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

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?

A cartel is a formal (explicit) agreement among competing firms. It is a formal organization of producers and manufacturers that agree to fix prices, marketing, and production.^[1] Cartels usually occur in an oligopolistic industry, where there is a small number of sellers and usually involve homogeneous products. Cartel members may agree on such matters as price fixing, total industry output, market shares, allocation of customers, allocation of territories, bid rigging, establishment of common sales agencies, and the division of profits or combination of these. The aim of such collusion (also called the cartel agreement) is to increase individual members’ profits by reducing competition.

The current marijuana structure being a homogeneous product, in an oligopolistic industry meets the conditions to be controlled by a cartel.  Prices for a pound of marijuana in Colorado were often around $5000 2 years ago, and now they are falling to below $3000.  Dispensaries with ever increasing restrictions are starting to feel the pressure from the caregiver cartel that really sets the price of cannabis.  Dispensaries get the 7-11 type novelty customers that by a ganja soda or a few grams of the latest flavor, but marijuana is a bulk industry, and caregivers selling ounces for less than the marijuana dispensaries in Colorado will always take the bulk of the product.  Aside from cost, caregiver weed is better.  Caregivers helped to build the marijuana industry, and even though many caregivers now call themselves dispensaries, they are no longer allowed to pick up inventory from the caregivers coming out with the latest strains.

The Colorado Legislature has many meetings scheduled, and dispensary owners are currently bringing up the issue of the caregiver cartels interfering with their business and making it difficult to compete.  CO HB 10 – 1284 does nothing to regulate caregivers, only dispensaries, and the caregivers in Colorado are still the ocean of the market that the dispensary owners are forced to swim in and compete with.  The dispensary owners will continue to look out for their financial interests, even by degrading the caregivers that helped build their flourishing for profit marijuana enterprise, but the patients will make their choice.  When the choice is go to a dispensary and pay more for chemmy weed while you’re video taped vs. going to a caregiver, the choice is simple, caregivers represent the patients, Amendment 20, and most of all the cannabis plant and will always control the price of cannabis and the medical marijuana industry as a whole.  Jah Bless the caregiver and long last the cartel. Marijuana Purchase Survey

At a time like this with so much uncertainty, we must join together with one common vision….

When children are blamed for the nations drug problems, and the finger is pointed at the sick and weak for using cannabis, it’s time to stand up and say; YES I CAN SMOKE POT

When the Colombian drug cartels have better internet access in the middle of the jungle than most Americans, take a deep inhale.

Now that I have your attention I want to say that the only way Americans will ever be safe from unjust marijuana laws is to legalize cannabis.  The madness has to end.  Out of everything that you pointed out about changes needed in our country Obama, why didn’t you mention legalizing cannabis.  So many proud, educated, able Americans have had their lives ruined by your drug laws, yet you fail to even mention it.  Every major newspaper in every major city in your country has done articles on medical marijuana, so certainly you know how we are becoming a unified nation of cannabis producers and can shut the doors on the drug problems from overseas related to cannabis with your ending the drug war.  The time is now President Obama legalize marijuana and make America a more successful prosperous nation.  We leave you tonight with a vision once had about Obama and weed that was promised and never came true.

What happend Obama?

The State of the Weed Address

Why renew your medical marijuana card?  Primarily if you are a dispensary shopper you will need a medical marijuana card according to CO HB 10 – 1284.  If you wish to visit dispensaries, High Country Caregiver recommends renewing your card.  Patients who grow their own or use a caregiver however may want to consider twice whether or not they should renew.  New laws about marijuana primarily relate to dispensaries, or centers, but as a patient, you can choose to obide by Amendment 20 instead, the original marijuana law protecting your which does not say it is mandatory to send in your paperwork, pay $90 and have a marijuana card.  This is a good option to keep open, keeping your marijuana medicine between you and your doctor, and keeping the state out of it.

The Colorado Department of Revenue fully plans to invade your privacy and share your marijuana use, and purchases with law enforcement, the DEA, insurance companies and the DMV.  HCC will not insult your intelligence by telling you the dangers of sharing this information.  The medical marijuana registry was supposed to be confidential, but if you choose to go to a dispensary, as a registered patient, a picture of you with your marijuana purchase will be stored to eventually be used against you.  Make no mistake Colorado marijuana patients, the old rule of thumb in the drug world always has been to keep your mouth shut.  Now is the time to decide if you want to share your information with those dispensary owners on the sinking ship of fulls incriminating themselves.  Do not renew your card if you enjoy your freedom, all you need is a caregiver and a doctor’s note.

Photo of real Colorado marijuana card

Inside Leo's Smoke Shck

Leo's Shack Breckenridge

Leo’s smoke shack unfortunately has no shortage of garbage, but Mr.  Hanky from South Park is seen asking you to ‘pack it out’ of the shack.  Prayer flags adorn the high point of the near 8 foot high ceilings, the rafters are full of every utensil needed for a medicated ski break on mountain smoke shack style like only Breckenridge can serve up.  The shack builders did an excellent job of installing a stair case to the upper level, designing various lounges withing the enormous structure, and even designed more intimate side rooms for your puffing pleasures.

Mr. Hank from South Park Makes a Visit

Prayer Flags Bless this sacred Shack

Smoke shacks have a culture of their own at Breckenridge.  Skiing often has it’s own sub-cultures, but nothing is more unifying and enjoyable than the smoke shack experience.  Pass to the left, pass to the right, just keep passing, smoke shacks are not to be taken lightly and you will get your fill like it or not if you enter.  If you enter Leo’s be sure to roll them Tupac and Notorious Big are watching.  It brought to tears to the eyes of this High Country medical marijuana reporter to see such beautiful artwork totally unmolested and see the two legends of rap proudly displayed in such a marvelous structure.  Tupac and Biggie Smalls bless this cabin and it’s dwellers.

Tupac Shakur Fallen Hero

To all Biggie's Peeps in Leo's Shack

View 4:20 Breckenridge Shacks in a larger map

Cheap herb and lots of it, who can complain?  It makes small caregivers work harder to produce fine cannabis that will make the cut with all of the competition out there.  Pictured above is White Widow X Trainwreck, a High Country original from seed, which has been healing many for over 2 years now.  Pictured below is the all time mountain favorite strain of marijuana, Purple Erkle X Trainwreck, known as Purple Wreck, this one is from Reserva Privada seed bank, one of the only seed banks from over seas that is still doing a really awesome job.

Growing, flowering, and harvesting high quality cannabis is an art that is appreciated by so many.  You won’t find cannabis of this quality at a dispensary, especially as they are getting shut down, taxed, and monitored by video all over Colorado.  The true spirit of the Colorado heirloom strains lies everywhere in Colorado, not hidden behind regulations.  Just ask, and you will find!