More evidence that the United States consumes 90% of the world's drug supplies.
Aren't there enough UnfoggeDCon posts up already?
According to shivbunny, people are also bitching because for years and years, many goods have shipped (think paperbacks) with the prices US $X Canadian $X*1.3. None of this has changed even with the rising Canadian dollar, so people are driving across the border to buy, e.g., cars, on the grounds that even with customs they're still making out on the deal. So retailers are bitching that people are crossing the border, and consumers are bitching that that goddamn novel is still $11.99, and I'm bitching that if I'd understood about currency four years ago, I would have doubled our nest egg.
Between this and the southern border crackdown it's got to be a good time to be an undocumented farmhand in Humboldt.
God damn, I've been getting ripped off.
The unwillingness of Canadian retail industry to adjust to the change is a bit surreal. You get the feeling that everyone's just sort of waiting for the currencies to revert back to the values God intended, which should happen any day now.
4: Yeah, I was in Toronto a few weeks ago, and I really noticed that price thing (and also heard many complaints). The book that retails for US$12.00 and Can$16.00 is now way overpriced for Canadians.
8 - I wonder if online companies like Amazon that can easily dynamically adjust their pricing per country are seeing a spike in sales as a result.
A lot of booksellers seem to be taking the whine about it and wrap themselves in the flag approach (see e.g. chapters.) For the last 6 months or so amazon.com has had a top of page 'Shopping From Canada? Click here' ad for amazon.ca (based on geo-targeting my IP I'm guessing). Amazon.ca prices themselves haven't been hugely different that I've noticed, but I'm usually buying new releases that are significantly discounted.
My favorite response is a local new & used bookseller, where they're selling at the US price, here:
This seems to me to be a more reasonable solution than the strategy employed by many of my larger competitors, a very Canadian solution, which involves posting a sign -- 40% exchange rate, many complexities, "our publisher partners," Canadian cultural industry, national survey, letter-writing campaign, close our doors, boo-hoo, boo-hoo, yak yak woof -- and then abandoning the front-line retail staff to irritated customers who aren't stupid.
Clearly, this was the plan of the Bush administration all along: win the war on drugs by devaluing the dollar until it can't buy them.
I am highly amused by the "well, we bought it 6 months ago, when the dollar was weaker" argument. Yes, but the dollar was at, what, 92 cents then? Your 30% higher prices (10% discount is meaningless, since you can get the same discounts at bricks and mortar stores in the US, just on lower initial prices) were not reasonable then, either, they just got fewer complaints.
I've noticed a lot of magazines have gone to a single price already.
I figure there will be a sudden large downward change in prices when Christmas shopping is down 30% because hey, the border's only 30 minutes away.
Aren't there enough UnfoggeDCon posts up already?
So, Tim, you going to UnfoggeDCon?
Marginal Revolution on the Canadian book price versus U.S. book price.
christ, like the kiiler kind from BC wasn't expensive enough before. I'm glad I quit using drugs while the dollar was still strong.
Are you, slol?
Shh. I'm trying to work Tim into a deadly game of meet-up chicken.
The unwillingness of Canadian retail industry to adjust to the change is a bit surreal. You get the feeling that everyone's just sort of waiting for the currencies to revert back to the values God intended, which should happen any day now.
In Saint Catharines this weekend the convenience stores had signs saying "FOR YOUR CONVENIENCE MAGAZINES WILL NOW BE SOLD AT AMERICAN PRICES".
16: on the other hand, it's a lot easier to justify having a benjamin on hand to snort things with.
21: Has stalker convictions according to the website.
18 is encouraging.
Also OT, but more worth your time than any number of Norman Mailer obits: a very weird "was it real or wasn't it?" throwdown between Mailer and... Rip Torn.
How much does marijuana cost? I've never actually bought any and when I've offered to chip in or pay my host back, I've always been waved off. I seriously have no clue.
Oh, about yea much. (moves hands around to indicate a nebulous shape)
Retail, around these parts, $50 a quarter for ditch weed, $100-125 for quality. If you can find it, which generally you can't.
Or so I'm told.
Around here, $50-$60 buys an envelope that's good for one cycle of chemo or maybe 2-3 weeks (?) without chemo. I have no idea what sort of actual usage that translates to.
25: Varies depending on where you are and what the quality is. About $10 for a gram or $20-30 for an eighth is pretty standard.
