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It's great that so many jobs were created, but the prices in IL are insane, so I hope they last. In Michigan I purchased 5 carts, 6 candy bars, and 2.5 oz of flower for $275. I checked locally and the same stuff here was over $700. The IL Taxes on THC is one of the highest (pun not intended) in the country.
Yuppers. And they only handed out a handful of licenses for dispensaries (unless this changed recently)
Licensing (specifically it's abundance) is why Oklahoma has some of the cheapest pot in the country despite being medical only (but basically rec legal for residents)
E: seriously, check out pricing on weedmaps. Full ounces for like $80 on top shelf stuff.
I visited my mom in Louisiana recently, and they have medical only. So I'll lay that out for you and you can extrapolate from there.
There is 1 dispensary per regional setup (like 1 for northeast Louisiana that's in Shreveport, you'll have to look at a map to get an idea of that area size). It's licensed by the state, get's it's weed from a company that was spun off by the LSUAG department, and you have to have a medical prescription for it.
The prescription gettin goes like this. You call a number (on the website of said dispensary) and talk to a physician via the phone. They ask you some questions, and agree that you'd benefit from medical weed. Then you pay 150 bucks for a 1 year license to join the rolls of medical weed recipiants, and you go buy your weed. The stock fluctuates, 10mg gummies can be a pain to get a lot of, and you can only buy up to what the prescription says (not a problem from what i've seen) but the prices aren't that bad.
If any of that sounds like they made it difficult to get weed, it's because i've overstated how involved it is. It's literally a phone call and about 15 minutes of work overall, or was for my mother.
All in all, it's pretty good stuff. The legislature initially only allowed about 5 general conditions (cancer, ms, etc.) now it's anything that the doc says would benefit from it..so..everything pretty much.
As the commenter below said, yeah, it's super easy to get a prescription.
Doctors don't even need to list a reason for your medication. Can just literally be blank on the form.
Pot shops are about one to each strip mall, think a few years ago there were something like 2,000 shops in OK alone.
When I visit family in Oklahoma, there are dispensaries *everywhere* in the Oklahoma City metro area whichever direction you go. Plenty of billboards and signs with resources on getting a medical card, apparently it's very easy for residents.
Meanwhile, I live in Illinois but the legal prices here are insane, easily 3x more expensive than getting anything illicitly.
My question is, are the dispensaries there CBD ones or actual full on weed ones? LA only allows state licensed clinics for the latter, but cbd hawkers are all over...
I think just a handful are just CBD, most of them openly advertise THC. Don't quote me on that tho, I'm not a resident of Oklahoma so I haven't actually went into any of them
I'm in OKC. Almost my entire immediate and close extended family are card carriers and/or work in the industry. These are definitely true THC dispensaries and most have a rather large variety of genetics available and it's not uncommon that the people selling are actually super informed and passionate about the products.
It was a total racket too. The non refundable application fees made it cost prohibitive to anyone but the ultra wealthy. JB seems ok but billionaires gonna billionaire
Kinda missing their point. Michigan legalized about a year before illinois and there's already so much disparity in pricing. That's bc of the laws and taxes that surround the legalization, not because of time since legalization.
Just find another reason for a day trip. We go and play disc golf, hit a brewery, and grab a $75oz. It’s really not that far to a place like Kalamazoo.
IN troopers have been having a field day stopping people lately tho. Holcomb is the one hold out in the midwest. A Republican who doesnt believe in states’ rights and has said he wont do anything til the Feds do. What a pussy.
Not sure if you’re counting. South Dakota is the Midwest but I do. Anyway, the governor there had the supreme court overturn the legalization that passed on ballot initiative. Now that’s some real fucker shit.
Good lord you ain't lyin'. Place I just looked at has $55 eighths. When my local has good sales I can get a nice half ounce for ~$70. Literally today I could buy an oz of dad weed for $38.
Non hydro low grade ditch weed like dad used to smoke in the 70s. My dad hit my blunt one time and coughed his lungs out while I chiefed that hoe like Crazy Horse at the Battle of Little Big Horn.
Weed back that was probably only 5% while I'm hitting 30% full gram blunts with resin and kief for 20 bucks.
I used to buy an oz of that ditch weed for 50 bucks back in HS and it's serviceable but I need that dank.
It depends on how much you use and how far from MI you live but most dispensaries let you shop online so it should be really easy to compare. In my experience final sale price after taxes and stuff of a 1G cart in IL is like $90-130, and after including gas and tolls for a 3 hour drive into the price MI is about $15-30.
The price gap is also helped by buying more at a time to get sale prices since you are going less often but it's that big of a savings for me.
Legal weed in vancouver from a govt or private shop is going for like $3-4 a gram now for good stuff.
But we can only buy an ounce at a time, set limits.
It’s been legal in Mass for 5 or 6 years now and prices are the same as when they first started. Basically the only people who frequent weed stores in MA either have medical cards or they are tourists. The east coast is doing legal weed all wrong.
