A recent Denver Westword article speculated on the reasons for the decline in registered marijuana patients in Colorado and pointed out that the fee for medical marijuana cards dropped from $90 to $35 on January 1, 2012, so many patients may just be waiting for the price break to renew.  High Country Caregiver wants to highlight some reader comments from the Westword article as to other reasons why patients wouldn’t register anymore.

One reader comment from ‘CAREGIVER’ to Denver Westword which got the most ‘likes’ says:

“I serve as a caregiver for lots of patients and am a patient myself.  We all have our recommendations, from our doctors, that are up to date, but none of us are registering with the state.  None of us trust that our information will end up in the hands of the DEA.  I know lots of other caregivers and patents in the same situation because they all to feel the same way.

We all feel it’s much wiser to simply operate like it’s illegal, but keep our doctor’s recommendations, in writing, up to date, just in case we need it.  That’s been working out fine for all of us so far!”

Other medical marijuana patients like PUBLIUS CEASAR point out the invasion of privacy on patients as a reason not to register:

“The reason I didn’t renew is because of the intrusiveness of the system. Tracking how much I buy, taking my picture, etc. I’m legal with just a doctors recommendation, why should I register?”

The CDPHE medical marijuana registry is crashing and drowning under its own weight for a variety of reasons, the chart below illustrates the demise of the CDPHE Colorado medical marijuana registry:

Create a graph

The pot clowns in Colorado are out in force with the voting.  Dan Hartman, long time 420 pot clown and head of the medical marijuana enforcement division at the Colorado Department of Revenue goofed big time by publicly decrying voters to not vote out his medical marijuana dispensary scam.  Attorney General John Suthers publicly called out Hartman the pot clown as a civil servant trying to sway voters.  Hartman basically said that “if you vote out dispensaries, marijuana cultivation will continue uninhibited and local police and the MMED won’t be able to regulate it or do anything about it.”  Sure pot clown, High Country Caregiver knows you’re only in it for the gold.

In Denver the Vietnamese pot growing gangs are thriving, and Cherry Top Farms, a quazi licensed marijuana center decided to buy a truck load of weed from the Do family.  The Do family arrived at Cherry Top Farms 2500 plant warehouse grow with the DEA following and a major situation erupted and the Feds confiscated all of the weed and charged 4 or 5 of those at the scene.  The Do family will likely be up and running again soon as this is there usual course or action.  Warehouse grown weed in Denver is not recommended for human consumption, find a good caregiver, or better yet some outdoor grown weed.  It’s harvest time!

Rapping up the pre-Halloweed week, seed to sale marijuana tracking is here and it’s causing major stirs in the medical marijuana community.  The tracking will involve bar cods that have to be placed on all plants, seedling, etc… in the grow operation so that no dispensary has more than 6 plants per patient.  The system is expensive and will raise prices and lower quality of dispensary grown cannabis.

If you believe that Obama had something to do with the medical marijuana explosion of the past 2 years, today marks the end of medical marijuana in Colorado and California.  The Obama Administration has announced that all California medical marijuana dispensaries must close within 45 days.  The IRS is already seizing dispensary bank accounts and landlords from at least 16 dispensaries have received harsh warnings about getting their property seized.  The times are changing for the dispensaries, the ride has been a ruff one, and now medical marijuana dispensaries are as dead as a door nail.

What implications lie ahead for Colorado with medical marijuana?  California lead the way for Colorado and it’s 1000 or do medical outlets, and one would have to assume that Colorado medical marijuana is next for the feds to target.  Patients, caregivers, and dispensary owners beware, your medical marijuana card means nothing now.  The only good news will be that the previous underground market should now come back and the real smokers out there will still be able to get their herb.  Jah Bless!

If you put 100 marijuana activists in a room and try to figure out the state of marijuana in Colorado you will get 100 different opinions.  Patients and Caregivers have been forgotten about in our pot clown state, and the very people who should protect the citizens and their rights, mainly the lawyers and politicians are only trying to get famous writing more confusing laws which ultimately only hurts everyone especially patients.  Currently secret meetings are being held in Colorado to make driving with THC in your system a crime.  DUI is big business in Colorado for law enforcement, revenue, and defense lawyers, and motivation on all 3 levels is trying to bust you for being a patient once again.