(dob and I having just revealed in what quantities our, ummm, friends usually purchase.)
$2000 a pound production costs? Sounds way out of line to me. Even if it includes bribes, losses to confiscation et al it still sounds very high.
(dob and I having just revealed in what quantities our, ummm, friends usually purchase.)
You can usually get a QP of decent weed for about $1000, if you know the right people.
32: depending on the age of the people involved, the bag your friends had was anywhere from an eighth to an ounce.
Huh. I used to be quite the mooch, apparently.
32: (And over $100 a quarter for quality pot would seem insanely high to me, so I guess maybe there's something to that domestic-glut thing.)
The quantities are fractions of an ounce. So a quarter is seven grams.
38: in LA (what I hear is *cough* *cough* whoah dank bro) an eighth will most often set you back around $60, but LA is a weird vortex which no reasonably priced weed can enter.
Hypothetically, if one were an occasional mule for someone who could get a state medical use license, would one think the license was a good thing to have? State enforcement over personal use quantities is rare, and creating a record that could conceivably be obtained by the medical-use-unfriendly feds seems like a bad idea, so hypothetically a hypothetical person might prefer to just keep his mouth shut, no?
39: Cripes. And $1000 for a QP is ridiculous, too. Can't see why people would bother at those prices.
42: not only that, but LA has regular dry spells, when nobody can get any weed.
BTW, if Mrs. Ruprecht should chance to read this thread: no, that drugs thing earlier really was a joke. Seriously.
Oh, eveything I say is a joke. I'm such a suspiciously well-informed kidder!
41: Yes one should keep his mouth shut, or yes the license is a good thing to have?
$60 for an eighth is standard in all sorts of places, isn't it?
46: clamp that mouth to the bong and stay silent if you have another way to get it consistently.
47: it's pretty common on the east coast, too. California outside of LA you can usually get cheaper... SO I HEAR!
Haha, woo. Fun fun.
48: Thanks. That's pretty much what we'd arrived at--absent the bong part--but nice to have confirmation from an expert a suspiciously well-informed kidder.
47: All sorts of horrible, benighted places, yes.
Any-hoo, another OT link if watching Norman Mailer fight Rip Torn to the death isn't your thing: [url=http://www.popsci.com/popsci/flat/bown/2007/green/item_59.html]the nanotech revolution of solar power begins[/url].
The city where I live has an astonishing number of headshops.
Back in the day, when I was young and foolish and still lived in Canada, pot was just for West Coast hippies and various and sundry other degenerates, and the real percentage was in hash.
Once when I was 19 years old, and didn't know from shit, my high-and-mighty big-city cousins took me to a New Year's Eve party at a hotel in T.O., and I got a little bit confused or disoriented or something, and ended up knocking on the wrong hotel room door, upon which this very creepy man answered the door (and there was an equally creepy woman in the background) and made a very shocking proposal, which included the promise of x number of grams of hash, when all of a sudden, and seemingly out of nowhere, one of my numerous male cousins appeared on the scene, and made a very shocking proposal to do some serious violence to creepy man's face and person, and then whisked me off to safety. Cousin Tommy didn't blame me, he just said, "There's some real scum out there." It took me years to figure this scenario out, but it was a long time ago, and I may be romanticizing.
In Eugene, there were always people offering $40 eighths. Not like there are huge costs associated with driving slowly up I-5 from Humboldt, so I dunno about DS's pricing.
55: he's in Canada. Even less cost driving slowly from BC.
$60/eighth for relatively decent shit is standard around here. $40 for crap, $80 if it's something really good.
Hence my comment at 6, at $60/eighth, that's $7680/pound. Dayum.
Let us praise the Lord that Sister Invisible was saved from defilement and remains a potential Saint.
What are these "quarters" and so on of whch you speak.
Quarter of an ounce, eighth of an ounce, etc. I'd say an eighth is enough to last someone (one of my friends, of course) who smokes a couple of times a week, for a couple months.
I'd say an eighth is enough to last someone... a couple months.
Oh wow. Now I'm embarrassed.
I'm so glad that only about six people have commented in this thread.
Where the hell is apostropher, is what I want to know.
There are a lot of lakes in BC. Takes a long time to drive around 'em all, increasing the costs of intra-Canadian transportation. Or something.
Where the hell is apostropher, is what I want to know.