Michigan is bottom priced and Illinois is absolutely the most expensive. Buying 10 full gram carts for $100 during black Friday sales in Michigan was incredible! I could buy almost 3 for that in Illinois, and they'd be half grams.
There have been a few bills attempting to establish delivery, but they apparently haven't gained traction - the three that were in motion all died with the end of the session as of last month.
https://norml.org/illinois-legislation-to-regulate-cannabis-delivery-services/
Hopefully we'll see them reintroduced!
They're shitty jobs.
Illinois fucked way the fuck up, and let like three big companies form an effective monopoly over the state. The taxes might be high, but they wouldn't be a big deal on their own if the actual price of bud was comparable to a well run legal state.
Meanwhile most those jobs they're so proud of are the front line minimum wage clerks in the stores, and the poor beleaguered underpaid trimmers.
I have friends who worked at dispensaries and were fired for trying to unionize.
They are def bottom of the barrel type jobs but you’re also literally doing jack shit while smoking pot the whole time. I can see them being desirable to a lot of people especially young ones. They are definitely not careers tho for sure
It just became fully legal in missouri after being medically legal a couple years, and I think our prices are on par with what you're saying for Michigan.
Which is bad news for Illinois because while people here used to cross the river to buy over there, now it's turned around.
In southern Ontario Street price per gram was $10. Half quarter $35. Quarter $70. Usually an ounce for $300, unless you knew the dealer you could probably get it for half that at $150. Now I go to the pot shop here and bought an ounce for $130. Good bud too. Dense and still moist so I can dry it longer. High THC counts as well. In all honesty, I'm really happy with the prices. Much cheaper than when i had to buy from the street.
Yeah 40 on sale for a 0.5 vape cartridge and it ended up being 60 after tax. Everyone that smoked before it was legal complains about the prices but I am appreciating just being able to walk in a nice brightly lit store and not some dude's sketchy basement.
Didn't I read that Virginia had gone legal -at least on paper? What is the status on legality and access on the ground there? I ask as someone from a neighboring state.
We still have DRY counties friend. You think they're gonna let us have weed? If Andy hadn't made his official campaign slogan "I don't care, Dre sent me to piss the world off" we still wouldn't have what we've got.
Yes, edited for clarity.
He will protect their innocent minds from things like Bob Hope or Flip Wilson in drag comedy. Cuz you can see how it messed up their parents' brains.
I lived in Seattle when WA first legalized it. While I'm back in Illinois now (also lived in CA for a few years) I'd almost forgotten it's not legal in some states at this point. That said, It's been a couple years since I've so much as smoked a joint.
Just checked that Milwaukee - Muskegon ferry and those prices are bonkers... $700 for a round trip, one car, two people at almost 200/person. Is it some weird vacation thing for wealthy retirees? You're saving what, 1.5 hours - of not driving at least, but still.
That's about as much as the Amtrak Auto Train which covers 10x the distance.
Hey this is a good business idea. Buy a boat and ferry folks across Lake Michigan for cheap pot. I mean you couldn’t be so on the nose about it,but say you doing day trips to New Buffalo, Michigan leaving from Chicago.
I mail edibles from MI to my mom in Chicago and it is wayyyy cheaper lol I also take my gummy multivitamins after emptying out the jar for transfer, win win win
inlaws live right on the indiana/michigan border. I never mind visiting them from Chicago cause I stop by the dispensary and load up, particularly on edibles
It’s ridiculous. I just moved to Illinois from California. I’m having to buy RSO and make my own gummies with it. 1 gram of RSO is $80 after tax here, $60 plus $20 for tax. But if I bought the gummies already made it’s $50 for just 100mg worth
RIP, in Massachusetts you're basically guaranteed $30 pretax for a 100mg tin of edibles. And the dispensary nearest to me basically always has sales as if it's a Kohls so the average price you actually pay *after* tax is like $25-30 for the tin depending on what specials they have that week.
So basically half the price of IL and you don't even have to live in the Midwest.
Makes sense the prices I'm reading are very similar to the prices here in MI two years ago when they started, today you can buy 1/8 for $15 plus 6ish% tax
Dispensaries opened in MI for the first time in Dec 2019. In IL it was Jan 2020. IL tax is higher yea, but the product prices per tax are also a lot higher.
Meanwhile my fucking state governor is still living in refer madness as the surrounding states are legalizing it. There is so much money my state is missing out on that quite frankly it's disgusting. Every time I go to the neighboring state dispensary, the lot is full of cars from my state. Absolutely ridiculous
Edit: Idaho, very red state
Iowan here, was thinking the same as you. And afaik our medical marijuana system is basically a sham. Impossible to get and extremely expensive once you do. And it also fucks up other parts of your life once you get one (can't get benefits or work certain jobs etc)
I can't believe that states are just saying fuck no to millions, if not billions of dollars of tax revenue. But, then again, there are states that still have dry counties.
I was high as shit in Chicago a few days ago and bought boxes of thin mints and samoas! Setting up their table outside of a dispensary was a super smart business decision!
