicted to methadone, because that's the way it works. It's all about money!!

 

[Nigtmove]

Marijuana poll @ cnn.com

 

[flank]

You know, this was a great video. Only 3 days up, and it already has something like 30 000 views. Shows how normal people, who are in need, can get the proper treatment that they deserve, and its not just a bunch of druggy teens, or violent gangs, but everyday people.

so go to the methodone clinic and tell them you are addicted to opiates (Vicodin)" I was and I did, but marijuana helps so much more, instead I'm forced to be addicted to methadone, because that's the way it works. It's all about money!!

It's sad to know that if Cannabis was legal, you could of been traded off on Medical Marijuana instead of methadone. Marijuana might not work as well as trading off for another chemical addiction (Vicodin > Methadone), but im sure it would of helped, and is easier on the body and mind. Hope things work out for you in the future.

 

[TorturedSoul]

It's sad to know that if Cannabis was legal, you could of been traded off on Medical Marijuana instead of methadone. Marijuana might not work as well as trading off for another chemical addiction (Vicodin > Methadone), but im sure it would of helped, and is easier on the body and mind. Hope things work out for you in the future.

And FAR less addicting.

Hey, did I hear the guy in that video say he paid $160 for an EIGHTH? If so, did he mean an eighth-pound? Or is someone getting rich?

 

[flank]

And FAR less addicting.

Hey, did I hear the guy in that video say he paid $160 for an EIGHTH? If so, did he mean an eighth-pound? Or is someone getting rich?

Yeah, I heard that to. I just decided to leave it alone since the high price is due to high regulations. Hopefully when it becomes legal for all, the price will go down.

On price note, i had a dream last night where i bought fuzzy weed peaches (fuzzy peaches which would make you high) and a bag was only 7 something. Oh dreams, what wonderful places.

 

[TorturedSoul]

Yeah, I heard that to. I just decided to leave it alone since the high price is due to high regulations. Hopefully when it becomes legal for all, the price will go down.

I have trouble buying into that since its over 3x as much as the illegally-sold stuff.

SOMEONE is getting rich off of people's ills.

 

[420]

when your dealer living in an apartment, graduates to paying a full time staff of 20 people, renting an $8,000 a month leased office space, spending $20,000 in advertising each week, over $100,000 worth of security equipment, paying an armed guard, paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes to the state and all of the other expenses i am forgetting, then your dealer would have to charge higher prices too... for the record, the sativa og is $85 an eighth, not 160, that was some type of editing error, not sure what happened there, i will check and get back to you guys.

 

[420]

plus the fact that the feds can come in and take it ALL away at the drop of a hat, that risk is another factor in the pricing structure... this particular co-op was already hit once my the dea last year and lost over a million dollars worth of inventory... i doubt your dealer ever got hit that hard, if ever... they are still recouping lost expenses... think about it...

 

[420]

personally, i would pay 3 times that much to avoid going to jail...
you cannot put a price tag on your freedom, period.

 

[Keith Lake]

Jail, and/or bullets dealing with gang members when you wore the wrong color shirt by accident

 

[TorturedSoul]

when your dealer living in an apartment, graduates to paying a full time staff of 20 people, renting an $8,000 a month leased office space, spending $20,000 in advertising each week, over $100,000 worth of security equipment, paying an armed guard, paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes to the state and all of the other expenses i am forgetting, then your dealer would have to charge higher prices too... for the record, the sativa og is $85 an eighth, not 160, that was some type of editing error, not sure what happened there, i will check and get back to you guys.

I did not realize that their place was so large as to require 20 full-time employees. It looked quite small from the video, something that could be staffed by five or six (at 40 hours each).

As for $8k/month for their lease, I don't have a clue and will therefore believe you. On the one hand that seems pretty expensive, but on the other, with prices like that (even @ $85) I guess that a lot of their clients may have been forced to sell their vehicles and take the bus - and around here at least there are more buses traveling the high-dollar business districts than the cheaper areas. Plus, I heard from a relative that stuff costs more in CA which probably meant both retail space AND drugs (and quite possibly gas, food, electricity, etc.).

The taxes... I assume that you mean the standard taxes involved in operating a retail establishment since AfaIK (and please correct me if I'm wrong) the only tax specific to MMJ at this time would be standard sales tax? Still, taxes in general are not inconsequential.

The armed guard... I'll give you that one; I do not know the crime situation there, how quickly LEO would respond to a call from such a business (I would assume just as fast as they would if the convenience store across the street from it were to call them but IDK). I also do not know the laws concerning firearms in the state of CA. If it's not an "open-carry" state, or if the local/state govt. has passed laws against firearms in a MMJ business like many have against firearms in bars & liquor stores, etc. So it might well be that they really do need armed security. I have heard that some banks still feel the need and they are probably more secure than a MMJ retailer.

