The Real Cost of Cannabis

Welcome to Cannabis School. I'm your host, Jesse Angeles. And I'm Brandon Elder. And we're here to talk to you about everything pertaining to cannabis from vape flour, edibles, strains, and everything in between. Hey, welcome back. Hey kids. Got an exciting episode today. Well, we're going to be able to talk a little bit more about the real cost of cannabis and what it takes not only to buy it, because we're all concerned about price. We want to make sure that we're

getting the high quality. Some of us, some of us are like, dude, give me whatever. That I just want the most flour that I can get for as much. I get a pound for $600.00. Wow, OK, yeah, I got some dried shit here for you. But one thing that we've been thinking about, and I know we know a lot of you are there. We've got two different places that you're going to be able to get that the typically is a consumer that one of your dispensaries or pharmacies if

you're in a medical state. The other one is next to your outlet. Yeah, it's the plug. Yeah, your plug and nowadays it's a little bit more difficult for people to start justifying to either spend with a dispensary and then run the risk of finding a quality plug 'cause they're not all they're, I mean dispensary to me, I'm like a little bit more price here, but I'm hoping that it's quality. Growth that it's a better quality product, yes.

And sometimes you will find that it can be it can be a better quality product depending on your dispensary, on the grower, on the product you're getting. Unfortunately, sometimes you might find that your plug has a better product, better quality, better pricing, better experience, which is quite unfortunate. But even then we've talked about like pricing, you know, even getting it for an eighth and we've seen such various pricing differences all around the

nation or around the world. Like right now we talked about it because one of our favorite places or products that we pick up often is Dragonfly products and they've got deals that they were doing that were some of their flower was $2535 for the 8th, which for Utah, that's a really good deal actually. And it we know that, I mean, and, and the biggest reason, I mean, we even said that when we had marathon not too long ago. We're not, we're not fanboys of Dragonfly.

What we are is fanboys of quality grown very transparent processes that they, I mean, they brought us in, they showed us everything and we've tried others not to say that they're bad, but the quality isn't the same. But at the same time, though, it's like, you know, when you hear from from products such as Dragon, like companies like Dragonfly and they have this premium product like, and that's why it costs the way, that's why it costs so much.

And we would hear that just like that's hard to compete with something that's cheaper. I mean, you look across the US, dude, like here's this thing I'm just going to give a couple of says. So it's utilizing this data from Cannabis Business Times and this goes from 2020 to 2025, but I'm going to start with 2025 first. So in California right now,

average price per oz is $74. I could see that because they do have a lot of really low priced places in certain over saturated areas and then dispersed out further there is a little bit higher pricing so. But in 20/20 it was 150. So that's a big drop. Yeah, 50% drop. So that's like, OK, so price is going down. Michigan, it's $83.70. It used to be 419. Which is an insane amount because I and that's their average, right? Their average was 419. 80%

reduction even. Here where I felt like it's been incredibly high-priced, we've I actually saw you can get oz. Maybe it's not top shelf, but you can get an ounce of flour over at some of the dispensaries for like 180, which again, isn't top shelf, but $180 in a legal state where you can get it. That's not the worst pricing I've seen either. No, it's pretty decent. And that's the thing too.

I mean, like you look at states like Connecticut, New Jersey, it's 300 plus per oz, but it's a newer market and newer markets are, you know, even though you have mature cannabis markets, mature cannabis markets being Oregon, Colorado, Washington, California, Arizona. Yeah, Arizona, New New Mexico. New Mexico. I mean, we've got a lot more East Coast that have a bunch in. There as well. Yeah, that really come up. I mean, Oklahoma is a big standout. Yeah, they have those.

Mature out there. Four or five years now. Yeah, I mean, Florida has been out there for a while too, but it's been a medical state. It's one of the highest producing medical states. Interesting. But they have a ton per capita. They have a ton of dispensaries, Tons of dispensaries. Yeah, well, they're they're in the top earners in there and they're in the billions. Of dollars they have a lot of hemp based products as well.

I've got a friend out there and because he doesn't have his medical card, he plays in the hemp side and I was like, bro, you just have to get your card because the product quality differences, like why would you even touch that? And so I mean it, it also varies like from West Coast to East Coast and that can, but it's like like one of the things like West Coast, like big harvest Shields, mass supply, low prices like in California, but the, you know, it's robust variety.