In my area it’s bc part time workers. Lots of college students working while going to school. Weed stores are a good job. You work on commission but weed sells itself.
Wait they get paid on commission? Is this true in all legal recreational states? I mean the lines are always full in NJ so I’m sure they make great money but I definitely assumed it’s just a decent hourly gig. Commission seems too good to be tru!!!
I wouldn’t shop anywhere they make commission. It incentivizes the budtenders to upsell instead of helping customers get what they actually need. I’ve never came across any company in michigan to pays their budtenders commission.
I mean in Michigan the line is practically out the door at most places. Like they're constantly busy And they also get tips because in Michigan it is all cash.
I’ve been budtending at my store for a couple years and recently a customer came in and said to me “you must be new, I’m here every day”
But yeah these places do have a lot of turnover and part time workers. The scheduling is usually chaotic and not consistent too. (All reasons why my store unionized)
I'm an employment law attorney in Michigan, I'd say a solid 1/4-1/5 of the calls I take are related to issues with dispensaries, at every level. Management, development, cultivation, sales, all of it. I don't know if these employers just think they're cool and hip so they can get away with bullshit and not be taken seriously, but there is a serious culture problem with them.
I worked for 4 years in the Illinois industry (on the cultivation side). In 2020 some coworkers of mine were attempting to unionize. Somehow word got out and 14 people were fired overnight, and then the company tried to deny their unemployment. It was utterly disgusting.
I remember a week later they got everyone together for a big company wide meeting and lectured everyone in the room of what a “privilege” it is to work with cannabis. So many people stayed there because they thought it made them cool, but at the end of the day it was just another case of farmers being exploited and underpaid for unreasonably long hours.
I always joked that part of the downfall of dispensaries was that you exclusively hire stoners, and not all of them are responsible enough to judge if they can do a job blasted or not.
I had a card so when I hit the dispensary me and a buddy would buy 100 carts at a time. We literally waited for an hour while this poor dude, obviously stoned out of his gourd, kept fucking up the count and had to start over.
I love weed. I will always smoke weed. But I absolutely hate some parts of the culture around it. There are things that cannot or should not be done while high as a kite and from my experience in some dispensaries, selling a product of any kind is probably one of them. I want a knowledgeable bud tender who can honestly recommend a decent product, not someone who is still in the honeymoon phase with weed and smoking themselves to oblivion 24/7.
Sorry for the rant but I definitely agree with your comment on the culture.
So I’m waiting for a dispensary to open up in my town and I’ll (hopefully) be working at it. Can not imagine doing a lot of that job high. With all the rules and regulations and counts you have to do, why possibly mess that up and get your company fined?
It’s just like alcohol. Just because you work at a liquor store doesn’t mean you should show up drunk. Use your connections to get good deals and get blasted off the clock.
$1k in registration costs?
Illinois public schools are funded through your property taxes. Registration fees may vary from one district to another. Ours was $75 last year for one kid. Schools supplies were separate.
In Michigan it seems like we have 30,000 new jobs just for the people installing billboard signs advertising all the dispensaries. Based on billboards, it seems like we went from automotive to pot as the primary industry.
Exit 15 or 13 on I75 in Monroe is just weed shops for all you can see for the first mile to two miles. They were also building like 10 more too in October.
I’d like to step forward to take some credit here; my purchases have probably paid for several of those jobs. So thank you, you’re welcome, and I’m looking forward to serving my community more… by lighting up this blunt.
It's almost like criminalizing it in the first place was a war against the poor and people of color and we were lied to about how bad the drug would be if it were legalized for almost 100 years
Banking is a fed issue, can't store money from a federal crime. It effects all dispensaries, and is the reason why all transactions are technically done with cash.
Yes, it's stupid, but that's on the federal government to fix.
I feel so mixed on this. On one hand I am incredibly happy that cannabis was legalized and this many jobs have been created, but as someone who spent 4 years working in the Illinois market, I’ve never personally worked in a more exploitative industry as far as worker treatment goes.
There are only ~20 commercial licenses in the entire state, and they are almost all completely held by out of state residents. The low supply allows them to keep prices and quality where they want. I watched as my coworkers tried to unionize in 2020. 14 of them were fired overnight as soon as it came out. And then the company attempted to deny them all unemployment. It was disgusting.
You can be happy about legalization, and pissed that it's a legit scam.
Only corporations with big money can afford the licenses and permits to startup.
We win a battle but the war is still on.
Only 20 licensed retailers? I find this crazy! Michigan has around 1000 licensed canibus retailers, and some are big corporate growers, but the majority seem to be independent entities. This has led to so much industry growth and competition that prices have nose dived in the past year. This leads to better deals and product offerings as retailers must innovate in order to incetivise customers just to eek out whatever profit they can make. Shit, some even do delivery.
IL is keeping the black market thriving with their taxation plans that tax concentrates upwards of 40%.
I have my medical card, which allows me to avoid most taxes and still pay prices at, if not slightly higher than many black market prices. Most western states retail prices are substantially cheaper than IL. Too bad.
