Any Canadians find a way into the legal market?

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The people who wrote Canada's Cannabis act did a good job of keeping the craft grower out. Even "Micro" grows (less than 600 KG / year) require an investment of more than $1,000,000.

After getting a license the Canadian grower still has no direct access to the market unless they're medical producers, all sales go through the province.

I grow close to 1000 grams a harvest and I only use 500 for myself, I'd like to be able to turn the rest into oil and market it to seniors who are having trouble with sleep and pain through the night. I give away a dozen 60 ml bottles each harvest, every person who use it have had remarkable improvements in their sleep.

We can each have only 1 designated medical patient per grower so there's no way around the laws that way.

Anyone find a loophole that I haven't come across yet?

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ps

How much does a 30 ml bottle of coconut oil retail for around your place?

thanks

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Hobbes said:

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The people who wrote Canada's Cannabis act did a good job of keeping the craft grower out. Even "Micro" grows (less than 600 KG / year) require an investment of more than $1,000,000.

After getting a license the Canadian grower still has no direct access to the market unless they're medical producers, all sales go through the province.

I grow close to 1000 grams a harvest and I only use 500 for myself, I'd like to be able to turn the rest into oil and market it to seniors who are having trouble with sleep and pain through the night. I give away a dozen 60 ml bottles each harvest, every person who use it have had remarkable improvements in their sleep.

We can each have only 1 designated medical patient per grower so there's no way around the laws that way.

Anyone find a loophole that I haven't come across yet?

.

ps

How much does a 30 ml bottle of coconut oil retail for around your place?

thanks

.

Click to expand...

Hey buddy,

I don't have an answer for you on making it on the legal market, as I grow as a hobby and personal use. I have had thoughts about donating to old folks or cancer patients, or anything of the like... If there's a way my hobby can help anyone in my community I'd like to meet that person (also Canadian).

I also have a surplus above what me and the woman can smoke. My lungs already need a break and we're probably only going to smoke 1/4 of this harvest before the next, which should be even larger.

How do I find somewhere local to donate to?

Have you ever considered getting together with other growers and distributing charity en masse?

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I want to stay mostly anonymous. Right now I'm supplying 3 family members with bud and 7 with coconut oil, I cleaned out a lot of inventory but I've still got a gallon and a half from last spring and several more gallons from other harvests.

The government did a good job of limiting the craft grower from the market, no holes to squeeze through.

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Yeah, no loop holes if you want to be 100% legal. The Cannabis Act is under review for the 1st time since its inception. This Oct is the review... who knows what changes they will make. I have a feeling plant numbers for home growers are going to be reduced. Hopefully they open up a path for legal sales for people who don't have a million dollars for start up. You in BC Hobbes?

Other side of the country Klude, Nova Scotia.

Hopefully they won't reduce our plant numbers.

2klude said:

Yeah, no loop holes if you want to be 100% legal. The Cannabis Act is under review for the 1st time since its inception. This Oct is the review... who knows what changes they will make. I have a feeling plant numbers for home growers are going to be reduced. Hopefully they open up a path for legal sales for people who don't have a million dollars for start up. You in BC Hobbes?

Click to expand...

They should increase plant counts , not reduce them.. 4 plants per a full household is a bit ridiculous, especially if you take in count the people who start from reg seeds, multiple adults in the same house, rosin, edibles ect, this 4 per entire household needs to be increased by a few more

I’ve been seriously looking into what it would take to get a micro grow operation going - put together the start of a business plan, and you’re about right at a $1,000,000 start up cost, and that would be with all liquid investment - nearly no major lender is interested in financing it, and this is the norm. To me there are two huge barriers to entry (aside from cost) and they are 1. You have to be fully built out to submit for HC application, so basically a majority of the upfront cost already spent. And 2. You are forced to sell to an LP who them brings your products to market. So this creates a racket where the LP continues to control the overall cannabis market and they are able to keep the micro players out of the spotlight. I’ve had direct discussions with Delta9 about working with them, I can tell you that it’s a dirty business. This is why major growers in BC (that should be transitioning to the legal market to reap all the benefits of it they rightly deserve) are not playing ball, and good for them. Craft producers need to be able to bring their product to market just like any other product.

Playk328 said:

They should increase plant counts , not reduce them.. 4 plants per a full household is a bit ridiculous, especially if you take in count the people who start from reg seeds, multiple adults in the same house, rosin, edibles ect, this 4 per entire household needs to be increased by a few more

Click to expand...

I'm referring to license home grows. It takes about a week to get a signed scrip with 463 plants... zero effort, zero medical history, just need to pay for it.

lakesidegrower said:

This is why major growers in BC (that should be transitioning to the legal market to reap all the benefits of it they rightly deserve) are not playing ball, and good for them. Craft producers need to be able to bring their product to market just like any other product.