They have frequent flash sales and we'll talk about looking for sales around the pricing as well. But on the con side, you. Know all of them, like California and stuff, yeah. It's oversupply, regulatory patchwork and gravy market presence, unlicensed and seemed legit by sellers. And that's where that Gray market comes in where that Gray market, it's these companies. Like we were just talking about it before we got on here in Oregon. You guys have so much weed, so

much cannabis that. Well, they oversupplied back in 2020-2021. It was millions of pounds over, but it was like they will never go through that product base and yet they're growing again and again and again just like everyone else. So then what happens to all this product? I would be curious, I mean, if, if there was out there, maybe we'll create a statistical data gathering for this one. But I'd like to be able to understand from those that are plugs out there who listen to

our show. Did you see a during the pandemic, did you see a lot more flour coming into the market for way cheaper? Were you able to buy it cheaper per pound as opposed to where it was because they had pricing for products? Well, you think about Oregon, I mean that would be that right? There is a triggering for me in my head going massive black market, Gray market potential, a

lot of raw flour being produced. I mean for those in the trade, I mean how do you get a plug in, you know, call it in Idaho, right? Yeah. How do you get a? But there are those guys out there in Idaho. It was a massive market. But did that affect the market? Did the black market surge? Because what we see in the cannabis market as the the commercial side, yeah, your dispos, billions X billions of dollars, that black market must be in the stratosphere.

Yeah, oh, 100% because you know that it's even here in Utah when we talked with them, they were like, Oh yeah, it's, we understand that out of our medical patients about what was it, less than half of the product they buy comes from the state. So they assume that even the medical patients are buying over 50% of their products outside of the state. And yeah, why not like what the

fuck? But I but the other part too, I mean to kind of understand that, I mean other than prices over there, we went through, we'll go into that one, the cost of being able to actually do this row. Play in that arena. Yeah, like the cost of running a small commercial grow. Here's some, here's some statistical data, right. And indoor commercial grow. So it's about 500 square feet. The setup is about 75 to $100 per foot so. Length per year per. Oh yeah, I'll get to that one.

So dedicated grow rooms, lighting HVAC, security compliance and then annual operating costs, lighting, HVAC expected. You're expected to pay about 40 to 50 KA year for utilities plus labor, nutrients, packaging. On a 700 square foot. On a 500 square foot. 500 square foot. And it costs like in the setup, meaning like you're setting up everything, all your lights and

stuff like that. Installation Bill. Right. Your products, your lighting, all that's they estimated to be around $75 to $100 per square foot in there. That's what it's worth. It's like when you go into like a McDonald's, like you really want to get into that. Look up how much it cost per square foot to set that up. It's a lot of money because they're based. It's like the the parking stalls at Walmart. Each one of those are equated to

around $50,000 a piece per year. Yeah, because it's how many people can park there, which is business in there, so. So for those who do really well at painting parking lots, that's a great way for you to add value to it. Well, how much does it cost per when you're done if you don't have clearly defined lines and you don't really know how much money you're making? Yeah, but but thinking about that, I mean, dude, 40 to 50K, that's just your operational

cost. Yeah. Well, when we years ago, when I made that very educational, how much disappeared so fast in what was already supposed to be an up and running operation and to realize all of it had disappeared and none of it had even gone to the grower was kind of quite the shock. Dude that that wasn't that.

When I started getting really deep into asking him more about the finances and when he was playing with me, the thing that really triggered it for me was calling my friend who had a full operation in Colorado Farm Distillery. Oh yeah, a shop right to three of them, three shops. And I said, hey, man, like these guys raised X amount of dollars. Is that good for a small 1? He laughed. He was like, Oh yeah, I raised 7 million and it was barely. Enough. But he was also in Colorado,

too, right? But but at the time I was like, what would that 7,000,000 go into? And then he explained like, all this stuff that I just went through and that didn't have the feeling that that's what was going on. No. He he definitely tried to let it on that it was that way, but you know, in actuality it wasn't. And so when you look at those costs, right, like the build cost 25. Oh no, that's just the commercial. Indoor commercial go greenhouse $25 to $50 per square foot.