So, I will admit that you are in all liklihood correct about most of the things that you mentioned and that I just wasn't thinking about the details.

But $20,000 a week in advertising? That business needs to spend over a million dollars a year in order to "sell" their products to their potential customers? <INSERT "JAW-DROPPED" ICON HERE>

I would have thought that MMJ-related products would sell themselves. I really would.

I feel sorry for the low income people that can't afford it. I mean, as long as it is illegal in any way/shape/form in the eyes of the feds, I guess that Medicare & Medicaid won't cover it. And I've heard that private insurers haven't exactly gotten on board yet. Maybe there are state programs for low-income patients there; IDK but I hope so.

Then again, I know that some drug companies will help their patients out if they simply cannot afford their drugs and don't qualify for any kind of program.

And I know a couple of local (non-chain) businesses of the "Mom & Pop" variety where the owners aren't in it to get rich, pay for a house with a swimming pool, buy a new car or two every five or six years, or anything like that... And while some of their prices are rather high for poor people to afford, I know of many occasions where these business owners have made up "Special Tuesday (or whatever day it was) Senior Discounts" over and above their usual 15-20% off they give for people aged 60 or older, announced "Special Unadvertised Sales," and everything else that they had to do to make sure the people could get what they needed.

So I don't know but maybe those prices are only that high for rich people who walk in wearing suits and being trailed by camera crews and if someone comes limping in with patches/holes in their clothes and the proprietors can tell that they are wearing the same clothes that they had on the past couple of days because they can't afford to do laundry every day (or buy extra outfits) they might sell their products at FAR lower prices.

I don't know, but I sure hope so.

Having always been what is known as "working poor" - someone who works as many hours as they can and hopes that after paying for shelter and utilities that they have enough left to buy food... I would still not have a problem with paying more at a dispensary than I would have to pay a regular dealer if it meant that others who were more unfortunate than myself would get their meds at drastically-reduced prices or even free.

That's one reason I give my commerce to those Mom & Pop outfits I mentioned even though I know that it means that I'll end up being able to purchase less than I could at a discount store or WalMart. I know that those big greedy places aren't pretending to have a sale or "forgetting" to charge for half the items so that Mr. Jones on the corner can eat at least once every day.

Come to think of it, I once got "volunteered" into watching a very small grocery store so that the owner could drive some elderly lady home because it seemed all she could do to make it around the store and he had noticed that she was on foot. When I asked what I should do if a customer came in he said to just write down the prices of their items and then add them up on the calculator & make change for them out of the register and that he would eat any tax so I didn't have to try to operate the register (which wouldn't have been a problem for me but the owner was like 70 and to him it probably WAS a challenge lol). And knowing that tax has to be paid, that also would have come out of his profits.

So if these MMJ dispensaries operate like that - businesses that actually care about their customers and take care of the ones who can't afford things - then I don't have a problem with their "normal" prices, no matter what they are. After all, the money for stuff like that has to come from somewhere.

Back on topic (WHOOPS!), I did watch the videos and think that things like that will have to be helpful in the fight, especially if they were presented in a good context. I would have liked to have seen more about current/recent research about the benefits of MMJ and so forth but I do understand that these were not full-length documentaries and that there is only so much time (and also that the newsies would have tended to want to present things that their viewers would be most interested in and less to want to present facts/figures on experiments and research since they aren't non-profit organizations and their ratings set their ad rates).

Hopefully the next person that is in a video like that can mention all of the problems associated with a whole list of "pills" that they were prescribed in the past and how MMJ has freed them from having to deal with the pills and their problems. I know a lot of people who take many such pills and who's quality of life suffers greatly because of same - and such statements on a national network news show would have an impact on their thinking, IMHO, and have a very good chance of breaking through their "It's illegal so it MUST be bad" mentality (they're old and mostly trust that such a statement is true because they weren't raised to not automatically assume that the authority/govt. is correct). Yup, they're old - but they still vote. Having seen statistics, the elderly ought to be targeted for education more than the young (again, MY opinion).

Hoping to see more "neutral" or even cautiously positive news & fact-based reports on all aspects of MMJ, MJ, and hemp in the future!

