CANNABIS UNIVERSITY™Inc of Colorado

Cannabis University™Inc of Colorado was incorporated in 2008 and has had over 450 happy students! All-in-1-Day Class in downtown Denver the first Saturday of every month. Westword's "Harvard of Pot Schools," Marijuana schools in Colorado: A guide to higher learning. By Joel Warner Westword Tue., Mar. 2 2010 at 1:25 PM http://blogs.westword.com/latestword/2010/03/higher_learning_a_guide_to_col.php

What It's Like to Be a Professional Marijuana Trimmer

By Artemis Oscar 

For some it's a party, for others a calling -- fear of law enforcement is always around the corner. But someone's gotta do it.

October 26, 2012 |

How many people who obtain perfectly manicured buds from a dispensary consider the steps involved in its preparation? They may give some thought to the role of the grower, but who thinks about the trim crew?

People come from all over the world to trim cannabis during the harvest season in California. Between early October and mid-November they swell the population of Mendocino, Humboldt, and other counties. Many others work on indoor grows year round, all over the state.

There are young adults —high school drop-outs and college graduates— looking for work. There are local moms clipping to help pay the bills. There are Mexican families who come every year from down south. Trimmers come from all walks of life. You find yourself taking part in interesting conversations —a good fringe benefit.

Cultivators generally want workers they are acquainted with, who have trimmed before, and are trustworthy. Training someone new takes time, and the novices tend to work slowly at first.

The amenities of a trim job for an outdoor harvest are varied. Sometimes the trimming is done deep in the woods. A person will be sleeping in a tent with an outdoor toilet. Other times there are more plush accommodations, with guest houses, electricity and plumbing. Growers generally pay for the trimmers’ food and caffeine. They want a productive workforce.

A trimmer will usually be tight-lipped about the details of their employment. In October, my friends simply know that I am “up north.”

During the last month or so of a plant’s development, growers remove the big “fan leaves” as they begin turning yellow. This exposes the lower buds to the sunlight.

When the grower decides plants are ready to harvest —usually when the white hairs on the buds are turning red— they are cut down and either branches are lopped off to be trimmed immediately, or the whole plant is hung upside-down to dry in a cool, dark space for a week or so of curing.

As the plant dries, the remaining leaves wrap themselves around the buds and cling to the resinous trichomes. It is the trimmer’s job to cut these small leaves away with a small, sharp scissors —exposing the flowering top, which is covered with the beautiful crystals we know and love.

Strains are trimmed in different ways, depending on the structure of the colas and the intentions of the grower. For example, the Afgooey strain is very leafy, but the leaves are generally covered in crystals. If the product is intended for the medical market, the trimming technique needs to be altered to keep some of the larger, crystallized leaves.

The idea is to retain as much of the flower as possible. “Mowing” the weed makes trimming faster but is wasteful because it cuts off trichome-rich parts of the flower. Mowing also makes the buds look too uniform.

Wet and Dry Trimming

There are two methods of trimming: wet and dry. When you trim dried flowers, you are generally paid by the weight of finished product. The going rate in the fall of 2010 was $200 per pound.

A few years ago, when growers could sell a pound of manicured, high-grade sinsemilla for $4,000, trimmers were typically paid $250/lb. or more. Our labor was in such high demand that growers hired caterers and massage therapists to enhance the working conditions.

Increased cannabis cultivation in recent years has cut the wholesale price of pounds sold in California by about 50 percent, and most growers cite this as grounds for cutting the wages of trimmers.

reprinted from AlternNet

303-886-7998 November 2, 2012

Ms. Barbara Brohl, Executive Director Department of Revenue State of Colorado

Dear Ms. Brohl:

It has come to my attention that the Medical Marijuana Enforcement Division employees may be violating the Colorado Sunshine Act by meeting with members of the medical marijuana “industry,” without the public present or notice. (§ 24-6-402, C.R.S.)

As a recent licensee, #M07704, I am concerned with future rule making that would not favor my legitimate business.

Please investigate the Division’s practices, including the allocation of employee assets and the misappropriation of the Division’s meager funds. Clearly, the practices of the Division are impeding business with less than timely adjudication of licensee applications. Please inform me of the results of this complaint.

Sincerely yours,

Michelle LaMay, CEO

Cannabis University™Inc of Colorado

cc: Melissa Martinez, Citizen Advocate, CO Dept of Revenue

Protecting kids not a reason to prohibit others from using marijuana

Written by

Nicholas Lieurance

Soapbox

Reprinted from the Coloradoan 9-9-12

I know a lot of responsible adults who like to use marijuana. If Amendment 64 passes in November, they will no longer be considered criminals by the state when they do. That’s why I’m really looking forward to casting my vote in support of this amendment, and I hope a sufficient number of Coloradans are, too.

The opponents of Amendment 64 are working very hard to prevent legalization, and one of their most frequently used arguments against it is that prohibition is necessary to protect our children. They claim that if we legalize and regulate marijuana like alcohol, use among teens is going to skyrocket. They worry about what pot might do to their child’s health, motivation and future.