Non commercial home small room scale scaled down a basement 100 feet might cost about 5 to 15 five to 15 K initially 5000 to 15 K. Oh, if you were to build it into a nice grow room. Yeah, in your own house that that Now the cost of extraction, dude, that's the part. Equipments range from 10K to 100K. Oh yeah, 'cause it's all like chemistry and science and. Now you're a big farm. Yeah, now you're extracting a

lot. You have to produce not only carts, which are big sellers, edibles, which I would think is the second best seller. And then you have your flower or concentrates. I would say probably flower, then concentrates just based on pricing that you see where you're at and availability. And that's the other thing too. It's just like, you know, your, your, your grows, regardless if they're an MSO or they're a small grow, that's a fuck ton of money. A pardon my French, It's a, it's

a, it is a lot of money. It's a lot of money. It's a lot of money for me to put into that one. And then people think of those who are in the cannabis, they're like, oh, well, they're making tons of money. Yeah. Like the really? You think and you're like, oh man, look at how much money they're making. But then doesn't that, I mean, but I want to be devil's advocate here, man. I want to ask you like now that we know that, can I really get upset with the dispensary charging me that?

Well, in, so it's the, the chicken before the egg dilemma that we have here in which they always talk about, you know, hey, we know that we've only got X amount of people who have come here and we understand our, our prices are, are this high. Well, we can't justify lowering our prices because we're only selling this much. OK, But if you lower your prices, you already said that 50% of your consumers medical

products come from out of state. So you're already throwing away 50% of your potential income from existing customers because you're pricing you're not willing to lower because, well, we might not make as much. Well, you might also sell out like that and realize, holy shit, well, now we have all the money to do this next thing. Or hey, maybe we're not gouging this because it isn't actually necessary if we do this.

And hey, we can do these things. And kind of like we learned, oh, they're charging 100 and like when Nerath is on here, oh, 100 and $5200 for their card. If you're in Utah and you're paying 150 or $200 for your card, stop. That is a waste of time, a waste of money. And there are a million other doctors here who charge half that cost or less. Yeah, or less. You know one that does for 50 bucks.

Yeah, so it's like it doesn't make any sense to ever spend that much on a medical card when we learned that the QMP's are the ones who dictate that price. They could charge as low as 25 bucks if they wanted and get everyone in their dog a medical card because, well, Utah's one is chronic pain, and everyone in their dog has been hurting for more than two weeks. So oh, shit. Well, my dog's got a medical card because his legs been hurting.

Oh, well, Utah's cool with that because it's chronic pain. Don't worry. Like everyone in there, everyone has aches and pains. I don't think there's a human in existence who couldn't go. Hey, yeah. I've been hurting for more than two weeks. Well, what happened? Oh, well, I'm old. Yeah, that makes sense. Fuck. Here's your card. Like, you can get that. And so it's this thing of, you know, well, the chicken before

the egg. Well, do they need to lower prices or is it that they don't have the market they want because their prices are too high? A lot of times too, I think it's they're not listening to the market. Either they're creating and bringing new products out that nobody's asked for, or they haven't made their current products better. Appealing enough to be. That's the dilemma that we

talked about. A lot of the reason why you have such varying costs in different states isn't necessarily because state regulators or plugs are just super connected. Well, that's true. That's 100% true. Like some of the best flower we've had has been from plugs and we're getting it from. Oregon. Yeah, Washington. Man. Good stuff, West Coast. Yeah, West Coast, West Coast.

I mean, I know, I know, Hey, from East Coast, but you guys know, you smoke weed out the West, you know, know, you know, come on, man, Nobody from the West Coast comes out and smokes dragon flag gold. This is amazing. They go. That's all right. Yeah, it's some good stuff, like it's not bad for being. No, it's great. For being a new market where we're five years in, you know. But that's the thing we talked about, like the reason why you're seeing an inconsistency

in prices. There's no brands. And I know there's a lot of hate towards Msos, especially from private grows or smaller grows, but the one thing that you have to appreciate from a larger brand is that they have a brand. Yeah, you can trust them. They have that brand, that name. It's even like Budweiser. OK, I know what I'm getting in for. This is my cheap redneck beer that you know it. It's but dude, it's.

Also a social status over there. If I'm the backyard barbecue and I've got a Budweiser and I come back there, who am I going to make a friend with? The guy's got a Budweiser because I got a Budweiser in my hand. Like it's silly. It's a cultural thing, but the cannabis world that that I don't see the like. There's things in the cannabis world such as Doctor Dabber that's known Puffco, Puffco. Big time. Gosh, I mean, we know Stash, but I always knew. Now I can't even think of him because.

