>

Kick Micky and the M&M guys out and re-porno time square.
New York finally got a real coffee shop.
With love from Amsterdam >

From Amsterdam to New Amsterdam. You love to see it. 🥲 >

As someone who moved from the first to the second, it's been a while :) >

I can’t imagine leaving the NL to live in the US. It’s like the opposite of my dream. Haha.
(edit:) Like, let me exchange my holiday allowance and amazing metro for a dirty subway, crazy hustle culture and expensive healthcare. No gracias. >

Oh it seemed like a good idea at the time......
No regrets though. Finally got a job I love, a beautiful kid and a women who loves me and I love her. Things I never found in NL. Even though I am not originally from NL it will always be "home" to me and I do hope one day to return. >

Now federally decriminalize it and remove it from drug testing.  Even Canada considers it a breach of personal privacy. >


remove it from drug testing.

so glad california did this. >

My company stopped testing for it over 2 years ago. They got tired of over 70% of applicants failing. >

What’s ridiculous is that my company tests for hiring but then never again.  If you did a blanket test today of the 150 employees on the condition a failed test resulted in termination the company would be completely inoperable.
We have never had a problem with marijuana consumption or a high person on site.  We have had on-site alcohol consumption and DWI in company vehicles, though.
Drug testing doesn’t prevent that.  I’m not saying drug testing is pointless (it kind of is) but testing for marijuana is completely pointless by todays standards. >

I think it’s insurance for a lot of these companies in my legal state.
Anyways it feels like being a gay man in the military. They openly discuss their love of alcohol but I have to nod and not dare mention having a puff after work. It doesn’t help that I work for a traditionally conservative field, I had to pass a test to get hired but literally had the bosses talking about whiskey after a long day during the interview.
Fucking America, liberal legal state or not this country is run by old school conservatives. >

Price. Sticker shops aren't paying the high taxes a legal place has too.
Im in Buffalo and fully expect to see sticker stores being targeted when they start opening the legal dispensaries here.  The police in outlying suburbs (Cheektowaga) have already raided a sticker store/shut it down, so there is precedent. >

What is a sticker store? >

Marijuana is given as a “free gift” for buying something small and overpriced, like a sticker. Marijuana itself isn’t illegal, but the selling of it is.
Kind of like during early prohibition when bars would gift alcohol if you bought a more-expensive lunch. >

Hm wow >

Places here in NY aren’t even doing stickers anymore. Just go in and buy it. New York is so far behind with this. I should be able to purchase now but no legal dispensaries in my area. Only NYC areas. People here still have to use the grey market stores. In the mean time the local medical dispensary are ripping people off with their ridiculously overpriced items. 1/2 gram carts for $65. Piss off you crooks. >

And full grams for $93+ fuck outta here. Grey market will help regulate the legal market. Only need to wait a few years for it to balance. >

Damn I picked up 5 1g carts last week for $80 at a local dispensary here in MI. Those prices are nuts. >

Dude looks like he got some bubble tape >

Get a medical card, then you can do 6 plants. >

Congrats!  You're about to pay more in taxes than you do for the weed itself.  Keep your old dealers number handy.  Love- Colorado. >

I don't know what those taxes go to in Colorado but in California we've dumped a fuck ton of that money into revamping schools. Of course we still don't pay our teachers shit, but they have nicer areas under construction in  probably half the schools in our county. We even put air conditioning in their trailers! >

I believe Colorado did something similar with investing it in schools. >

We did- but here's the rub: Denver and surrounding counties haven't seen any of that money.  It's all being shipped out to Boebert country, and the other rural parts of the states where counties are too poor to build their own schools, despite most of them voting against legalization.  Our schools/teachers haven't seen a dime. >

I mean I can't be mad at money going to schools that need it. Not the kids' fault that their parents suck. >

I can, I have kids in my own public schools who's teachers need raises and equipment needs updating. >

I'm sure they do and it does but if it's a matter of it going to where it's needed most and you have areas that don't even have the proper facilities to teach, that's a little more important than raises and equipment.
I'm a teacher so I certainly understand the desire for raises and better equipment but also understand that my school is not the only one in need. >

We can agree to disagree there.  Regardless - my point is that states are taxing the ever living fuck out of legal weed and it's forcing market dynamics to shift back to the illegal drug trades.  Colorado saw a huge drop in MMJ sales this year because folks are sick of paying 30-40% taxes.  Since growing your own or calling a dealer is cheaper, that's what people are going.  Now the state is panicking because they are nowhere near their forecasts.  Additionally - these taxes absolutely FUCK dispensary owners because they force them to lower prices.  A ton of these places are going out of business because they operate on razon thin profit margins as-is.  Meaning it leaves only the big guys (cooperations and conglomerates) who can afford to pay to play. >

In other words: New York stopped prohibition of marijuana. Nice. >

I've been buying my weed over the counter for a year now, does this mean one person decided to actually go through the approval process, pay the fees taxes and greased the right palms? 
God NY loves to just create laws that shouldn't exist, let the free market flourish >

No, it took the state this long to approve the licenses. Applications were submitted months ago (about 6 months). First applications go to those who were more affected by the war on drugs ie people arrested with low level possession charges. On top of the application there was a high fee to submit it. Not about greasing palms, it was about getting the system set up before they can approve/deny applications. Cannabis law takes some tome to establish from the ground up.
And the state let the "free market" flourish while they turned a mostly blind eye to all of the shops that have been selling flower, clones, dabs, edibles, only shutting down the most egregious of grey market vendors.
Hate on the state all you want, one thing they did right is their cannabis laws for home growers. >

AFAIK the NY home grower laws haven't kicked in yet, have they? It was shelved until dispensaries were established, which has been pokey as hell. >

Medical patients can grow. 18 months from yesterday everyone else can grow. >

I read it to mean guidelines would come out within 18 months, hope you're right. >

In 18 months they should have full home grow. The rules on plant counts are out so they will let everyone grow at that point. >

Can we go back to Time Square smelling like piss now?