I agree that kids ought to stay away from marijuana. What I can’t agree with is the idea that my freedoms ought to be restricted because some overprotective parents think their kids might be able to get hold of it. This argument reminds me of a Mark Twain quote; it’s like “…saying a man can’t have a steak because a baby can’t chew it.”

Keeping children away from things that are dangerous or inappropriate is the job of parents, family members and teachers. It is not my responsibility to set an example for others’ children by surrendering my rights, nor is it my burden to abstain from things I enjoy so that kids don’t have access to them.

What kind of place would the world be if we outlawed all activities that are inappropriate for children? Wouldn’t it be one in which many of life’s most exciting and challenging experiences were prohibited because they aren’t for kids? Where our children exist not to pursue their own dreams but to raise our grandchildren? Where every generation is a slave to the next?

Parents who support marijuana prohibition ought to ask themselves if they are comfortable handing over responsibility for their kids to the government, because that is essentially what they are arguing for when they say Amendment 64 is bad for the children. They should think about finding ways to parent that don’t involve encroaching on my rights or the rights of others.

Nicholas Lieurance lives in Fort Collins.

Reprinted from "Toke of the Town" 9-18-12

For the third year in a row, the Colorado Legislature may consider a THC DUI proposal. Late last week, Mesa County senator Steve King, a Republican, announced that he would sponsor a bill in the 2013 session to set a per-se limit for how much THC can be in a driver's system. This marks the second time that King has pushed such legislation, and the new proposal looks like essentially the same bill that King tried -- and barely failed -- to pass last year, which would have limited THC levels to five nanograms per milliliter of blood.

That measure got a lot of support last year, and made it as far as the special session in May, when it lost by one vote because Senator Nancy Spence had left for vacation a day earlier. Spence supported King's proposal and had voted for the bill in the regular session.

King couldn't be reached for comment, but he's declined to speak with Westword in the past on this issue. That might have something to do with our stories on the lack of science behind the bill and the number of medical marijuana patients who would be negatively impacted by a five-nanogram limit. Two years ago, when the idea for a limit was first kicked around by Representative Clair Levy, Westword sent pot critic William Breathes to have his THC levels tested -- after he'd abstained from smoking for more than a dozen hours. Before the test, a doctor checked him out and deemed him to be "in no way incapacitated" -- but Breathes's blood still came out at nearly three times the proposed legal limit.

The new proposal, currently dubbed Bill Five, will be introduced in January; it passed out of the Transportation Legislation Review committee last Friday

Marijuana Cannabis University vs. Mile High Marketplace:

Grandma Ganj protests on the street (video) By Joel Warner, Mon., Oct. 25 2010 @ 3:58PM Categories: Marijuana Share  0diggsdigg ​As we reported last month, the Mile High Marketplace, aka Mile High Flea Market, isn't high enough for medical marijuana, since the operation kicked out Cannabis University Dean Michelle LaMay when she ran a booth there.

Now LaMay, aka "Grandma Ganj," is back. Yesterday, she protested outside the flea market in a token green graduation gown.

"Lots of traffic, lots of thumbs up and honking. No negative vibe," reports LaMay about her ninety-minute protest, which began just after noon. "I'm going out there next Sunday, same time and place, and will continue to do so until I hear from Mile High Marketplace!"

LaMay may be waiting a while. As Patty Beyers, spokesperson for Mile High Marketplace, noted in an e-mail to Westword last month, the operation's rules regarding medical marijuana are immutable. "Mile High Marketplace's seller guidelines state no drugs or drug paraphernalia (sale or display), pornography of any kind (sale or display), guns and ammunition (sale or display), cigarette or tobacco (sale or display) and live animals," she explained.

Still, that might not matter. LaMay will likely draw more attention to Cannabis University from her flag-waving stunts outside the flea market than she would at a booth inside, surrounded as she'd be by endless antique stalls and vendors of bedazzled T-shirts.

Check out a video of the protest here:

Tags: Cannabis University, medical marijuana, Michelle LaMay, Mile High Flea Market, Mile High Marketplace

Dear Board Members:

    Please avoid expensive litigation and vote to reduce the Medical Marijuana Registry fee because:

    1) Article XVIII states that the fees can only be used for the administration of the registry, which is feeble at best, considering the long wait patients must endure to receive their cards.

    2) The Tabor amendment also limits fee taking by state agencies to their administrative costs.

    Why no one has sued the Board yet is beyond me. Fees that were increased by the legislature last year are currently under the gun: Proposition 101 would require voter approval to create or increase fees on vehicles and telecommunication services and it is the result of out of control legislators.

     The Board would do well to heed Coloradoans anger when it comes to enforcing hidden taxes by upping fee taking. The Governor, who appointed many of you, robbed the Marijuana Registry of $286,000.00 in April of 2009 and has said in public that he's prepared to do it again.