Shredder. I've always known. I've known. Shredder Stone. Sharpstone. Sharpstone, That's what it was. That's been F. Stone was around for ages. Ever. Raw rolling papers like there's a There's a handful of names in the industry that have just been around forever. And that's the thing too. It's just that there's no consistency. If there's no consistency, then you put into all those operational costs just to get this thing set up.

And I didn't even go into the cost of extraction, which I won't because it's insane on the pricing, dude. It, it adds up. And on top of it, dude. The one thing that I didn't expect to find, well I was, I was wondering and I was curious about it was dispensary waste

and its impact on prices. Oh, it's a ton because you have to think about how many even here in Utah where it was like, oh, we're not allowed to do certain things where we can't sell product at like really discounted rate or we can't do

why not? If it's going to expire like it's a week years ago there was some company in California, I think it was like, Oh yeah, we donate a certain amount of our waste to veterans or that because it's it's going to expire and we can just give it to them for a penny or like something that was like, hey, legally we can't give it to them for free, but they just paid a penny or something and they got this. OK, cool.

How, how many, how many companies can do that and donate and get rid of their products to help people in need like veterans or PTSD people or single, single parents or like a million other people who could truly use that and go, hey, maybe I'm not in the in the right. Maybe I don't have the financial stability right to be able to afford this medicine, let alone in certain states where, hey, again, we talked about concentrates with nerf. OK, Well, some of those are $6080 for the gram.

Yeah, you're getting a booger pretty much. You're getting a good solid booger. For 60 to $80.00 and if you're new to cannabis, that might last you enough that you can feel like it's justifiable If you're not new to cannabis and you have any kind of tolerance, it's. Going to get expensive. That's really expensive to go. I can justify $80 a gram. Well, what if I'm using 7G a month this $560 and in concentrate for that little bit a month? Same with edibles.

It might as well. I think that's hard in medical states to I think it's even more difficult because the regulatory process they're only based off of 1, their own bias and then two, whatever the market says and the market is the people. But if the people just go like, I mean, you want to know why the prices are are higher in Utah? We're we're a little above average when it comes to prices. Sometimes we're on the average, but we're a little above average.

Like we're not crazy, crazy price like New Jersey and Connecticut, like insane prices out there. But you also look. At we come down a little. Yeah, but it's, it's like, I like Massachusetts, where my mom's at. She's like, oh, we got great deals all the time. She's like. But there's a dispensary like there are in Utah with churches. Yeah. It's one on every corner, maybe 2. Yeah. And they're just like, wow, this is crazy, right?

But that when you've got that amount of want and need, it now takes over the market where now prices can drop down their stores. And then there's an opportunity for chains to happen. Like I would like to have the McDonald's of. Of cannabis, where I go there, it's the same brand, it's the same feel, we have the same type of seeds. You, you do get that. We don't get that here because of our limit of dispensaries where we're under 15 in the entire state.

But in almost every other state we do have that. Like you go to Colorado, there's a bunch of them that there are consistently. You go to every city, hey, here's this dispensary. You get same consistency, same with Arizona, same with New Mexico, California, Michigan, everywhere. I like Oregon. I'm sure Oregon it a little more dispersed, but I'm sure there's still some consistency across brands. But we don't have that here because we have under 15 dispensaries and a few of those are Msos.

So they're the ones who. They dictate the market. Yeah. And they're coming into it and just having all this product and we've got smaller scale ones coming in going, hey, we're still figuring out growing. And that's where I wonder about, you know, radiated weed. Was it the worst product? Maybe not, but maybe the starting product wasn't the best. So they. No, but I mean, I think about where they're growing on that scale like you're, you're

growing significantly more. These Ms. OS are being able to beat the hell out of their competitors because their operational costs have already been factored in. So they don't make it. I mean, you got to look at cannabis and supply chain is almost the exact same type of margins, extremely narrow margins. It's not poor house by any means. They're very wealthy people within cannabis. 100%.

But there's a lot of other people that are running their businesses like they're going to B and I meetings, they're a florist or a guy who does at home mechanic work. No shame in it, but your prices are dictated by your needs and when you start to expand. Your needs expand and then and you, but you also understand from a larger point of hey, we've got X operational cost that has to be covered.