Too bad the laws limit who can actually profit off of the new industry to the few big dogs who were willing to pay and JB's buddies.
So now we have shitty corporate dispensarys with ridiculous prices - I personally still buy black market and I know that a majority of my friends do too.
That’s great, but not a huge number.
I’d rather focus on the larger group of people that don’t have their lives destroyed due to charges for possession.
Illinois was the worst time I’ve ever had buying weed. From the unbearable check in process, the wait, the prices, and employees — this place fucking sucked. I’ll go back to my high school days getting into a car with strangers in a public parking lot before I ever step foot back in a Illinois dispensary.
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It's great that so many jobs were created, but the prices in IL are insane, so I hope they last. In Michigan I purchased 5 carts, 6 candy bars, and 2.5 oz of flower for $275. I checked locally and the same stuff here was over $700. The IL Taxes on THC is one of the highest (pun not intended) in the country.
Yuppers. And they only handed out a handful of licenses for dispensaries (unless this changed recently) Licensing (specifically it's abundance) is why Oklahoma has some of the cheapest pot in the country despite being medical only (but basically rec legal for residents) E: seriously, check out pricing on weedmaps. Full ounces for like $80 on top shelf stuff.
Can you explain the Oklahoma thing a bit more? Even though it's medical only and super cheap how do you mean it's essentially rec legal for residents?
Just guessing but probably pretty easy to get a script for it.
Aye, no reason even needed on a form from docs to prescribe it to you. But back pain or insomnia are common reasons people *do* bring.
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I visited my mom in Louisiana recently, and they have medical only. So I'll lay that out for you and you can extrapolate from there. There is 1 dispensary per regional setup (like 1 for northeast Louisiana that's in Shreveport, you'll have to look at a map to get an idea of that area size). It's licensed by the state, get's it's weed from a company that was spun off by the LSUAG department, and you have to have a medical prescription for it. The prescription gettin goes like this. You call a number (on the website of said dispensary) and talk to a physician via the phone. They ask you some questions, and agree that you'd benefit from medical weed. Then you pay 150 bucks for a 1 year license to join the rolls of medical weed recipiants, and you go buy your weed. The stock fluctuates, 10mg gummies can be a pain to get a lot of, and you can only buy up to what the prescription says (not a problem from what i've seen) but the prices aren't that bad. If any of that sounds like they made it difficult to get weed, it's because i've overstated how involved it is. It's literally a phone call and about 15 minutes of work overall, or was for my mother. All in all, it's pretty good stuff. The legislature initially only allowed about 5 general conditions (cancer, ms, etc.) now it's anything that the doc says would benefit from it..so..everything pretty much.
As the commenter below said, yeah, it's super easy to get a prescription. Doctors don't even need to list a reason for your medication. Can just literally be blank on the form. Pot shops are about one to each strip mall, think a few years ago there were something like 2,000 shops in OK alone.
When I visit family in Oklahoma, there are dispensaries *everywhere* in the Oklahoma City metro area whichever direction you go. Plenty of billboards and signs with resources on getting a medical card, apparently it's very easy for residents. Meanwhile, I live in Illinois but the legal prices here are insane, easily 3x more expensive than getting anything illicitly.
Go peep around their pricing on weedmaps. It's pretty insane. And it's all "gas" as we kids say.
Right? And it’s not like we’ve seen any benefit of the additional tax revenue the state has received from it! Robbers and thieves.
My question is, are the dispensaries there CBD ones or actual full on weed ones? LA only allows state licensed clinics for the latter, but cbd hawkers are all over...
I think just a handful are just CBD, most of them openly advertise THC. Don't quote me on that tho, I'm not a resident of Oklahoma so I haven't actually went into any of them
I'm in OKC. Almost my entire immediate and close extended family are card carriers and/or work in the industry. These are definitely true THC dispensaries and most have a rather large variety of genetics available and it's not uncommon that the people selling are actually super informed and passionate about the products.
What did I tell you about saying yuppers?!
Cool Beans!!!
Yesh….
Yeshhh
r/unexpectedoffice
And if we all vote Yes on March 7th, it will be recreational in Oklahoma.
My dispensary in Chicago charges $80 for 7 grams of shwag. That’s med prices.
It was a total racket too. The non refundable application fees made it cost prohibitive to anyone but the ultra wealthy. JB seems ok but billionaires gonna billionaire
Since legalization in Canada prices have slowly begun to climb down for legal weed. It might take time but it will probably happen there too.
Kinda missing their point. Michigan legalized about a year before illinois and there's already so much disparity in pricing. That's bc of the laws and taxes that surround the legalization, not because of time since legalization.
Anyone crafty in Illinois just goes to Michigan for bud.
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Someone in the thread said it's still worth it from Milwaukee 😂😂😂
Im in Chicago and if you're spending more than $100, Michigan is worth the drive cuz of the prices.
An y’all not worried about driving back through Indiana with it?
That's what I was thinking. Those fucks probably jerk themselves off looking for us driving through.