Getting high probably.
What I like about Manitoba is that it's approachable. It looks like a big place from afar, but then when you get in close in the atlas, not only does the upper 90% have no roads or inhabitants (like the rest of Canada), but most of it is lakes, to boot.
So, dish: when is Regina going to start pronouncing her name right? Oh, she's the talk of the town, so oblivious.
The book that retails for US$12.00 and Can$16.00 is now way overpriced for Canadians.
That shit was overpriced five years ago when I moved to Canada. Along with a lot of other things, like kids' toys. And yet my chair had told me, when I was trying to negotiate the salary, that the cost of living was cheap.
Bastard.
66: Our secret is out. We perfected the flying car like, twenty years ago. It's our last, best line of defense against Yankee imperialism.
If an eighth = 3.5g and lasts 2 months = 8 weeks at 2 per week = 16, then one joint is 200-250 mg? That seems like a fairly small amount to roll- do you have to cut it?
our last, best line of defense against Yankee imperialism
I thought that was winter. And we with our Yankee ingenuity have invented the SUV superweapon that will solve that problem once and for all.
73: Peak Oil gonna own a yankee.
72: My friends say that rolling a joint with rolling tobacco European style is way awesome, and that rolling it puro doesn't let you taste it and wastes weed anyway.
last, best line of defense against Yankee imperialism
The first being giving away your comedians in the manner one might toss a steak to distract an angry dog?
OT:Just watched Almodovar's Volver.
Oscar whatever, Cruz was good but the other actresses seemed better. Mostly it was neat to watch a movie that liked women so much. I really don't know why women put up with guys I have never seen enough use for us to make us seem worth the trouble.
Last night was La Mujer de Hermano another movie about the uselessness of straight men. Not as good.
I'll sign on with Sifu, an eighth lasting for months sounds completely foreign to me. Also, 60 was also the going rate in my former home of College Town, KS. I don't really know about here in College Town, TX *grumble grumble*.
Speaking of grumble, my friend has pined for a year and a half for his dear deported Cambodian connect. $225 ounces of crystally beauty? My friend could have been a professional with that kind of hookup.
A guideline for weed/hash prices in Amsterdam.
Our local charges about 7 euros/gram for reasonable quality.
It's been way too long since I've been to the Netherlands. What an awesome nation: you can sit down and play chess with anybody!. I feel bad that I've only been to Amsterdam, Haarlem, and Arnhem; I'm sure Rotterdam must rock ass. And doner kebab! And good indonesian! And the women are inapproachably hot! Fuck you, exchange rate, says I.
Cruz was good but the other actresses seemed better
Yeah. The actress who played Agustina was really wonderful.
Also, that's not really off-topic, now that I think about it.
Furthermore, the Netherlands rock. They picked an ideal time to become a country: they dealt with religious conflict better than anyone else (even though the Calvinists were pricks), and managed to invent modern capitalism as well. The UK bit the Dutch style to considerable profit, but the dutch did it first, and Dutch political culture dealt with modern economic structures better than anybody: they didn't need a New Deal. It's not the Dutch liberal attitudes toward MJ that attract me, but their political principles. The former flows from the latter. If all the nations of the world were transformed into syphilitic 70 year old men, I'd still suck the Dutch cock.
Also, whither the european commentariat? I ask this now because I can't get to sleep and want to be entertained, but the question is serious. The various UK commenters do their bit, but they're a disproportionate minority, and the continent is woefully unrepresented. Wisse is the only guy I can think of. It's not like we're only discussing Dem primaries: mostly we talk about sex and bitchiness, which are universal. Is the tone of the blog somehow offensive to the EU/commonwealth? Surely someone in Australia has an opinion about whether grad students are good in bed. Why isn't he telling us about it?
The book that retails for US$12.00 and Can$16.00 is now way overpriced for Canadians.
I am not seeing this. The shop is still paying its rent in C$ and its staff in C$, and the customers are presumably earning C$. I don't really see why the customers have a right to the windfall gain on the C$.
I wonder what Wittfogel made, or would have made, of the relationship between the Netherlands' flood control and reclamation projects and the form of government.
85: It's because the selling price was fixed when the Dollar-Loonie was at a certain rate, and that rate has since changed dramatically. The rent and wages have not. (North American books have prices printed on them at the time of publication. You see the problem here, yes?)