We have to meet this versus smaller scale that are like, hey, I'm burning 80 hour weeks and I I'm not making anything. Well, why are you working 80 hour weeks? Have you not figured out a smarter way to do business yet? Have you not figured out a smarter way to structure and run your your business and your grow and that because again, how many people are going to grow like a business versus running it like I'm growing tomatoes in the backyard? Yeah, and that's really difficult.

I mean, you've got to be really smart on. Taxability like, because most like you're taxed first versus most businesses where your tax last. And so they're going, hey, we're taxed on everything we're making versus hey, you're taxed on the income your business made for that year after you've paid out every other thing under the sun that you can think of or spend money on and go, oh, hey, look, we, we made this match this year.

You know, I think about that like, and this is hypothetical like for instance for like Dragonfly like you had brought up like if if their prices went down to be in this is our base price now. Yeah, which is comparable and compatible with everybody else. Doesn't matter on THC count based on quality. Yeah. And then you did deals to be able to make sure that you're getting older product, right. You've got about it's already sat on the shelf for two quarters. Let's get rid of it. Right.

You do flash sales, Yeah, right. And you push that out where you let your people, that's where I feel like a lot of them fail. And I've only been thinking about this because of like where we're thinking on our direction for social media and content and how like our, our shows are different now. Like the one you're hearing now is totally different than what you heard like probably last week.

And so you're, you're getting this change within the system right now that's really trying to be emphasizing on quality. And if you start to be able to do something like that where you can actually bend to the will of the consumer, you'll solve your own problem. I mean, you just. Have to create an educated consumer is that is the only issue because. But we've been down to the other farm. Can they compete with an MSO? No, not even close. No, not on scalability.

And that's why they can control the quality because when there's more hands, it's harder to be able to see who's doing what. And in there, I mean, it's a good sized facility, but it's not massive by any means, no. And so they can they're, they're closer to it, they can touch it. But when you've got all these tremors, all these. Well, there's always a layer of disconnect. Right.

It's always going to happen. So that's why we see lower quality, but or even decent quality for way lower prices because they can beat out that other guy. It's capitalism. It's a sucky part of it because we suffer as the customer because then we get shit product, but most of us don't even understand what that means. But that's because we're going for that bottom shelf, bottom cheapest price. Hey, what can I get is my biggest bang for my buck. But this isn't potato chips.

It doesn't matter. Like you're not getting the same thing from Lay's to Doritos to that. It's Hey, you might pay this much to get this product here and it's like bottom shelf. And then you're going over here and well, this is like a sipping whiskey that's been aged for 25 years and it's got these amazing notes and you don't need anything else like it. It's it's the care and that goes into it kind of like craft brewing.

You get craft stuff that's done or, or even coffee beans that are roasted by a a craft roaster versus any major name brand where they taste burnt and and over roasted or sour notes. And you're just like, this is a very unique roast profile. Like why, why is this being sold? But it's because that's what people buy because we're just so used to the convenience and the cheap and well, I don't need this top one because who needs that? Like why, why would I pay for that?

Well, because when you drive a Mercedes, you realize that the Prius just didn't match the feel, the handling, the comfort, the like heated, cooled seats, the. The steering. Wheel the Do you want that with your cannabis experience or do you want the the 1965 pickup that has busted old suspension? The AC doesn't work. It doesn't have a radio. I mean, it does have a radio, but the antenna is kind of disconnected. So it's super staticky and it's got paper cones and one of the

cones is slightly torn. So you hear this like weird noise all the time. You're like well, I could drive this for really cheap. It's only going to cost me like 100 bucks for that oz, but like for $170 for an ounce I could get the Mercedes G wagon that's like tricked out and for some reason it's massaging my feet. Well, I don't even know how this. Is how a deal? Yeah, exactly. It's all based on that.

And I think it's when you've been driving a shitty car for so long, you really don't know what comfort is. You just know that it gets good gas mileage. Yeah. Well, but that's why you buy the cheap. Shit, but then you think about it and you don't realize that sometimes with cannabis, that car that you're thinking has really good gas mileage, actually has a hamster under there.