 

[420]

they have Cannabis for $40 an eighth as well bro, the sativa og is the highest price strain they carry... if you can't afford a mercedes, are you going to spend all day trying to figure out why they charge so much and trying to assume things you are not aware of or are you simply going to choose a less expensive vehicle? you get what you pay for, long story short... and this is a business with extreme risk and overhead... the numbers i posted are hypothetical figures, i am not at liberty, nor do i even know, what the real numbers are for this particular co-op... if you have never owned and operated your own business, then you will have a difficult time relating to all of this, but trust me, it's all true, needed and in order... in my opinion... when the laws change at the federal level, the supply will increase, which will bring the risk and prices down... you'll see...

 

[420]

the reporter was here for 8 hours, she edited down to only 6 minutes for CNN...
we are currently working on a full length documentary to cover all of these things and more...
you will get an email when the time comes to start promoting it...

 

[TorturedSoul]

they have Cannabis for $40 an eighth as well bro, the sativa og is the highest price strain they carry... if you can't afford a mercedes, are you going to spend all day trying to figure out why they charge so much and trying to assume things you are not aware of or are you simply going to choose a less expensive vehicle? you get what you pay for, long story short... and this is a business with extreme risk and overhead... the numbers i posted are hypothetical figures, i am not at liberty, nor do i even know, what the real numbers are for this particular co-op... if you have never owned and operated your own business, then you will have a difficult time relating to all of this, but trust me, it's all true, needed and in order... in my opinion... when the laws change at the federal level, the supply will increase, which will bring the risk and prices down... you'll see...

Granted I didn't expect that the figures quoted were copied directly from the books lol.

I did at one time operate a business, but it was not a retail establishment, the office space was a home office, it only had a peak of six full-time employees, the service offered was not illegal under any government's laws, it was in a region where things were considerably cheaper... And still, it was quite expensive to operate lol.

I really haven't decided whether I think that complete legalization will bring the prices down a great deal (in the long-term). Sadly, both the fed and many state governments are in very dire straits financially; things were shaky even before the numerous bailouts, "stimulus" payments, and other foolishness. More people will undoubtedly grow, come out of the closet (pun intended), and ramp up production if/when that happens, which will initially bring down prices. But I predict that if regulated in any way - say, even as beer/wine is (you can grow err... BREW a certain amount a year for personal use but after that it's supposed to be regulated) - that the product will be heavily taxed. Sure, it will start out being for research, specifically-related or general health programs, and addiction-related treatments/programs. I am all for all of those. But soon (enough) it will dawn on the politicos that they can raise the tax and apply the proceeds to all sorts of things. After all, I heard that the Social Security insurance premiums were at one time envisioned as being strictly for actual social security.

I also find myself wondering late at night when I'm the only one awake if MJ would have stood a better chance of being completely legalized (with only age-restrictions) had there not been the ongoing fight for recognizing it for its medicinal and "industrial" uses.

After all, there are some opponents in each of those categories with a lot of wealth that would rather you purchase their medicines/plastics/fuels/etc. Not to mention the perception that "the average stoner won't risk his neck by becoming a political activist and deciding to rock the boat" that many (not all) politicos seem to have.

This is not to in any way that I do not agree with legalizing it for medicinal and "industrial" purposes! And I do not have those thoughts most of the time.

the reporter was here for 8 hours, she edited down to only 6 minutes for CNN...
we are currently working on a full length documentary to cover all of these things and more...
you will get an email when the time comes to start promoting it...

I hope - and assume - that you (personally and your magazine) will attempt to distribute any such documentary to politicians, people in any way related to the news media, and persons of wealth (or at least the ones that there is any hope at all that they will be open-minded enough to be willing to be educated).

I think all of us would be willing to pay a reasonable price for such a documentary and don't think that we'd have a problem with you adding, say, a dollar (whatever) to the price to cover producing and distributing to such people. On second thought, make it TWO dollars and try to get some to educators, members of the clergy, and any other group of people who's opinions are generally regarded as being worth considering by a significant amount of the populace.

(Some of us might have to save up for it lol.)

Also, I hope that you have the opportunity to interview a few people who grow for the medical benefit of others in states where there is NO provision for MMJ and thus no hope for them if they get caught. If you can find any such people who would drop their paranoia level long enough to crawl out from under the rock long enough to discuss it.

Oh... I just realized that I have gone completely off at a tangent again. After reading this feel free to delete all of my posts from this thread so as to maintain its integrity (and feel free to do so in the future as you see fit - I wouldn't get offended as I realize that from time to time I can "lose myself" in my passions).

My apologies - and appreciation for all that you and the rest of the staff do, both "around here" and in general.

 

[mamun]

it is a nice magazine.Like many of us, he has found medical Marijuana eases his pain and suffering

 

[randi2u]

The truth of the matter is, once the Federal government becomes involved in the legal sale of marijuana, and taxes it the price will come down, the violence will come down, and it will definitly help our economy.