    The legislature just voted to move $11.6 million July 1 into the Department of Revenue to enforce HB1284. The new enforcement agency has taken in only $7 million in outrageous fees from 1100 people and is now mulling just how much to charge for a yearly license for the legal entities they created (without going to the voters). Even though HB1284 designates the fees the Medical Marijuana Enforcement Agency not be part of the general fund, based on the Governor's continued disregard for the law I wonder just how vigorous enforcement can be if there is no money, all of it having been moved into the general fund in the near future.

    To lower the fee for the application for the Medical Marijuana Registry to reflect the actual cost of the registry is the only legal route the Board can take. A $9 million dollar surplus in the registry's coffers plus $6 million in un-cashed checks is too much of a temptation. Colorado's intelligent taxpayers will not ignore the blatant and illegal behavior of the Governor, his lackies and the entire legislature in the last year!

Shine A Light

Michelle L LaMay M.A., the Dean

Cannabis University™ Inc of Colorado

1-303-886-7998

www.cannabisuniversityinc.com

Cannabisuniversity@indra.com

www.Twitter.com/CannabisU

Cannabis University™ Inc

1265 Downing St., #408

Denver, CO  80218

303-886-7998

September 21, 2010

Re: Violation of Civil Rights at Mile High Marketplace


Dear Mile High Marketplace Management :

I write to you on behalf of myself, a corporate business owner with Colorado and Denver Business and Sales Tax Licenses and a member of the Colorado Bar Association. On Sunday, September 19, 2010, I was peacefully and quietly displaying my products, education and apparel, exercising my constitutional right to free commercial expression by merely wearing cheap, sequin sunglasses in the shape of two marijuana leaves, and a tee with my corporation’s logo (without any graphics). Nothing I brought into Mile High Marketplace’s public space contained profanity, nudity, or references to other more-dangerous drugs.

Accompanied by a colleague, I reserved and paid with my corporate debit card for space A-7 at the Mile High Marketplace (for the second time in two months) the week before.  After two hours, at 9:30AM, three employees, and a security employee of Mile High Marketplace and a police officer backing them, and after much cell phone communication, told me 1) someone had complained, 2) it was a private property and they had the right to ask me to leave. I insisted on a refund, and sensing that an old, disabled lady with a cane could cause some trouble, quite a crowd gathered, all of them told me several times that "It wasn't them…they were just doing their job," which I knew, and packed up PEACEFULLY! It all took 45 minutes including waiting for my cash refund.

Cannabis is legal in Colorado, and I am a disabled woman and a Colorado-registered Medical Marijuana patient pursuant to the Colorado Constitution, Article XVII § 14. The employees of Mile High Marketplace who confronted me Sunday were directed by Management to enforce a wrongful and discriminatory policy. And, because of the arrival of not only a security employee of Mile High Marketplace, but a police officer also, the incident caused an embarrassing spectacle where none had existed before! My bandishment from a public place probably equates to discrimination against me due to my disability.

 As a business owner conducting a legal business in a public place, in addition to the discrimination claim, I can claim a violation of my civil rights. In Bock v. Westminster Mall Company 819 P.2d 55 (Colo. 1991), the Colorado Supreme Court analyzed the extent to which privately owned commercial retail centers could be held to a "public forum" standard which requires deference to commercial and political speech protected as free speech. As the court held in Bock, Mile High Marketplace certainly qualifies as a "public forum." The Marketplace regularly hosts community events open to the public and allows other merchants to sell products displaying marijuana symbols.

My treatment is also problematic on practical and public policy grounds. Within the Mile High Marketplace, multiple stores sell marijuana-related products. While marijuana may be offensive to Mile High Marketplace employees, Mile High Marketplace Security, the local Police, and other overly-sensitive people, the argument simply cannot be made that my views, or my educational and promotional products can somehow fail a community standards decency review. A recent statewide survey conducted by Rasmussen Reports concluded that 49 percent of Colorado voters supported marijuana legalization, with just 39 percent of respondents saying they remain opposed. It is worth noting that this same poll found support for legalization greater among respondents than support for any statewide candidate for elected office. Obviously, Colorado voters legalized marijuana in the 2000 election and added it to our State Constitution, the Supreme Law of Colorado.

I understand that Mile High Marketplace employees can get over-eager and can make mistakes, but it is management who directed their actions in this instance. I am a reasonable person who wishes to avoid litigation. I respectfully request that the Mile High Marketplace immediately negotiate a monetary sum that represents the income I may have lost by being forced to leave  Mile High Marketplace after only an hour; and the personal embarrassment and discrimination that I, CEO of my corporation, a legal business owner and a disabled person was forced to endure in public. I also demand, in writing, a sincere apology for my treatment and a confirmation that marijuana-themed businessess are always acceptable and entitled to equal protection and free commercial speech at Mile High Marketplace. If this can be accomplished by October 1, 2010, I will probably refrain from filing any legal action, and we will deem this matter settled.

Please contact me with questions. Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter.

Sincerely,

Michelle LaMay, CEO

Cannabis University™ Inc

mlamay@indra.com