Cannabis Hindrance

As someone who has limited cannabis growing experience, I understand that upon harvest, and after trimming, the curing process begins — and runs basically 2-6 weeks (i.e. whatever duration determined rightly by the grower).

After curing, the plant should be fairly promptly made available at retail.

Considering that smelling a strain is the only way to get a firm sense of the style of effects produced by that plant prior to use, the product should be openly available to smell, prior to purchase.

However, that is not the case here in Massachusetts.

Even though it is perfectly clear that our government has been horribly wrong about cannabis, and devastatingly ruined countless innocent lives for several decades, they continue to pretend that a tough hand is needed during legality of this harmless plant upon responsible use (at least based upon the furthest reach of experimental science).

So the cured plant heads to lab testing, which can take months. Do we lab test every item of produce, prior to reaching the supermarket (for illegal pesticides and such)? No.

By the time the cannabis plant reaches retail, it is roughly 4-5 months after curing on average, so fairly strongly past its freshest shine.

We have an excessively aged product reaching the marketplace at black market pricing (set prior to legality, so basically $50/$100 per eighth/quarter ounce) with a roughly 30% tax on top of that.

Because the plant has to be prepackaged, there is no ability to smell the plant to determine if the strain fits — importantly noting that strain fit is a critical part of responsible and enjoyable use.

You are expected to shell out basically $70 for an eighth ounce of a strain that you only understand what it does by reading the hit-or-miss marketing description of it, and/or following the recommendation of the budtender.

As someone who mildly vapes cannabis flower (usually just a pinch in my Vapor Genie to keep my tolerance low), I just buy a pre-roll of a strain (from .5-1 gram) that looks interesting (based upon my experience of its lineage and/or grower brand, when possible), unwrap it, store it in the right kind of plastic jar (specifically Cool Jarz at vaporgenie.com), and that small amount of the plant usually lasts for months here (much longer than this excessively long sentence) — for basically $20.

I wish I could grow again, but I do not have the time, energy, and resources needed.

The legal cannabis marketplace here powerfully incentivizes cannabis consumers to keep tapping into the black market with its reduced and untaxed pricing during legality, while perhaps (if not likely) access a much fresher product.

Still the black market is risky, and legality was supposed to sensibly end it.

Our government terribly limits availability by determining who can start a cannabis business (a very small group), and strictly controls the entire process — reportedly to make us safer.

Regulations are not a panacea, so they do not guarantee safety. Regulators can be corrupt (e.g. incompetent, and/or bribed).

During hard financial times, the ability to have a flourishing cannabis marketplace would help countless people. The natural competition would weed out (pun now intended) those businesses incapable of delivering public satisfaction.

There are way too many people who (even with good intentions) believe that while we cannot trust human nature, we can trust the government. Any healthy minded person can clearly see the flaw in that belief (the government is of human nature).

Our government should obviously criminally prosecute anyone demonstrably selling a harmful product, but that should be — and for anyone who still cares about the self-proclaimed “supreme law of the land” that is our federal Constitution is — the limit.

I assume that I am not alone in desiring to go to a cannabis store, smell available strains to find the right fit, and buy them for a price that is likely very inexpensive, given that supply can easily outstrip demand.

How do you feel about this matter?