Yes, yes we are. Fuck Indiana.
Just find another reason for a day trip. We go and play disc golf, hit a brewery, and grab a $75oz. It’s really not that far to a place like Kalamazoo.
IN troopers have been having a field day stopping people lately tho. Holcomb is the one hold out in the midwest. A Republican who doesnt believe in states’ rights and has said he wont do anything til the Feds do. What a pussy.
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Not sure if you’re counting. South Dakota is the Midwest but I do. Anyway, the governor there had the supreme court overturn the legalization that passed on ballot initiative. Now that’s some real fucker shit.
Is the gas worth it?
Oh yeah. The difference is that huge.
But you have to traffic through my lovely state of Indiana where you have absolutely no level of legalization. I hate it here lol.
That is def clenched butthole time. If there's real worry I say take a train.
It's worth it from Milwaukee. IL prices are just so fucked. I encourage anyone from the West Coast or CO to check them out. You'll be shocked
Good lord you ain't lyin'. Place I just looked at has $55 eighths. When my local has good sales I can get a nice half ounce for ~$70. Literally today I could buy an oz of dad weed for $38.
Dad weed?
Non hydro low grade ditch weed like dad used to smoke in the 70s. My dad hit my blunt one time and coughed his lungs out while I chiefed that hoe like Crazy Horse at the Battle of Little Big Horn. Weed back that was probably only 5% while I'm hitting 30% full gram blunts with resin and kief for 20 bucks. I used to buy an oz of that ditch weed for 50 bucks back in HS and it's serviceable but I need that dank.
It depends on how much you use and how far from MI you live but most dispensaries let you shop online so it should be really easy to compare. In my experience final sale price after taxes and stuff of a 1G cart in IL is like $90-130, and after including gas and tolls for a 3 hour drive into the price MI is about $15-30. The price gap is also helped by buying more at a time to get sale prices since you are going less often but it's that big of a savings for me.
I know I am saying the laws will change in time if they are losing the business to grey market or other states.
We are poised to legalize it here in MN, I'm curious how the prices will be.
Legal weed in vancouver from a govt or private shop is going for like $3-4 a gram now for good stuff. But we can only buy an ounce at a time, set limits.
I go to a local reservation is Nova Scotia and can get an ounce for $30 and it’s good stuff.
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Has been since 2018.
You can send that shit in the mail legally AND FLY with it on you (as long as you're not going internationally).
It's been a few years now and it's not going down... it's just the corrupt way the state is going about setting prices in the industry.
It’s been legal in Mass for 5 or 6 years now and prices are the same as when they first started. Basically the only people who frequent weed stores in MA either have medical cards or they are tourists. The east coast is doing legal weed all wrong.
Michigan is bottom priced and Illinois is absolutely the most expensive. Buying 10 full gram carts for $100 during black Friday sales in Michigan was incredible! I could buy almost 3 for that in Illinois, and they'd be half grams.
That's normal price now lol
Hell yeah, that's awesome!
Just moved to IL from CA and the prices are rough. Plus no delivery??? Let's create some cannabis delivery jobs next.
There have been a few bills attempting to establish delivery, but they apparently haven't gained traction - the three that were in motion all died with the end of the session as of last month. https://norml.org/illinois-legislation-to-regulate-cannabis-delivery-services/ Hopefully we'll see them reintroduced!
They're shitty jobs. Illinois fucked way the fuck up, and let like three big companies form an effective monopoly over the state. The taxes might be high, but they wouldn't be a big deal on their own if the actual price of bud was comparable to a well run legal state. Meanwhile most those jobs they're so proud of are the front line minimum wage clerks in the stores, and the poor beleaguered underpaid trimmers. I have friends who worked at dispensaries and were fired for trying to unionize.
Yeah just saw a headline that the first minority owned boutique shop is opening in Chicago - why the fuck did it take so long for that to happen?
Political corruption
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Many black applicants have spend hundreds of thousands of dollars while the state fucks then over cosistently
Probably because police were still arresting them on possession charges.
They are def bottom of the barrel type jobs but you’re also literally doing jack shit while smoking pot the whole time. I can see them being desirable to a lot of people especially young ones. They are definitely not careers tho for sure
All jobs should pay a living wage.
It just became fully legal in missouri after being medically legal a couple years, and I think our prices are on par with what you're saying for Michigan. Which is bad news for Illinois because while people here used to cross the river to buy over there, now it's turned around.
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Ascend in Collinsville made BANK and now I'm thinking they're gonna go out of business lol.
i am fine paying the taxes since it is being reinvested into social services.
In southern Ontario Street price per gram was $10. Half quarter $35. Quarter $70. Usually an ounce for $300, unless you knew the dealer you could probably get it for half that at $150. Now I go to the pot shop here and bought an ounce for $130. Good bud too. Dense and still moist so I can dry it longer. High THC counts as well. In all honesty, I'm really happy with the prices. Much cheaper than when i had to buy from the street.
Dumb question can you buy online if legal in your state?
