This thread is about all things cannabis business related.
I’ve been a medical marijuana caregiver in Maine since 2012. Cannabis has been my only source of income since late 2014.
The first thing I wanted to take note of is the demand for cannabis went crazy the day after Christmas. Everyone is looking for weed. Dealers are running out, and calling people they don’t know looking to get a pound. It’s like everyone besides the weed dealers are on vacation. It’s like the perfect storm of legalization, but nowhere to legally buy.
Do pot businesses generally pay Federal income taxes, even though according to them it’s illegal?
That would make the tax on profits to be around 50% EDIT: 35%, State and Federal, on a business that size. Never mind employee costs (outside of wages) in California with all their socialist programs.
EDIT: Now I know why the Trump tax thing was a big deal: 21% flat rate instead of 34%.
They’ll probably come down over time. They were high here too, with all the taxing and regulation, but they came down quite a bit. Still way less than street prices, particularly in other states (and no, I wasn’t for taxing and regulating, and did not vote for or against A64 because of it.)
Yeah. I was watching High Profits a couple years ago, and they were selling $35 grams on day one in Breckinridge…and that was before taxes. But people were lined up out the door to pay that price.
I only do deliveries to customers in Maine. As a medical marijuana caregiver I can only sell marijuana to medical marijuana patients that have valid paperwork.
I am a medical marijuana patient. I have a letter from my doctor that says my condition is covered under NH law, so I can have 2oz of medical marijuana in NH. I can give it to another medical marijuana patient in NH. But I think any distribution to a non-patient I in NH can be considered a felony. Has that changed with decrim?
I can legally give away weed for free in Maine and Massachusetts to people over 21, but I think my limit is 1 oz in MA. They don’t recognize out of state medical marijuana patients in MA.
Im currently vertically integrated. I don’t resell other people’s cannabis products. Anything I sell with THC in it I produce myself.
Business slows down in the fall, and then picks back up when the weather gets nice.
This seems to happen in Colorado too.
The record-breaking month is part of a broader, seasonal trend playing out in Colorado’s rec market, where sales have consistently spiked in early spring, midsummer and around holidays.
Some medical marijuana bills passed in Maine. The Governor has 9 days left to veto.
The new laws will require seed to sale tracking. I’ve been working on a database solution for a while. Might be time to start giving it some real effort.
I am using Ninox. This is the data model the application automatically draws. I wish I could move things around in the graphic, but can’t. I’ll try to give an explanation of how the db works later.
I’m looking over the new mmj laws, and they blow. It requires snitching.
Incident and illegal activity reporting. A registered caregiver, registered dispensary, marijuana testing facility and manufacturing facility shall report:
A. Any violation of this chapter or rule adopted under this chapter governing the operations of the registered caregiver, registered dispensary, marijuana testing facility or manufacturing facility to the department within one business day of discovering the violation; and
B. Any suspected illegal activity involving the operations of the registered caregiver, registered dispensary, marijuana testing facility or manufacturing facility to the department and law enforcement within 24 hours of discovering the suspected illegal activity.
I’ve been thinking about drying rooms. Every time I consider doing a big outdoor grow I stop myself because I don’t have the capability to process it once it is harvested.
Drying and curing is mostly about controlling temperature and humidity.
Some companies are trying to sell prebuilt drying rooms. They have to be overpriced.
I am wondering about using refrigerated shipping containers. They seem pretty close to the purpose built dry rooms. Some even have redundant cooling units. They also call them reefers, which is funny.
The only issue with the surplus refrigerated containers is that they require 3-phase power. But you could always buy a broken one and retrofit it with different equipment.
It would be nice to have an insulated container to start with. I have heard of some people converting regular shipping containers.
I haven’t seen many prices, for new or used reefers. Everywhere I look says contact us for a quote.Guess I will have to do that.
The 40’ used/referb ones I found a price on in CT are only $11,500. That doesn’t seem too bad if they are in good working order. I think I would rather have a 20’.
Not only is it 3-Phase, but 460/480 volt. http://www.kellyfreezer.com/pages/specials.php
Can storage containers fit in a typical warehouse with high loading doors? It looks like the containers are 9’6" tall, and high loading dock doors are 10’ x 10’. The warehouse I am looking at has around 20ft ceilings. I am wondering if you can get storage containers inside, then stack two of them.
If I was doing something custom like a drying room, I’d probably rather start from scratch with an uninsulated one. That way you could run wiring and ductwork inside before putting whatever wall material and insulation you decide on. Or maybe I’m just making it too complicated. The really good thing about reusing one for a drying room is that reefers are designed to have airflow through the flooring. Thought it may make walking on it interesting:
The way I’ve seen shipping containers delivered is that they pretty much just let them slide off a flatbed truck. Stacking two with such a low ceiling I think isn’t going to work, because you’d need to get a crane or two inside to do it.
Is there a set temp and humidity level that works good for all strains ? Or does it vary with CBD vs THC ?
What about building a “Tobacco Barn” ? Like they used in the old days, Ventilation. Protection from sun/weather. Drying racks. Fans for added airflow. Power them with solar to save on elec.
Samm
Lots of people use barns for drying. It works fine as long as the weather cooperates. It is a travesty when a good harvest is ruined by mold during the drying process.
Security is another issue. At $2k per lb wholesale, or $4k lb retail, it is a target.
I’m thinking a 20’ container can dry around 20 lb of product, as a conservative estimate.That could be $40-80k of product that only weighs 20 lbs.
I could see someone putting a shipping container inside a barn.
Temp and humidity are not really about THC vs CBD as much as what type of products you trying to produce, and how fast you want to dry.
If you want to produce flower as the end product, the process is usually a slow dry. But you need to do it fast enough so mold and other nasty stuff doesn’t start to grow. Water activity needs to be below .65. Anything above that is in the danger zone. There are also regional preferences. .62 - .55 is where you want buds. I tend to go on the lower side because .62 is too close to .65.
If you are going to do extraction, it’s usually ok to dry a lot faster, and get rid of as much water as possible. But you don’t want to use much heat. For a hemp field that is going to be used for CBD, you would probably dry that pretty quickly, and really dry. You might also store the dry material at a freezing temp while waiting for extraction.
You usually want the drying area to be really easy to clean and sterilize between harvests. If you have a mold issue with one harvest, you don’t want it to effect the next harvest. Especially once mandatory testing starts, which is soon.
Im starting to think I might want to line the inside of the storage container with stainless steel. Then maybe use something like this for drying racks.
