GoD - is a collective and dispensary the same thing?
They could be the same thing, but IMO most dispensaries aren't real collectives and are instead co-ops.
Collectives are not privately owned, they are owned and worked by ALL members of the group (collective) and no single member owns the product produced. Nothing is bought from anyone, as everything belongs to the members.
A collective is an entity that produces its own cannabis then provides it to its membership for cost of production and cost of operations, if there's even any compensation at all. Prices are wholly dependent on the actual cost of production and costs of operations, irrespective of any outside modifiers. In other words any shop selling at anywhere near black market prices isn't a true collective, since the true costs are miniscule compared to what most places charge.
Cooperatives are groups of people who all own their own land, (production sites) and sell their products to/through a central market or hub. Most cannabis dispensaries are, IMO, cooperatives, because they buy from "members" and the shop doesn’t own or rent the vast majority of production sites.
A cooperative is an entity that buys medical cannabis from members (at prices often depending on, or competing with the black market) then resells it adding on it's respective Cost Of Operations.
In general, collectives don't have as strict of definitions as do cooperatives, hence the reason you'll see many shady dispensaries calling themselves "collectives." The problem with the collective model is that, since it is not strictly defined in western law, the model may be manipulated by those trying to circumvent the more clearly defined rules of operation for a CO-OP under the law. AFAIK there are only a few true MMJ collectives out there, most are using the title incorrectly.
It's more likely to come across cultivation collectives (like the one my friends and I created), where a few patients come together to collectively cultivate and then redistribute their own meds internally. All you need to do this is a straightforward signed and dated collective agreement.
Ours is very basic, stating the following:
“As qualified medical marijuana patients under California law, we choose to associate collectively and cooperatively to cultivate marijuana for medical purposes. All members of our medical marijuana collective will contribute labor, funds, or materials, and all will receive medicine.”
It's the idea that members can contribute fund$ and receive medicine that dispensaries manipulate when they call themselves "collectives" and then proceed to operate under the tried and true buy/sell model. As more regulation enters the mix, I think we'll see a lot of these profiteers dropping out of the medical scene, or shaping up and re-defining themselves as co-ops.
Cheers