Not really, no. The Canadian retailer pays the US publisher in US dollars and sells in C$, so the Canadian retailer bears the risk on U$/C$, both ways. Canadian customers weren't going "oh god, we must help out our poor old book retailers, this is so unfair" when it was 2C$/U$, so why do they expect to get a gain now?
Furthermore, the Canadian customers are Canadians, not Americans. It costs the same number of hours' wages for a Canadian to buy the book as it did before. Nothing has changed in the Canadians' domestic relative pricing. They just see that booksellers are making a windfall profit, and are pissing and moaning that this isn't being passed on to them as quickly as they'd like it to be.
Back in the days of Irish and English pounds, I used to travel on the Holyhead/Dublin ferry and heard this argument ad nauseam.
I bought a book* in Ottawa in 2003 and it seemed inordinately expensive compared to American prices.
*Under Western Eyes
88: I know I'm asking for a beatdown but:
a)The US and Canadian economies are pretty well integrated. Not only would the purchase of a US book look unattractive relative to the purchase of a (flexibly priced) US kazoo, but,given the level of integration, the exchange rate should have a deflationary effect on the Hoser economy in general, making the book relatively more expensive.
b)the currency shift should depress canadian wages. From an employer's standpoint, Canadians and Americans are pretty much interchangeable This would further decrease demand for the hypothetical book.
c)The used book trade should pick up. The difference between the ideal price and the printed price should present opportunities for smuggling. If I had to be one sort of a criminal or another, book smuggling would be right up there. I'm picky though, you won't score Grisham off me; I got straight Borges and Calvino. Strong shit, it'll make you forget about James.
I've no real idea what hash costs in the UK: I don't smoke, and the few times I've nibbled on hash cakes or hash fudge, it's been a gift or a friend sharing her stash. I've seen single roll-ups changing hands for five pounds, though.
I have a weird reaction to pot: if I'm even the slightest bit stressed, it gives me a singing tension headache at the back of my skull. I've never heard of this happening to anyone else, but I swore off even a nibble back a few years ago when it seemed like I was consistently stressed.
Laughable attempt at anonymity here, but:
in the late 80s/early 90s, standard price was about 5 quid a gram, give or take. A quarter ounce was about 30 quid. It varied a bit depending on scarcity and quality.
I gather, although I've not bought any or been interested in buying any, for years, that prices now are generally lower than that.
http://www.idmu.co.uk/05canprice.htm
Has the 2005 prices. So somewhere around 80 quid an ounce. So, significantly cheaper than the US, overall, if the prices in comments above are right.
a) not sure what you're getting at here and exchange rate moves can have all sorts of effects which aren't well understood but factually the Canadian economy isn't in recession, it's doing fine.
b) ditto; Canadian wages aren't being depressed (and Americans and Canadians are not really all that substitutable, particularly as Americans living in Canada will still need paid in C$
c) given that book retailing is a reasonably competitive market, you'd expect that in time, the book retailers will end up cutting prices (it is not exactly difficult to put a sticker on a book marking it down by 10% - unless the Canadians have a law against this like the UK used to ten years ago, I suppose). But I think it's a bit greedy of Canadian consumers to presume that they have the right to get these price cuts straight away.
Quarter of an ounce, eighth of an ounce, etc. I'd say an eighth is enough to last someone (one of my friends, of course) who smokes a couple of times a week, for a couple months.
I...find this strange.
72: My friends say that rolling a joint with rolling tobacco European style is way awesome, and that rolling it puro doesn't let you taste it and wastes weed anyway.
if you mean with hash and tobacco, yes. the notion that adulterating weed with tobacco will allow you to taste the weed better than a straight-up joint is stupid in a rather obvious way. tobacco has a strong flavor. also, it doesn't "waste weed" unless by wasting weed you mean "get everybody fucked-up wasted on the weed."
wasting weed you mean "get everybody fucked-up wasted on the weed."
Well, a lot of people don't want the 'instant mong' effect. They want to get slowly stoned over the course of an hour or two, ending with 'fairly monged'. So, for those people, whacking a huge great chunk of grass into a single joint and smoking it straight is pretty counter-productive.
That said, the 'an eighth lasts a few months' thing seems quite low. Most people I knew who were moderate rather than heavy smokers, got through about an eighth every week to ten days [I am thinking hash here, not grass].