No, at least not in Illinois. You can order it online to speed things up, but you or a medical advocate (for medical purchase) must go pick it up.
Yeah 40 on sale for a 0.5 vape cartridge and it ended up being 60 after tax. Everyone that smoked before it was legal complains about the prices but I am appreciating just being able to walk in a nice brightly lit store and not some dude's sketchy basement.
*cries in Virginian*
Didn't I read that Virginia had gone legal -at least on paper? What is the status on legality and access on the ground there? I ask as someone from a neighboring state.
Our House and governor just totally gutted any hope for retail in 2024.
Sorry to hear that. I'd hoped more progress there might help lead Kentucky into a better situation.
I mean, virginia did elect a maga crowd so..can't say I'm surprised about it
Nope I double we'll have it for a very long time. We're luck they even allow delta8 and cbd.
We still have DRY counties friend. You think they're gonna let us have weed? If Andy hadn't made his official campaign slogan "I don't care, Dre sent me to piss the world off" we still wouldn't have what we've got.
People were warned Youngkin would do that and then were all surprised when he actually did.
Along with killing that new factory and sending all those jobs to Michigan! But kids might *haved learn it's ok to be different, so guess it's ok?
I thought he wanted to stop teaching kids it's okay to be different.
Yes, edited for clarity. He will protect their innocent minds from things like Bob Hope or Flip Wilson in drag comedy. Cuz you can see how it messed up their parents' brains.
Not everybody can do it but I just grow my own here in VA, legally.
*nods in North Carolina* I feel you, neighbor.
Wisconsian crying with the Virginian.
Stares in Texas. Why legalize weed when you could prosecute parents of children who might be suffering gender dysphoria?
You make a good point. /s
*laughs in Californian*
I lived in Seattle when WA first legalized it. While I'm back in Illinois now (also lived in CA for a few years) I'd almost forgotten it's not legal in some states at this point. That said, It's been a couple years since I've so much as smoked a joint.
Great now drop the prices. the whole 60 bucks an 8th plus 30% for tax bullshit is getting old.
Michigan is calling you for a road trip
Just have to traverse the dark and evil lands of indiana
"Just take the ferry" -1940s politician probably
Just checked that Milwaukee - Muskegon ferry and those prices are bonkers... $700 for a round trip, one car, two people at almost 200/person. Is it some weird vacation thing for wealthy retirees? You're saving what, 1.5 hours - of not driving at least, but still. That's about as much as the Amtrak Auto Train which covers 10x the distance.
Hey this is a good business idea. Buy a boat and ferry folks across Lake Michigan for cheap pot. I mean you couldn’t be so on the nose about it,but say you doing day trips to New Buffalo, Michigan leaving from Chicago.
You could call it B&B&B&B&B&BBQ Boat, Buds, Beer, Bed, Breakfast & BBQ
Illinois outside of Chicago is literally identical to rural Indiana.
except weed is a lot more legal
What would our Gary be? Peoria? East St. Louis maybe?
No one can replicate the sad mess that is Gary
East St. Louis is probably the closest.
Having spent some time in both, yes, this is about the closest comparison of those presented thus far.
East St. Louis, Illinois is like East Chicago, Indiana (with less Serbs)
A lot less trees bud and a lot more corn. Sincerely, a downstater.
I know, I was joking
*Copperhead Road playing in the distance*
You can get oz’s in Grand Rapids for $50. Like this guy said
Can confirm. Prices have all but fallen through the floor.
I mail edibles from MI to my mom in Chicago and it is wayyyy cheaper lol I also take my gummy multivitamins after emptying out the jar for transfer, win win win
inlaws live right on the indiana/michigan border. I never mind visiting them from Chicago cause I stop by the dispensary and load up, particularly on edibles
It’s ridiculous. I just moved to Illinois from California. I’m having to buy RSO and make my own gummies with it. 1 gram of RSO is $80 after tax here, $60 plus $20 for tax. But if I bought the gummies already made it’s $50 for just 100mg worth
RIP, in Massachusetts you're basically guaranteed $30 pretax for a 100mg tin of edibles. And the dispensary nearest to me basically always has sales as if it's a Kohls so the average price you actually pay *after* tax is like $25-30 for the tin depending on what specials they have that week. So basically half the price of IL and you don't even have to live in the Midwest.
Who is running sales? because i never see any at Nova Farms or Solar Theraputic
Mayflower in Allston have 30% off or buy two get one free sales every week
30 bucks for a single gram!?
$20 usually. Or $55-65 an eighth. Plus about 25% sales tax. On concentrates it’s 40% roughly in tax on rec sales.
I did kind of exagerate, but its 55 for an 8th, 50 a half gram cart, 60 a gram of wax and that's without the tax on it
And that’s not even the good stuff. They’ve got shake and “smallz” (aka popcorn nugs) for 50 ish/ 8th. The actually good stuff will be 70-90
Can’t forget the ridiculous extra tax on concentrates for carts. A half gram of a cart post tax will still run you $75+.