Take for example Breckenridge pot clown Sean McAllister.  McAllister law office claims to be a Marijuana advocacy group meaning they are pro-pot.  In reality McCallister law office is anti-marijuana, only defending dispensaries and threatening to narc on the very people they supposedly defend; the average pot head.  On the surface their agenda may appear true, and genuine but like everyone with a weed agenda in Colorado, there is a flip to this pot clowns’ agenda.  Know your pot clown and beware of how they are infringing on your right to use cannabis.  The very people who pretend to be helping patients in Colorado may actually be hurting patients, and ignorance is no excuse.  See this Westword article for a personal bio of some of the pot clowns who write the laws to get you in trouble and then get to defend you and take your money in the end.

High Country Caregiver, working hard to keep your pipe packed and keeping you out of the rat pack.  Have fun and get high today!

Know thy pot clown!

1 more in the circus

Watch activist Robert Chase as he exposes the pot clowns in this video:

Great cannabis photos can be achieved with a good macro lens like the Canon 100 mm f/2.8 is ii and a DSLR camera like the Canon 7D.  A good a camera and a good macro lens are only half of the equation of good cannabis photos and macro photography work in general.  With so much marijuana in Colorado it’s about time to start documenting all of this beautiful work through decent photography.  TuTone has found that getting the flash off of the camera is key to creating great shadows and highlights in the macro kind bud photography.  A great flash to use is the Canon Speed Lite 580 EX ii for a macro flash.  The Canon 7D mounted to a Gitzo tripod, and set to wireless flash control allows the 580 EX to work wireless, off camera hand held, close to the bud being photographed.  The off camera configuration for the flash allows for wonderful cannabis photos like the Mr. Nice pictured below.

Marijuana photos are a pleasing and healing way to enjoy the cannabis plant.  If you haven’t yet, be sure to stop by our marijuana .co domain www.marijuanaphotos.co where you can register and upload your own photos, learn about marijuana photography, and download high resolution cannabis photos for your blog or Facebook page.  Cannabis should be free for all to share, and of course the photos on marijuanaphotos.co are available for your full enjoyment and download.

Mountain Medical Leaf is one such dispensary in Loveland Colorado which is having a blow out / give away sale to move their inventory on to patients.  Jason Specht is the unofficial spokesman for an advocacy group Loveland Association of Wellness (LAW) who has been following the marijuana industry in Northern Colorado.  Encouraging patients to buy product is extremely challenging, and those sales aren’t garnering much income for the dissolving shops, Specht said.  “The problem is that these are shark-infested waters,” Specht said. “Everyone knows we’re in a tough spot, so they can get the product very cheap.”  Specht said dispensary owners will sell their product even if it’s not at a very competitive price.  “It’s just a matter of ‘some money is better than no money,’ ” he said. “That’s where we’re at with that.”

High Country Caregiver takes this opportunity to allow marijuana purveyors to continue to sling the herb as a caregiver.  Caregivers are protected by law, will never be voted out of work, and have the opportunity to reach a few select patients for individual care.  If you are among the 80% of dispensaries getting shut down in Colorado, all is not a total loss, as this is an opportunity to go back to your ganja roots and the patient – caregiver model of providing cannabis to the 100,000+ patients looking to buy your weed in the great pot clown state of Colorado.  inhale.co is a marijuana caregiver website 2.0 building program to help catalyze your caregiver business and make the transition from dispensary back to caregiver.  If you haven’t built a marijuana website yet, or if you need some HTML5 templates and marijuana design ideas consider inhale.co, take a deep breathe, you can do this!  Grow your marijuana business while your plants grow, all is not a loss and you’ll be back in the dope game in no time.  Jah bless the High Country and Colorado marijuana. 

Pictured below is some organically grown Purple Trainwreck, grown by a caregiver with lots of love.  If you are a patient in Loveland in need of a new marijuana supply, remember Amendment 20 and your caregiver.  When you pass the doochie on the left be sure to mention 420.co, notice the .co domain which we are just loving in the High Country.  Jah Bless!