84: As an Australian and a grad student I can say we are goddamn dynamite in the sack.
Regarding the lack of Euro-stylings on this blog, you have both the language and the timezone to contend with. During business hours (and when else does anyone blog?) you're looking at a conversation with no-one, which is quite boring and doesn't encourage repeat visits.
84: I am in the low countries too - but i am from quite a bit further north originally. I lurk, mainly because the threads when I see them have either 5 comments or 1500. That makes for an entertaining read but it makes participating a bit strange, i have no experience of what it would be like to follow a thread in real time. Also small person in diapers is constantly chasing me away from the computer.
Also 84: I'm Australian too, and until I got my PhD I was phenomenal in bed. And now... laydeez.
As for 80, great Indonesian in the Netherlands? I assume you mean food. If that is your contention, bah, I say. Bah!
Stroopwafels though. Yummy.
Standard UK prices as of a few years ago (when I quit) were 20 for 1/8 of green, 10 for 1/8 of brown. The green was very sticky, crystally, and as good as anything I ever had in Amsterdam.
Probably cuz most of it comes from Amsterdam.
Where the hell is apostropher, is what I want to know.
Roberta went to see Ani DiFranco last night, so I was on triple kid duty.
Re: pricing
Seven euros a gram?! Holee shit! Who is their customer base -- Warren Buffett and the Aga Khan? Well no, I guess some of my friends here in Ice City were just discussing a purchase of a half an ounce of something or other at approximately that price. But the substance in question was supposed to be mind-blowingly amazing, not just the regular, kinda okay stuff that people are used to paying, say $40/quad, $75/half for. It pays to have good friends though, there's no doubt about that.
re: 102
Pricing in grams is usually odd, or at least it was where I grew up. It doesn't reflect prices for larger amounts. People buying in 1 or 2 gram bits were usually paying a LOT more per weight than someone buying a quarter ounce.
It's generally 75-100 dollars for a good quality quarter-ounce here.
David Weman is another Euro commenter.
re: 104
Which is almost exactly 7 euros a gram.
But I think it's a bit greedy of Canadian consumers to presume that they have the right to get these price cuts straight away.
And what about the Canadian retailers who are complaining about Canadian consumers going across the border to buy their goods in America (because, actually, the stuff is cheaper in US dollars: it costs less in Canadian wages and hours worked to buy the book at US$12.00 than at Can$16.00)? Are they also being greedy to presume they have a right to the business of the Canadian consumers?
ooh, Ani DiFranco! How was it?
My understanding is that hereabouts a quarter goes for $100, maybe a bit more. With delivery, mind you.
Everything dsquared said about the Canadian economy is correct, but it ignores the really big border with cheaper goods 100 miles away. There have been reports of car dealers in the U.S. refusing to sell to Canadians, an attempt by the car companies to get Canadians to buy in Canada (for about an extra $4-6K more after customs and importing, and a straight extra $12-15K for the car companies.)
Which only means that prices in Canada would have to respond faster than they would otherwise. And also, that human beings are weird, since the bitching on both sides didn't happen until the Canadian dollar broke even, though it's been hanging around .90 for months.
Volver was awesome.
Good weed in Austin costs me $100-120 a quarter. A friend bought a whole ounce for ACL fest and paid $350, I think. On the other hand, the ditch weed can be had anywhere from $35 a quarter (unreasonably high) to $50 an ounce (admittedly, that was brought from Houston). Those prices indicate very little about quality. $20 or $25 a quarter is most common, and $60 an ounce.
I went through a $60 eighth of kb every 3 weeks, smoking every day out of a pinch hitter, only in the evening on weekdays, for about a year. But now I don't buy, don't keep it at the house, and only use through the generosity of friends a couple times a month.
108: I wasn't there, but she declared it awesome.
High quality homegrown is very cheap until the policeman knocks on the door. They don't let you take it to jail with you, though. Policemen love stoners, compared to tweakers and junkies, because they're so mild-mannered.
The cheap ditch weed is perfect for making brownies.
Policemen love stoners, compared to tweakers and junkies, because they're so mild-mannered.
You've mentioned this before, John. You seem very amused by this fact.
I had two friends busted in the last few years, and they were both very mild mannered. One had no serious long-term effects, but one almost had his life ruined (lost his house and wife and fell into depression, though no jail time). What could be funnier?