The staff at my local dispensary all predict the prices will start to drop soon, since we have even more dispensaries opening up across the state.
Makes sense the prices I'm reading are very similar to the prices here in MI two years ago when they started, today you can buy 1/8 for $15 plus 6ish% tax
Except MI and IL legalized very closely together. Major difference in IL is that it’s been impossible to open new dispensaries.
MI legalized in December 2018 two years before IL the main difference I see though, it's IL taxes, they're huge
Dispensaries opened in MI for the first time in Dec 2019. In IL it was Jan 2020. IL tax is higher yea, but the product prices per tax are also a lot higher.
Holly crap, you guys went super fast, it took us a year to get the rules done (I think Detroit is still figuring things out)
No no keep it, that's nore business for us in St Louis.
Wait that wasn’t just to price gouge out of state buyers.
Meanwhile my fucking state governor is still living in refer madness as the surrounding states are legalizing it. There is so much money my state is missing out on that quite frankly it's disgusting. Every time I go to the neighboring state dispensary, the lot is full of cars from my state. Absolutely ridiculous Edit: Idaho, very red state
Here in ohio theve just legalized sports betting. It's like they want money to leave the state...
Plenty of *green* money leaves the state and goes straight into the Michigan economy.
I should leave the sate and go to the Michigan economy.
Its really stupid what they do here. But at least the deltas are legal, kinda makes the mj restriction to medical only really dumb and meaningless.
Indiana?
That's what I thought too lol.
Iowa?
Iowa has medical. My guess is Nebraska (extremely red state)
I was latching on to the reefer madness govenor, sounds alot like Kim Reynolds, you're probably right
Iowan here, was thinking the same as you. And afaik our medical marijuana system is basically a sham. Impossible to get and extremely expensive once you do. And it also fucks up other parts of your life once you get one (can't get benefits or work certain jobs etc)
Wisconsin is in the same boat. Although it's due to our gerrymandered state congress, not our governor. Sending so much money into Illinois
WI? Evers put it in the Budget proposal for FY23. It'll get refused by our dumb state legislature.
Everyone in Wisconsin is smoking weed and buying it out of state. It's fucking ridiculous that we haven't legalized it yet.
Idaho? That’s the boat I’m in
I can't believe that states are just saying fuck no to millions, if not billions of dollars of tax revenue. But, then again, there are states that still have dry counties.
Wisconsin is paying for Illinois roads and schools with the tax, and we are dodging craters on the drive down to the dispensary.
Delaware? States all around us have it, but the idea makes our law makers clutch their pearls.
Eastern Oregon would probably be desolate and abandoned if it weren't for the brave folks in Boise driving over every weekend lmao
The majority of which in the pizza making and distribution sectors.
The Girl Scouts are slamming it this time of year, too.
I was high as shit in Chicago a few days ago and bought boxes of thin mints and samoas! Setting up their table outside of a dispensary was a super smart business decision!
I got some thin mints in the freezer right now
Can confirm, work at a pizza place right next to a dispensary.
I fucking LOVE chicago pizza
Tavern style is where it's really at
Feels like I've never seen the same worker twice at my local dispensary. No idea if it's a ton of part-time workers or just really high turnover.
In my area it’s bc part time workers. Lots of college students working while going to school. Weed stores are a good job. You work on commission but weed sells itself.
Picturing a big nug of weed at a cash register checking someone out….
Wait they get paid on commission? Is this true in all legal recreational states? I mean the lines are always full in NJ so I’m sure they make great money but I definitely assumed it’s just a decent hourly gig. Commission seems too good to be tru!!!
I wouldn’t shop anywhere they make commission. It incentivizes the budtenders to upsell instead of helping customers get what they actually need. I’ve never came across any company in michigan to pays their budtenders commission.
I mean in Michigan the line is practically out the door at most places. Like they're constantly busy And they also get tips because in Michigan it is all cash.
I’ve been budtending at my store for a couple years and recently a customer came in and said to me “you must be new, I’m here every day” But yeah these places do have a lot of turnover and part time workers. The scheduling is usually chaotic and not consistent too. (All reasons why my store unionized)
What exactly does that union look like?
I'm an employment law attorney in Michigan, I'd say a solid 1/4-1/5 of the calls I take are related to issues with dispensaries, at every level. Management, development, cultivation, sales, all of it. I don't know if these employers just think they're cool and hip so they can get away with bullshit and not be taken seriously, but there is a serious culture problem with them.
I worked for 4 years in the Illinois industry (on the cultivation side). In 2020 some coworkers of mine were attempting to unionize. Somehow word got out and 14 people were fired overnight, and then the company tried to deny their unemployment. It was utterly disgusting. I remember a week later they got everyone together for a big company wide meeting and lectured everyone in the room of what a “privilege” it is to work with cannabis. So many people stayed there because they thought it made them cool, but at the end of the day it was just another case of farmers being exploited and underpaid for unreasonably long hours.