And so you're getting 2 miles to the gallon because you're having to smoke the entire oz to get the same feeling that you would have gotten from 1/4 ounce, right? You know, And so you're burning through that gas versus just going oh, hey, I got to where I was going I I barely touched on the gas and holy shit, I'm at 100 miles an hour Look at that. Well, my car didn't even go 100 miles an hour and but then that's where dosing comes into play you. Know. Yeah.

And that really. Oh man, yeah, you're right. So then I, I'd rather pay for that Mercedes or that Lamborghini cannabis experience where I'm, hey, I, I don't even have to touch the gas. I I literally put it in neutral. I took a little puff and damn, look, we're going 65, we're cruising and this is dope. Like this is right where I wanted to be. I took nothing and I've got so much left because I didn't even touch it.

Yeah. And it's it really come, I mean, as you become more familiar with cannabis, as you start trying like like concentrates, concentrates aren't typically widely used, not as much especially. Newer consumers I feel like. But I think that's what's better. It's a better solution for them, especially on pain management, on longevity.

It's better than carts because carts it carts have that plateau and you don't get past it. So for a medical consumer, I feel like a concentrate with even like the Papco pivot it's 130 or the doctor Dabber excess that's 150 or the bomb Cycloud that's 220. Yeah, like any of these devices are are not terrible ones to get into if you do try and use concentrates, but like if you can use such small doses because you have such quality product. Well, it's, it's more precise.

I mean, even though we were talking about like a gram, because you know, we'll do some decent sized dabs. We're not crazy. But a gram to us, I'm like, well, that's like maybe 5-6 sessions. Yeah, you know, it doesn't. Well, it doesn't make sense. But for somebody who only needs it like at night time, yeah, that's worth it. The founder of Puffco had a video out and I was watching it a while back and he was using I think the pipe version of theirs that they have.

It looks super. Cool. But he was talking about the amount of concentrate that you need maybe for like each dose. He was like in here I'm putting like point O3. It's just like a pinhead, no? More pinhead, super tiny and he's like, this is good you don't need more than this. This is a perfect dose and I'm like, but so for a new consumer or someone who's doing that, how long would a gram last if you're even using that much?

Because maybe more, Yeah, you're like, OK, well, I'm 100th like a 30% of. And that's why I really like the hot knife, because the hot knife is so exact, like, yeah, you're going into it not hot, but you can pull it out and then you can drop it in because I think we lose a lot of it on on our tools. Yes and no. The other thing I do notice with the hot knife, it still keeps a certain amount of concentrate on it, just like with the other

one, it's just liquidy. So then I have to try and rub it on the side of my I don't want to do it on the side of the banger because then it defeats the purpose of dry dropping it nicely in the center. So I'm like, well, maybe that's the value is it doesn't get it on all the upper and sides of your device. And then you can still wipe that extra concentrate on the thing. But when I have a live rosin and then it's been heated up, well, it's not the same consistency

then. So then I'm rubbing on the top and it's hardening and it's, it's just, it's not the same consistency. So I look at that and I'm like, it still has some on there, but it makes it cleaner on your device. I think that your device itself doesn't get all the RIM sticky and that because you're just dropping directly into the center, which is nice for cleaning for, you know, everything else that might be

fantastic, right? But that was my thing because I got all excited thinking, oh, it's never going to have it on here. And I'm like I still have the same thing. Well, you know when you were talking about that, I was like the only device that I have used in the last several years that actually can get close to doing that is the Utilianate that little spoon thing. Cuz you you can put it on there and it drips down the it'll. Drip there when it sounds. Like a hot knife.

Yeah, but it's exact cuz it all comes off. Yeah, the heat just allows it. I mean, you'll get a tiny residue on there, but it's a tiny about. That's what I liked about it. I just didn't like the atomizer and but the system that has it's perfect and it's so insulated that it doesn't get warm. Every other one gets warm in my hand. OK, you can feel them.

But that one's the only one. But, you know, going, you know, I, I've loved this conversation because we've, we've talked about it. I just want to hit on a couple of different things and, and we'll put, you know, we could even put this whole thing in the show notes. Yeah, put. Like a link to it? Yeah, we'll, we'll go into that, have that in there too. Honestly look for deals, look for quality products that go on sales. There's awesome ones you can

look on Leafly and weed maps. I always got sales. Don't know if OK. I was like I never used to check there because they never had what I was looking for. When I would go, I always used to look at Canasaver was the website. I didn't have an app back then, maybe it does now. But when I would go to Colorado all the time, I would look at Canasaver and I would look at, OK, I want to find concentrates. Well, I'd look through that. I'd maybe carts and I'd look through there and they'd go,

what about flour? And if someone else is driving? Well, I've got plenty of time on that drive to go. Where are these goodies at? What do I really want? What is the strain I'm looking for? What is the type of concentrate or white like flour? And because of that, I can go, Oh well, it's from this dispensary and within, within these brands. So this is a better brand. This is a better quality.