91: It's not just you. It takes just a whiff from being near it to give me a screaming headache. I was not one to shy away from it ten years ago and never had that reaction, then decided it made me too stupid to enjoy myself and after three or four years of almost zero exposure found that it had gained this new effect.
These prices blow my mind, though. It was $25, maybe $35/quarter when I was in college.
It was $25, maybe $35/quarter when I was in college.
Not for quality, it wasn't.
That may well be true; I never knew whether what I had was or wasn't quality.
And what about the Canadian retailers who are complaining about Canadian consumers going across the border to buy their goods in America (because, actually, the stuff is cheaper in US dollars: it costs less in Canadian wages and hours worked to buy the book at US$12.00 than at Can$16.00)? Are they also being greedy to presume they have a right to the business of the Canadian consumers?
Yes, they're also being greedy. Those customers are doing the job of importing books themselves, so they're picking up the same windfall exchange rate gain that the retailers pick up when they sell a book in Canada.
UK (Northern) standard pricing was 1/8=£10 for as long as I smoked it. Wash@94 suggests this is still current; I theorise that as the barriers to entry are pretty low (and especially in Yorkshire, where there's a direct Ro-Ro ship from Hull to Rotterdam every day), the price won't go up much in the short term because if it does it sucks in more supply from Holland within 24 hours, and if the price pressure keeps up, yer friendly local Vietnamese hydroponic gang put another roomful in service.
As there's been roughly 2.5% inflation annually since 1997, it seems the stuff is a typical commodity.
96: What this blog needs is a European with front-page posting rights. Acquiring dsquared from the Evil Empire would be quite a coup. Any other candidates?
I don't know if this is still true, but the BC stuff was special. At least, hydroponic groups in Vancouver were schooling the rest of the world about how to do this. It came at a price premium then, but I've no idea what the current situation is.
121: This is cleary true. People have been used to a 30% difference for the last 30 years or so; I suspect a lot of Canadians (and Americans, for that matter) just aren't used to thinking of the currencies on par. If retailers aren't getting punished for pricing the old way, there isn't much incentive for them to change. If they aren't careful about it though, some may be bitten by this.
This thread gave me the same feeling that real estate threads usually do. You paid how much? Here it's $80-$90 a quarter for premium reefer, but like BC, this is pot country, unlike the godforsaken places where most of you live.
Cascadian pot is the gold standard. Even Hawaiians acknowledge this. Anecdata: At a campground on Molokai, I walked by some tough-looking local guys gathered around a pickup (the kind of scene that would have been totally scary in the woods around here, but these guys had slack-key guitar playing on the radio, and the aloha was so thick you could cut it with a machete). The conversation was basically this:
"Hey, man."
"Hey."
"Where you from, bra?"
"Oregon."
"Got any green?"
A couple days later, there was a repeat of this scene, in a cab. When I told the driver I was from Oregon, the conversation instantly turned to pot. He said, "You know, people talk a lot about Maui Wowie, but Oregon green, that's the best."
There's a good reason so many hippies reside in Oregon.
126: The PCN & BC all has similar stuff grown outdoors (no surprise). It's really good country for growing it, and lots pf places to hide it if you can keep the deer out. The hydroponic pot though, is what was (is?) really pushing things. I recall (badly) a study claiming to have compared (I'm not sure exactly how field grown pot that would have been typical '60s fare with the strongest wheelchair bud they could find in Vancouver, and the difference was something like 1-2000% in THC content. Not really the same game, at that point.
you know, those numbers seem a bit high. But I'm not doing a search for it here at work.
and i can't type today. PCN should be PNW. wtf???
wtf???
Put down the bong, biscuit. Yes, the hydroponic stuff is still the cutting edge, as far as I know. Your numbers sound about right for a while ago, but I think the high-THC strains have largely filtered out into the field.
131: Yeah, the paper I'm remembering wasn't comparing current field grown to current hydroponic, it was trying to compare current (at that time) hydroponic to your average joint circa 1970, or something. So I'm really not clear how they would have done that. It was being cited in alarmist articles telling ex-hippie parents that their kids dope wasnt' at all what they remembered, stuff like that.
The high THC strains have been filtering out for ages, I'm sure.
Are you still out west, soup? For some reason, I imagine all the Canadian commenters being somewhere around Toronto.
133: Not out west, nor in Canada. I'll be there over xmas so no DC meetup for me.