Purple Erckle X Trainwreck

According to GreensMan’s Page:  “You may not be able to tell what type plant you’re smoking, but you can tell what you like. Choosing marijuana seeds from high-quality marijuana will grow into high-quality marijuana plants. If you like the grass you’re smoking, you’ll like the grass you grow.”  Though the Centennial Seeds are born in Colorado, GreensMan goes on to describe the origins of cannabis and reminds us that here in Colorado we should remember that the lineage of our cannabis goes way back according to GreensMan: “The origin of your grass even if you knew it for certain, has little to do with whether it will be dynamite or worthless smoke. In both India and Brazil, hemp is grown which is worthless for marijuana. Likewise, extremely potent marijuana plants grow which are useless for hemp fiber. These plants are sometimes found growing in adjacent fields. Most of the fine-quality marijuana varieties develop in those countries nearer to the equator. How much this had to do with environmental conditions or cultural practices is unknown. In either case, marijuana traffic has been so heavy that fine varieties now grow all over the world. For example, in the United States thousands of people now grow varieties from Mexico. These fine varieties originated in Asia and Africa, and many were brought to Mexican farmers by American dealers during the 1960s. As more farmers grew these new varieties, the quality of Mexican grass seeds imported to the United States improved.” Here we are in 2011 andl people are speaking of varieties such as Roughneck, Further, and Django as if they were created in Colorado, but let’s not forget that these little ganja warriors began on the other side of the world and only now present themselves for your marijuana smoking pleasures and pain relief.

Centennial Seeds Colorado Further

Pictured below is some bud that was grown outdoors in California, a personal favorite, the Aff Goo.  Aff Goo originated in the the eastern highlands of Northern California in Grass Valley, CA.  Humboldt County, Trinity County, and Mendocino Counties compose the emerald triangle of California and supply the bulk of medical marijuana around the country, but Grass Valley is also on the weed map for the Aff Goo specifically.  What is Aff Goo?  The gooiest Afghan strain that has ever been crafted for your smoking pleasure.  Aff Goo is a unique strain of cannabis that has an amazing intoxicating smell from the moment you crack the lid on your stash jar.  Aff Goo unlike other bud has the bulk of it’s THC content on leaves which are dripping with gooey THC and are often not trimmed away like other buds leaves.  Enjoy Aff Goo for a unique marijuana experience.  This is the kind of bud that grows great outdoors, in the fresh air or California, Colorado, and other medical states free of to grow into a bountiful expression of the cannabis plant.

Growing outdoors in Colorado is possible almost anywhere, even in the High Country.  GreensMan’s Page has some excellent specifics on growing outdoors and indoors.  For Colorado cannabis consumers who have been stuck with confined indoor grown buds, free your toking experience, and blaze up some outdoor bud.  Take a break from being high and get irae.  The carbon footprint left by indoor growing can not be passed to future generations, and now is the time to bring the plants out of the closets and basements, and into the great sunny outdoors of Colorado.  Colorado has followed Cali’s lead with marijuana production, and now it’s time to bring the sunlight to Colorado.  High Country Caregiver, keeping the High in pot smoking for all the real tokers out there; get irae with some outdoor Cali Bud.

Afghan Goo outdoor grown

When marijuana is being banned, advocates often show up in hordes though out Colorado to protest.  Dispensary owners, their legal defense, and patients often give testimony at town council meeting, but unusually in Fairplay before the dispensary ban vote, when public comment was allowed, no one appeared.  Park County has among the highest percentage of patients per population in Colorado, yet no patients, caregivers, or potential dispensary owners came to speak out against the ban of retail cannabis.

Town Attorney Lee Philips reinforced the patients – caregiver model and stressed that the new law in no way effects protections given to marijuana patients under Amendment 20.  Mayor Greg Johnson said that the reason for the ban on commercial marijuana production and distribution within the town centered on the idea that it disrupts schools, teachers, and parents.  Fairplay Mayor also noted that dispensaries are having a negative effect on neighboring towns such as Alma where already one dispensary, the South Park Cannabis Club has shut down.  Existing marijuana centers in Alma such as High Country Healing 2 (HCH2), and Alma Cannabis Theraputics are likely to see an upswing in business as they are the only 2 remaining dispensaries in Northern Park County.

New laws under CO HB 10 – 1284 enabled communities like Fairplay to vote to ban cannabis.  Compared to other communities Fairplay handled the ban well as they are not shuttering any existing marijuana businesses, and they are encouraging the re-emerging patient – caregiver model of marijuana  production originally intended by Amendment 20 and the voters.  Jah Bless caregivers in the High Country.

Did you pay your tax?