I can look here and back when I was going to Colorado all the time, I was able to tell more of that, but I haven't gone no. So you know, I I couldn't really give you a distinct brand or label in Colorado that I'm like, oh, this has been my favorite one. Go check out. Because it wasn't like that. It was like just random, like goody bags. Oh, or like I loved Buddy Boy. I went to the green solution often, but there's also been a lot of a lot of changes. Across you.

Know but look for deals or even if you have a plug, if you've been buying an eighth and you're like man, I spend this much. Well ask him if he does a deal. Maybe instead of 1 cart, 3 carts as a deal or instead of an eighth, maybe at 1/4 ounce you get a discount. Like what is it that you can go hey, maybe I don't have to spend as much.

Maybe I can get the same products, same stuff, better quality something and find a bargain for me because there's always bargains out there, whether it's your plugs or whether it's from a dispensary, You can always find some way to extend your bang for your buck without having to go to the bottom shelf and go, hey, can I just get an entire ounce of this bottom shelf stuff versus maybe getting, you know, maybe you didn't get a full oz, but maybe you got God 21g instead of 28,

but it was really quality products, but you also spent $100 and that experience is going to be way longer lasting and better. And now instead of 1 ounce of all the same strain, Well, maybe you have three different strains for three different types of experiences, 3 different terpene profiles, 3 different cannabinoid profiles.

Like so, you can also diversify that, which also makes your experience last longer because you're not getting so used to the one strain for however long it takes you to go through that. Exactly. And with that, because you brought up plugs black market, here's some things that I really wanted, kind of wanted to list out some of the things that you should look for, especially if you meet a plug.

If you know somebody that you know, somebody that knows somebody, those are by far the best people that you should talk to, you know, talk to those around you. It means it's best to talk to. Don't be talking about it on social media. But definitely, you know, if, if you are at a place where you're just like, look, it's too expensive to go to the dispo or I'm in a state where I just it's

not that way. I'm not condoning you doing illegal activity, but if you do so, here's some things to look at. Overly crystally sprayed to boost shine, if you see that from anybody. It's often like distillate or like a type of cannabinoid or something really weird on to it to increase your high. But then they're just like, oh, this stuff smacks and you're like, but I don't. And you can tell, you look at it, you feel it, you're like extremely trimmed, densely

packed. So if you're getting that, it's usually pretty old super dry. Or maybe just not the best grow. Yeah, so be aware of that. No smell or harsh chemical. Older I haven't had that, but no smell. I've had that and that's a big red flag for me. Could be really old, it could be that it's just been sitting there for so long that in it's in a plastic bag or something and it's lost all the smell. You know, yeah, I've done that. Accidentally left left stuff in plastic bags.

Also, there's a lot of like maybe not a lot, but there's enough of products that are hemp based that are oh, hey, here's this and it slaps, but then it's hemp derived product sprayed with a disti of starts and you're like, what is this blah blah. Yeah, no, it's garbage. Also vacuum seal that crushes trichomes so I've never seen that where it's just like. Yeah, because you don't think about it. But if you tighten it up really tight, it'll smash the buds, it smashes the trichomes.

It can like damage the flour. Yeah, and it gets all stuck onto the plastic, so you don't get to enjoy that. So it's got to be. That's why glass is by far the preferred way to be able to. I mean, even though you get in the bag, it's good to transfer to a glass. Yeah. And if it is, hopefully it's not like really tight compressed because that can be. Well, we've had that. We've had that from dispos.

You know, there was that big scare with vitamin E Fentanyl contamination in cannabis is rare. They don't really have AI mean you'll hear about a story about some kid who got a joint that was laced that because somebody else was being a complete. Ass. I wonder if, yeah, I wonder if it's more like how often that

really happens. And some of those are touted in like Fox News or something where you're seeing that maybe it wasn't actually a joint laced with fentanyl, Maybe it was something else at a party, but they also smoked a joint and that kid died, but they also somehow consumed fentanyl. I don't know. I'm curious what factuals like data goes into. Such a small amount that could kill you. Oh yeah.