Click to expand...

Their playing ball with the price wars and quality of product. Market is flooded with good quality Cannabis at a fraction of what the LP are selling for with better quality to boot. Black market is winning, LP's losing billions... this is why I'm concerned after the review this October of the Cannabis act, they are going to cut back hard on peoples plant counts and will dig deeper into medical records to justify your prescription. Federal Government is heavily invested in these Cannabis Stores popping up everywhere. They need to secure their profits and come down harder on the "free" market... that's starts with med patients with big licenses.

2klude said:

Their playing ball with the price wars and quality of product. Market is flooded with good quality Cannabis at a fraction of what the LP are selling for with better quality to boot. Black market is winning, LP's losing billions... this is why I'm concerned after the review this October of the Cannabis act, they are going to cut back hard on peoples plant counts and will dig deeper into medical records to justify your prescription. Federal Government is heavily invested in these Cannabis Stores popping up everywhere. They need to secure their profits and come down harder on the "free" market... that's starts with med patients with big licenses.

Click to expand...

I totally agree. It’s terrible for med patients, all to prop up a failing corporate/government cannabis system. I live in MB so not allowed any growing at home, just about to go through one of those online script sites to get my acmpr, only looking for the minimum limit of 25 plants just to get around all this bs.
The thought did cross my kind to try to go acmpr for a large quantity, and then sell to the medical market, but to be legit I believe you need your HC licence to sell, which is $23,000 just to get in the door and then they tax your sales. This stuff makes me mad lol

lakesidegrower said:

I totally agree. It’s terrible for med patients, all to prop up a failing corporate/government cannabis system. I live in MB so not allowed any growing at home, just about to go through one of those online script sites to get my acmpr, only looking for the minimum limit of 25 plants just to get around all this bs.
The thought did cross my kind to try to go acmpr for a large quantity, and then sell to the medical market, but to be legit I believe you need your HC licence to sell, which is $23,000 just to get in the door and then they tax your sales. This stuff makes me mad lol

Click to expand...

You can go for a micro license. You have to be in a commercial space, around 2000sf max... I think its 5k to apply. Your prioritized if your space is built out already so you're gonna spend a few 100k before approval. I know one guy whose'7 months into the process, he's very close to being approved but has shelled out so much money in gear and carry cost leasing the space.

2klude said:

You can go for a micro license. You have to be in a commercial space, around 2000sf max... I think its 5k to apply. Your prioritized if your space is built out already so you're gonna spend a few 100k before approval. I know one guy whose'7 months into the process, he's very close to being approved but has shelled out so much money in gear and carry cost leasing the space.

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That’s about right - I spent quite a bit of time reading the Act and costing things out. You’re allowed 200 sq metres max of canopy space. The security requirements are a bit less stringent than the LP licence, that’s the only plus. You still need to follow the HC growing practices (which actually aren’t terrible and mostly things anyone who knows what they’re doing will already implement). But you do need to be fully built out before you click submit on their application portal. You need to have photos of all their requirements and also a guided video tour of the facility that shows that you met all requirements.

So you spent all the dough to get ready to turn the lights on, but from the time you click submit you are waiting for approval before you can have any plants or seeds germinated.
LPs try to get microcultivators to sign a Strategic SalesAgreement where they agree to provide support and a direct Chanel for your product. But they set the price.They tell you what they will buy it for and you just deal with it. I was told my Delta9 that they will buy anything over 22% THC, the average purchase price is about $4 per gram, but they will buy lesser quality for $2 per gram and put it in prerolls. Top price is around $6 per gram. But why would they ever pay that when they have you over a barrel?? Really looking into this just made me sick and realize that the big LPs are just leveraging the law that Is supposed to encourage black market growers to transition to the legal market, to their advantage. By making the small guys sell to the big guys, it breaks that system. Imagine if every craft beer producer needed to sell to Anheiser Busch to be able to get their product to market?

If you want to support the industry, increase competition by allowing smaller micro producers to sell directly to the market and force the corporate giants to WORK HARDER at putting out better product with a smaller profit margin (just like every other thriving business sector)

I can't see them reducing the plant count number. The 4 limit is already kind of silly. I have also considered paying the nominal fee to get a script to raise that,
but that being said... Has anyone ever has their grow checked for plant #s? I can't imagine how that'd go down.

ElGrandeMongo said:

I can't see them reducing the plant count number. The 4 limit is already kind of silly. I have also considered paying the nominal fee to get a script to raise that,
but that being said... Has anyone ever has their grow checked for plant #s? I can't imagine how that'd go down.

Click to expand...