[editing mental Mineshaft map...]
135: you can put a little lone star flag in for me, but not in the same cluster as hbgb, M/tch, Sir Kraab, etc.
My son reports that the today's good stuff is indeed stronger than the good old days stuff. Basically, one hit does you.
Hydroponics is what got my two friends busted. They monitor electric bills, send helicopters around with infrared detectors, take down license plates in hydroponic supply stores, etc. Even in Oregon.
Basically, one hit does you.
Only if you're unambitious.
75: The first being giving away your comedians in the manner one might toss a steak to distract an angry dog?
Another key strategy in the open! The Mounties are so gonna be on my ass.
There's nothing inherently wrong with cutting weed with tobacco, but if you have enough weed I don't see why you would. The bigger challenge here, I'm told, is finding weed that hasn't been adulterated with other, nastier substances (speed is a common one) prior to sale. This is part of why a trend that's good for the small producers is good for the consumers (the downside being the proliferation of grow-ups, which are often unsafe; I don't see why they don't just fully legalize the shit already).
88: Canadian customers weren't going "oh god, we must help out our poor old book retailers, this is so unfair" when it was 2C$/U$, so why do they expect to get a gain now?
Books actually may not be the best example to use for this sort of discussion. Canadian customers have been complaining about the state of book retailing in Canada for years, in fact pretty much since Chapters/Indigo (big box WalMart-style chain) came to dominate some 70% of the business. There's not a lot of goodwill for retailers connected with this big box system because they've been squeezing both the consumers and the publishers for yonks, and pretty much everyone despises them but is sort of resigned to the current state of affairs. Of course, Chapters/Indigo have by all indications not been making as much money at this as they expected to do (surprise, surprise, people responded to the ridiculousness by buying fewer books), but thanks to their reputation, people nevertheless tend to assume they've been raking it in hand-over-fist and screwing everybody else. (Dedicated book consumers actually tend to be a lot more forgiving of independents because they face much more of an uphill struggle.)
Anyway, given that neither retailers nor consumers are particular eager to be bolstering cross-border shopping, I'm not sure how much it matters whether it's "fair" that people are expecting prices to start to reflect the real exchange rates.
grow-ups
Grow-ops.
Basically, one hit does you.
Not really. But you certainly have to be willing to set aside the rest of your evening, I hear.
138: One good hit of wheelchair weed will tend to make you unambitous for a while.
139: the grow op houses particularly are unsafe largely due to the infra-red helicopter cameras, utility monitoring, etc. It's a real problem, some places.
140.2 is accurate, as is the problem with adultered stuff.
They monitor electric bills, send helicopters around with infrared detectors
There have been several busts locally of indoor farms, usually in moderately upscale neighborhoods. I suspect with the number of houses going to foreclosure we may see more of this.
There's nothing inherently wrong with cutting weed with tobacco, but if you have enough weed I don't see why you would
I just don't really get this logic. Or the logic of 94.
'Shit, why would you drink wine, dude, or beer when you can just drink a half pint of Everclear in one.'
If the high THC has been transferred to land-grown, as suggested above, then indoor growing with natural light would seem to be a worthwhile choice to avoid detection.
I just don't really get this logic.
Marijuana is far less carcinogenic than tobacco and tastes much, much better.
when you can just drink a half pint of Everclear
More like, "Why would you put orange juice in $100 champagne?"
143: It's a cycle, pushed by enforcement policy in one direction and economics in the other. The reason they are dangerous is because they are unmonitored. The reason they are unmonitored is because of the enforcement techniques. The reason they are in better neighborhood is because they are less obvious there. And so it goes.
Most of these are rentals, I don't know that forclosures will change anything. More paper to buy a place than rent it.
144: 'Shit, why would you drink wine, dude, or beer when you can just drink a half pint of Everclear in one.'
See, you just summed up my drinking philosophy, right there!
Kidding. But to certain people, cutting weed is more comparable to pouring half a glass of wine and then topping it up with root beer. The final product might be... interesting... but you'd probably only do it with the cheapest wine imaginable.
Marijuana is far less carcinogenic than tobacco
This part is under debate, but it's hard to do good research into it.
Most of these are rentals
There will be a lot of REO property, and I guarantee that the bank will be glad to have just about anybody paying rent, so I think we are on the same page. Just so long as some damn tweeker doesn't blow up his meth lab next to my house.
