In a 15,000-square-foot warehouse just down the road from the Oakland Airport, an entrepreneur is opening a one-stop shop for medicinal marijuana cultivation that's believed to be the largest in the state.
Don't know the first thing about growing pot? The folks at iGrow have a doctor on site to get you a cannabis card and sell you all the necessary equipment for indoor, hydroponic cultivation - from pumps, nutrients and tubing to lights and fans.
Don't know how to set it up? For a fee, on-site technicians will show you how to build it in your home and even maintain it weekly.
"A lot of people don't know much about growing pot," said Dhar Mann, 25, the owner, who stood in front of an array of Ikea-like displays, showing different rooms of cannabis cultivation systems. "Since there are no full-service resources like us, they take risks, like electrical fires."
This is hardly a fringe business. When iGrow opens today, at least three City Council members will attend. So will most of the leaders of the cannabis industry in Oakland, a city long at the vanguard of medicinal marijuana.
Today's opening also comes on a key day for proponents of a statewide ballot measure to allow recreational marijuana. They plan to turn in about twice as many signatures as needed to qualify the measure for the November ballot.
The supporters of that measure are being led by Richard Lee, owner of Oaksterdam University, an Oakland-based business that trains people for work in the cannabis industry.
The medicinal marijuana world is still unsettled. Cities from Los Angeles to Berkeley are grappling with how to permit and regulate medical marijuana dispensaries.
Oakland, where voters last summer agreed to have the city to tax and regulate "cannabis businesses," has allowed only four licensed dispensaries.
Though iGrow provides all the supplies and know-how for cannabis cultivation, they don't sell the seedlings - only dispensaries can. And even some of the vendors tread a delicate line.
Gabriel Goodhart, the owner of Easy Feed Systems based in West Oakland, was setting up one of the system displays at iGrow on Wednesday. His company has an explicit policy of not setting up any system where marijuana is visible when they show up - or even mentioning the word "marijuana."
"Liability is shifting," said Goodhart, a libertarian who is a registered Republican. "A small business like ours can't take the risk."
But, he believes, the issue is a moral one.
"It's not fair to medical patients to put them in a gray area where they have to be involved in criminal activity to stay healthy," he said. "That's like not having health insurance."
The cost of creating your own cultivation system or relying solely on a dispensary is vast.
At a dispensary, a patient might spend $120 a week for a quarter-ounce of marijuana.
However, it might cost $1,000 to set up an eight-plant system, said Zeta Ceti, one of iGrow's "indoor growing technicians." But in the course of a year, they might only use half of their harvest and be able to sell the remaining 3 pounds for $12,000 to a dispensary.
At a dispensary, a patient might spend $120 a week for a quarter-ounce of marijuana.
However, it might cost $1,000 to set up an eight-plant system, said Zeta Ceti, one of iGrow's "indoor growing technicians." But in the course of a year, they might only use half of their harvest and be able to sell the remaining 3 pounds for $12,000 to a dispensary.
or just sell it to your friends
Sushipunk
Wtf? So if you get a weed card, and are allowed to grow your own with one of these setups, then you can sell it back to a dispensary? Legally?
Awesome!
Aleks_B
damn im so jealous of Californians!!
and Canadians have always thought of ourselves as progressive in terms of Cannabis! LOL
djnitride
The feds are going to come knocking, lol.
aNYthing
This can end one if two ways:
1. These s are going to it up for everyone. It's like sticking your hand into a lion's cage and taunting the lion. Eventually, he'll rip it the off. You got a good thing going there morons - Why get greedy and up for others?
2. Other states will realize there's money to be made and follow suit - which, even being an occasional toker, I won't hold my breath for
I guess it will all end in tears. I just know it.
Oh, and when NJ passed their med mj law, they clearly pointed fingers at Cali and said - we WILL NOT allow this to get out of hand as it did in Cali.
Pennsylvania is doing the same - very strict regulation, under supervision of an MD and oversight review of cases. Treated like DEA controlled substance, with very tightly regulated set of guidelines and virtually no wiggle room. All conditins where mj can be prescribed are clearly listed and no double guessing. Unless you are terminally ill, got aids or cancer or glaucoma - no weed.
djnitride
quote:
Originally posted by aNYthing
I guess it will all end in tears. I just know it.
SYSTEM-J
quote:
The folks at iGrow have a doctor on site to get you a cannabis card and sell you all the necessary equipment for indoor, hydroponic cultivation - from pumps, nutrients and tubing to lights and fans.
idoru
While I think this concept is pretty ing rad, I also think that it's about twenty to thirty years too early. This cannot possibly end well.
Andrieux
Love Oaksterdam and our liberal Bay Area marijuana laws. :)
CONNERMAN2000
quote:
Originally posted by idoru
While I think this concept is pretty ing rad, I also think that it's about twenty to thirty years too early. This cannot possibly end well.
+100000
I love the progression that's taking place, but this is a little too fast. I don't see this lasting long.
