Its all about the money, nothing else, and the goverment hates gettin cheated out of it by anybody..
Your goin to find that every one of the despensaries they target, regardless of what a nice guy the owner was or how badass their strains where, are operating way outside the law, not paying taxes, don't have the correct special use permit to operate a despensary, don't use the proper food handling protocols, they buy their edibles from anybody that can whip a batch of brownies in their kitchen at home....Why does anybody think that just because you are selling weed under the umberella of some noble cause that none of the other common business practices, protocols, and processes don't apply? go to a hair or nail salon or local deli for that matter and see how many permits, certifications, and liscenses they have to have just to cut a someones hair and nails and despensaries are distributing pruducts that people actually engest into their body in one form or another..I mean come on people..that means regular inspections by the local health boards and fees required anually, the whole nine yards.
Edibles must be prepared and packaged in a comercially registered, inspected, and liscenced kitchen..period...that is the only way to comply legally to provide other food products to resell to customers and if your employees are breakin it dow into smaller sizes for resell, they must have food handling permits as well.
You have to pay an alcohol excise tax on tincures or ointments that are prepared with grain alcohol or other drinkable spirits. Holler at a liquir store owner or bar owner and see how that prosess works.
As was stated before, these guys are usually not following the rules or anywhere close which is the reason they get targeted in the first place and it is hard as shit to run a cash business with varying vendors, most of which are operating illegally as well, and keep all the list of stuff straight to do it right but tax accountability is goin to be the biggest bat they have to beat people up with right now.
Growers are guilty as well, I am sure that there is not a supplier one that declares all, if any, of the income from all the product they take down to the despensaries..so own up, your part of the problem also....you can't scream and yell that ya want it mainstream, taxed, and excpeted and then just choose which rules you want to follow or not follow..runnin a business without loosin your shirt is hard, even when you follow the rules to the T and I don't see why a despensary should get a "lazy ass" pass just because, when you have other mom and pop retailers struggling their ass off the follow the rules.
Tex