152: True enough. All the grow op is likely to do is burn down. Meth labs are nastier.
re: 148
I refer you to a certain presidential chap's argument above. Unless you are smoking fairly mellow weed, for a lot of people, even people who like being stoned, getting one great big fuck-off hit isn't really what they want. For 'half pint of Everclear in one' reasons.
149: It's all about the polonium and lead. Tobacco soaks that stuff up.
getting one great big fuck-off hit isn't really what they want
Pussies.
(Ahem. I mean, "to each their own, and let a thousand flowers bloom.")
getting one great big fuck-off hit isn't really what they want
No, I want several in short succession.
154: this is true. I knew a lot of people who were pretty leery of some supplies, because they knew a couple hits could absolutely eat your afternoon (they didn't call it wheelchair and the like for nothing). All they wanted was a mood enhancement.
(Ahem, I mean, "uncouth colonials.")
158 gets it exactly right. All these "oh man one hit will totally do you" types are on the far side of an unbridgeable gulf.
160 cont. which isn't to say that this isn't exactly what other people wanted.
I have watched a gram of really strong bud absolutely incapacitate a half dozen serious smokers for a good 4 hours, so this isn't just academic.
I am reminded of a scene from Jackie Brown:
Ordell: Damn girl, you gettin' high already? It's only 2 o'clock in the afternoon. I get my shit done for the day, then I get high. And besides, getting high and watching TV will rob you of your ambition!
Melanie: Not if your ambition is to get high and watch TV...
re: 163
Let's say a certain person went to Amsterdam when they were about 17 or 18, having been smoking pretty regularly and in fairly substantial quantities and having a slightly misguided idea of their own tolerance. And went to some place and ordered their fiercest, strongest bud, and then stuck way too much in a single joint and then smoked it in one. This person might get a salutary lesson in when you might want to get completely messed up [and have fun with it] and when you might just want to chill out with some friends and chat a bit and get mildly silly and in not confusing the two.
Someone needs to deliver Apo and Sifu some quality Oregon stuff stat.
Yeah if anybody wants to prove this to me I'm totally down.
Bay area retail prices:
$40-60/eighth depending on quality of product and how well you know your dealer.
Ounce prices scale up from that without more than a few dollars' break in price.
Wholesale pounds: $3000-5000 depending on how many steps in the supply chain. But I'm told that with medical semi-legalization, the market is flooded up north and pounds can be had in the low $2ks.
Amsterdam is a nice city, but can be annoying to a northern Californian pothead. Every coffeeshop you go into, you have the same dialogue:
"Be careful - this is much more powerful than what you're used to."
"No it's not - I live in Berkeley, CA and spend a lot of time in Humboldt."
"Oh, it's still stronger than you're used to."
"Listen, buddy, you're the one who needs to cut your weed with tobacco. You sit down and smoke straight joints with me and we'll see who has the tolerance."
Except I don't say that last bit, because it would make me look like a tacky, rude American.
166: Email me for an address, Ganja Claus.
Except I don't say that last bit, because it would make me look like a tacky, rude American.
Yeah, it kinda would.
I just got an e-mail from my local wine retailer; subject line "Prices reduced due to favourable exchange rate".
I'm just a promoter, guys. I never actually do anything. But I've got the word out there!
for comparison purposes only: mid to late eighties, absolutely top flight weed could be had for 1500 to 2000 a pound in the pacific north west, if were known at least.
Incidentally, 170 wasn't meant to sound harsh.
We all think these things when we go somewhere and the locals warn us about their fierce local firewater, or that some food they serve is spicier than we are used to, etc. It's saying it that would be a bit arsey.
In a Thai restaurant they are really doing you a favor to warn you. I can just barely eat "medium". Thai "mild" = American "hot".
Let's say a certain person went to Amsterdam when they were about 17 or 18, having been smoking pretty regularly and in fairly substantial quantities and having a slightly misguided idea of their own tolerance. And went to some place and ordered their fiercest, strongest bud, and then stuck way too much in a single joint and then smoked it in one.
That's the stereotypical British tourist in Amsterdam, though it leaves out the drinking.
I'm surprised electric bill monitoring would get anyone busted anymore with the high efficiency flourescent/LED lights you can get.
Also who the fuck wastes their weed by smoking joints?
only excuse for that is going to concerts or something.