I wonder the same thing - if there’s some mechanism for HC to check on acmpr registered peeps for plant count and location. My guess it they would be more focused on higher plant count acmpr holders. My only concern would be that I’d like to do a mix of indoor and outdoor (autos outside, photos inside) but you need to choose either Indoor, Outdoor, or Indoor/Outdoor. But they state on the form that they plants then need to be either fully inside or fully outside at any given point (no idea why) so you can bring your plant out or take them in but not split em up, kind weird.

the federal rec plant limit is 4 and don’t think I’ve heard of that changing. Provinces can further restrict (which they do in my province). I think the other poster was referring to looking closer at the larger plant number scripts under acmpr.
I’ll be getting my script this week and will be submitting to register under acmpr. The more I thought about it, the fee isn’t bad for the 5g script ($150), because it’s a full page that the doc needs to fill out and most docs will charge for that anyways lol

lakesidegrower said:

I wonder the same thing - if there’s some mechanism for HC to check on acmpr registered peeps for plant count and location. My guess it they would be more focused on higher plant count acmpr holders. My only concern would be that I’d like to do a mix of indoor and outdoor (autos outside, photos inside) but you need to choose either Indoor, Outdoor, or Indoor/Outdoor. But they state on the form that they plants then need to be either fully inside or fully outside at any given point (no idea why) so you can bring your plant out or take them in but not split em up, kind weird.

the federal rec plant limit is 4 and don’t think I’ve heard of that changing. Provinces can further restrict (which they do in my province). I think the other poster was referring to looking closer at the larger plant number scripts under acmpr.
I’ll be getting my script this week and will be submitting to register under acmpr. The more I thought about it, the fee isn’t bad for the 5g script ($150), because it’s a full page that the doc needs to fill out and most docs will charge for that anyways lol

Click to expand...

I saw an ad at my local hydro store. $495 and they do it all for you. Get you in touch with a Dr to fill out the forms, plus whatever legal assistance.

Could be worth it just for peace of mind, although I really doubt anyone is ever going to break down my door to see if I'm 1 or 2 plants over my rec limit. Also completely off the radar if tech since you don't need to apply for anything

ElGrandeMongo said:

I can't see them reducing the plant count number. The 4 limit is already kind of silly. I have also considered paying the nominal fee to get a script to raise that,
but that being said... Has anyone ever has their grow checked for plant #s? I can't imagine how that'd go down.

Click to expand...

I am banking on that my constitutional rights will protect me from unreasonable search and seizure.

ElGrandeMongo said:

I saw an ad at my local hydro store. $495 and they do it all for you. Get you in touch with a Dr to fill out the forms, plus whatever legal assistance.

Could be worth it just for peace of mind, although I really doubt anyone is ever going to break down my door to see if I'm 1 or 2 plants over my rec limit. Also completely off the radar if tech since you don't need to apply for anything

Click to expand...

495 sounds step unless that's for a 300+ plant license. You can get 463 plant licenses now for around 650. I suggest you go to an online clinic, get your script and fill out the forms yourself. Its pretty easy, the clinic will provide you with a link to a step by step fool proof guide... there's even youtube videos showing you every step on how to fill out the forms. Took me 20mins, 2 mins to fill out the form and 18mins check it over like 100 times lol.

lakesidegrower said:

LPs try to get microcultivators to sign a Strategic SalesAgreement where they agree to provide support and a direct Chanel for your product. But they set the price.They tell you what they will buy it for and you just deal with it. I was told my Delta9 that they will buy anything over 22% THC, the average purchase price is about $4 per gram, but they will buy lesser quality for $2 per gram and put it in prerolls. Top price is around $6 per gram. But why would they ever pay that when they have you over a barrel?? Really looking into this just made me sick and realize that the big LPs are just leveraging the law that Is supposed to encourage black market growers to transition to the legal market, to their advantage. By making the small guys sell to the big guys, it breaks that system. Imagine if every craft beer producer needed to sell to Anheiser Busch to be able to get their product to market?

Click to expand...

Those prices sound extremely high to me. Any "free market" grower would happily sell there AAA buds for $2.00 per gram this year. Pounds of nice looking AAA are going for 8-900, I've seen bigger packs for even less. Market in BC has been flooded since April. I haven't heard of anything selling for more than $1200 in almost a year. Even @ $1200 that's like $2.60 per gram. $4.00 per gram is like pre 2010 prices.

solakani said:

I am banking on that my constitutional rights will protect me from unreasonable search and seizure.

Click to expand...

I'm banking on that too... but then these are the same constitutional rights which are currently being violated at every turn by covid restrictions ie freedom of association, freedom of travel, freedom of belief etc.

Maybe I'm too hopeful lmao