So it it almost could be. It's almost like touching a doorknob and then licking your fingers out during the. Prizing because I met a guy who said his drug of choice is fentanyl. I know a lot of people who are addicted to fentanyl. Really. But I was just like, how does not that I have any desire or curiosity around it, but I'm like how does one even use that? Because like you said, it could be such a light dosing that

could kill someone they. Inject it or they inhale it or they'll just put it on their tongue because the amount is so small. So the amount of fentanyl that you can get to keep you high for longer is way better than than bars. It's way better than heroin because now you get a tight Xanax so you can when you have this tiny amount that would look like a gram. Of concentrate, yeah. That can last them quite a while if they're being able to space it out.

But the high is intense. But once you start getting more accustomed to it and the feel, it's really easy to overdose because you're like, well, just a little bit more wouldn't hurt me. Yeah, but it will. It'll kill you. Yeah, it'll fucking kill you. And so it's like the way that they, they distribute it in the medical, in the medical world is way different, way different, more controlled. It's still bad, but it's super

controlled. But when you're getting it in a raw form where there is no dosing, it's just, you know, whatever you can take. That's why when people inhale it, they're getting a lot of fentanyl all at once. It fits in a powder form and it gets up that much. I should imagine fuck him, he'd be dead. Dude, like a little bag little baggy full of it, so it it comes there. But the last thing I want to be able to talk about real fast is check these things.

Aroma Your trichomes, right? Aroma It's got to be strong trichomes. Frosty, visible color, rich hues, green purples touch slightly sticky, springy. Not bone dry or wet. I guess it depends because sometimes I have had bone dry flour from dispensaries in Colorado just because the climate and stuff but. I I think of the. Springy dispensary, yeah. If it's springy I'm OK with it because the springy is still dry, but the other side of it if I if I go.

I hate bone dry, like if it's that old it's so bad. I mean, that's what a lot of Colorado product was when I first got out. There was like, holy shit, this stuff's dry. You let it sit for like a month. Oh man, you like look at it and it's. Well dude that goes right into ash test so many times you won't look at your weed but if it burns white. Yeah, the ash turns white at the end. Then you know it's pretty good quality. If it's not, it's mints and high experience.

Clean balance effect, not anxiety driven or weedy. Yeah, these are some things to think about, especially where you're talking about the price of cannabis. So whether you're going to a dispensary, whether you're going to a plug, start looking at it not necessarily as the price, but more on the experience side. So the quality is definitely going to affect it. If you're not a quality person and you're just like, look, I just like getting high all the

time, peace be with you. I still feel like quality would be the better way to do that too though. I do. Too, And that's the unfortunate thing. This is the people who buy like the cheap shelf, bottom shelf in a gallon whiskey that's four or $5 always on sale, you know, Canadian host, but it's like you're drinking gasoline. But your, your idea is more. That's better. It is not always true. So ask questions of your bud tender while you're there.

Ask them a little bit more about the quality of it. What do you notice about? Is it springy? Is it spongy? Is it really dry? They'll know. They'll know Exactly. Oh, yeah. This is pretty dry. Yeah. Because they're always, they get a stipend. They're always grabbing free weed. Oh yeah, they're checking stuff. Out all the time and so it makes them better at what they're doing. But if you go there with this kind of like, give me the cheapest weed you got, you know,

expect what you're asking for. So just ask questions around it. Be a little bit more careful with your spending. And you've, if you are in a, if you are in a state, I would honestly look and see if they have a medical program because even if you're getting recreational cannabis, often times their tax on that Colorado's was in like 2424% tax on it if you weren't a medical patient. And so if you have that card, yeah, you might pay 40-50 bucks

or a doctor's visit, whatever. But you also get taxes taken off your. Taxes every time and your product selection sometimes is better quality because the dosing is more for what your needs are sometimes depending on what it is that you're actually. And there's a lot of people out there that do not take advantage of that. They think it's just, I got to pay for that. No, no, you get to pay for higher quality, higher dosing with cheaper costs. So it really is worth it.

But all right, kids. Catch you next week. Take care.