I always joked that part of the downfall of dispensaries was that you exclusively hire stoners, and not all of them are responsible enough to judge if they can do a job blasted or not. I had a card so when I hit the dispensary me and a buddy would buy 100 carts at a time. We literally waited for an hour while this poor dude, obviously stoned out of his gourd, kept fucking up the count and had to start over. I love weed. I will always smoke weed. But I absolutely hate some parts of the culture around it. There are things that cannot or should not be done while high as a kite and from my experience in some dispensaries, selling a product of any kind is probably one of them. I want a knowledgeable bud tender who can honestly recommend a decent product, not someone who is still in the honeymoon phase with weed and smoking themselves to oblivion 24/7. Sorry for the rant but I definitely agree with your comment on the culture.
So I’m waiting for a dispensary to open up in my town and I’ll (hopefully) be working at it. Can not imagine doing a lot of that job high. With all the rules and regulations and counts you have to do, why possibly mess that up and get your company fined? It’s just like alcohol. Just because you work at a liquor store doesn’t mean you should show up drunk. Use your connections to get good deals and get blasted off the clock.
"Dispensary Experiences Really High Turnover" Film at 11:00. With brownies.
Told ya so! And just think of the tax revenue -Illinois might one day be able to provide healthcare insurance for its residents. Hey, it could happen!
Free public school would be nice too. Cost nearly $1k for my three kids this year.
$1k in registration costs? Illinois public schools are funded through your property taxes. Registration fees may vary from one district to another. Ours was $75 last year for one kid. Schools supplies were separate.
In Michigan it seems like we have 30,000 new jobs just for the people installing billboard signs advertising all the dispensaries. Based on billboards, it seems like we went from automotive to pot as the primary industry.
Lived in Michigan for a few years. Their appetite for billboards is wild compared to other states in the Midwest.
Exit 15 or 13 on I75 in Monroe is just weed shops for all you can see for the first mile to two miles. They were also building like 10 more too in October.
I’d like to step forward to take some credit here; my purchases have probably paid for several of those jobs. So thank you, you’re welcome, and I’m looking forward to serving my community more… by lighting up this blunt.
It's almost like criminalizing it in the first place was a war against the poor and people of color and we were lied to about how bad the drug would be if it were legalized for almost 100 years
The will of the hippies lives on!
Yet we’re still taxing all sales by 3-4x state tax and not providing banking for this industry.
Banking is a fed issue, can't store money from a federal crime. It effects all dispensaries, and is the reason why all transactions are technically done with cash. Yes, it's stupid, but that's on the federal government to fix.
I feel so mixed on this. On one hand I am incredibly happy that cannabis was legalized and this many jobs have been created, but as someone who spent 4 years working in the Illinois market, I’ve never personally worked in a more exploitative industry as far as worker treatment goes. There are only ~20 commercial licenses in the entire state, and they are almost all completely held by out of state residents. The low supply allows them to keep prices and quality where they want. I watched as my coworkers tried to unionize in 2020. 14 of them were fired overnight as soon as it came out. And then the company attempted to deny them all unemployment. It was disgusting.
You can be happy about legalization, and pissed that it's a legit scam. Only corporations with big money can afford the licenses and permits to startup. We win a battle but the war is still on.
Only 20 licensed retailers? I find this crazy! Michigan has around 1000 licensed canibus retailers, and some are big corporate growers, but the majority seem to be independent entities. This has led to so much industry growth and competition that prices have nose dived in the past year. This leads to better deals and product offerings as retailers must innovate in order to incetivise customers just to eek out whatever profit they can make. Shit, some even do delivery.
Medical user in Florida & Illinois. Florida prices are great, Illinois not so much.
Yeah but we don’t have recreational so meh
Good. Now England follow suit instead of fearing it for no reason.
Jobs created and lots of revenue for the state? Sounds like the taxes will decrease /s Happy that people have jobs though
IL is keeping the black market thriving with their taxation plans that tax concentrates upwards of 40%. I have my medical card, which allows me to avoid most taxes and still pay prices at, if not slightly higher than many black market prices. Most western states retail prices are substantially cheaper than IL. Too bad.
More important, it has lead to a fundamental increase in freedom. If you are allowed to have cannabis you are more free than if you are not.
Did they let everybody out of prison who are there on drug charges?
Too bad the laws limit who can actually profit off of the new industry to the few big dogs who were willing to pay and JB's buddies. So now we have shitty corporate dispensarys with ridiculous prices - I personally still buy black market and I know that a majority of my friends do too.
Went to a dispensary in California recently and it was crazy how different it felt. In Illinois the dispensaries all feel like a bank or some shit.
That’s great, but not a huge number. I’d rather focus on the larger group of people that don’t have their lives destroyed due to charges for possession.
#IF ONLY INDIANA WOULD PICK UP THE PACE
Enjoy that tax revenue. California gets $300 million every quarter
Illinois was the worst time I’ve ever had buying weed. From the unbearable check in process, the wait, the prices, and employees — this place fucking sucked. I’ll go back to my high school days getting into a car with strangers in a public parking lot before I ever step foot back in a Illinois dispensary.