The Kings, in order to keep the product new and fresh have to buy from growers around the area. There is no shortage of cannabis growers. Dorian told me growers come in and call him every day to try to sell cannabis to the dispensary, just like the Kings used to do. According to Natty, it was common to see people come in every day trying to sell different things, like edibles, drinks and even pieces. Although it is expected that growers be associated with the collective prior to selling to a dispensary, growers frequently join as members only after a business transaction with a dispensary is finalized. This is another area where medical marijuana regulation is relatively lax. According to Natty, the patient demographic at the collective was much more varied then what one might expect. Indeed, the demographics defied my own stereotypes of what a marijuana patient would be. People of all races, ages, classes and genders visited the dispensary according to the Kings. In fact, Natty explained that the majority of the patients that came to the collective were white males. He estimated that about 70% of the patients were males, most were white, with the next most being some form of Hispanic with Asians being a distant third. This is accurately reflects the demographics of that area. I expected to hear about mostly young stoners in their late teens, twenties and early thirties. I further expected to hear about mostly males from lower class backgrounds that showed up to the collective high. I believed, like I think many others still do, cannabis grower supplies that the medical marijuana system was a method for potheads to get high while not getting in trouble from the law.
Unlike many people however, I did not necessarily see this as a bad thing as I was not inclined to believe marijuana is a dangerous drug, or even a problem for that matter. However, I was surprised to hear about people as old as fifty and sixty years of age at the collective. Many of the people Natty told me about had serious ailments that medical cannabis helped to treat. Moreover, there was no discernible trait that linked all of them. Older individuals were not necessarily older hippies. Some of them were medical patients, some were spiritualist, and some seemed to just enjoy the feeling. One individual Natty told me about was in his late 50s told me he used marijuana to help with his arthritis and back pain. He told me the patient used a combination of cannabis oil and prescription opiates prescribed by doctors to relieve his pain. He told me the high produced and the pain relief by those two in combination far exceeded either by themselves. It appears, according to Natty, that medical marijuana has synergistic properties that work together as a powerful pain relief. Another well-known female patient Natty described was in her mid-forties. He told me she had severe anxiety and that it helped her to relieve her anxiety and helped her sleep. He explained that she got into a car accident a couple of years ago and the medicine she used to ease her pain caused a significant amount of constipation. I was personally unaware that pain medicine had such an effect. The woman was on the skinny, he said, when she used prescription pain medicine she was seriously constipated and gained massive amounts of weight because she did not have consistent bowel movements.
Natty stated that she said opiates led to stress, weight gain and depression. He went on to explain how she would vacillate between taking the medicine with all its concurrent side effects, and laying off the medicine and the pain rushing back. She said that except for occasional paranoia, cannabis had only positive side effects for her, and that her paranoia can be reduced by selecting certain strains of cannabis. Although many of the patients suffered from real ailments and got significant relief from cannabis, when I asked Natty to estimate how many of the patients suffered from real ailments. He acknowledged that there was a sizable population of cannabis patients that would discuss marijuana that would get them the most “fucked up” and would make them trip. According to Natty, those types of people come in all the time and that the Bud Tenders are more than willing to discuss strains of marijuana that would produce the best high while disregarding the fact that the collective was designed for the expressed purpose of curing ailments.Paul Goldstein points out that a significant portion of the violence associated with drugs is systemic in nature. Goldstein points out that systemic violence refers to traditionally aggressive patterns of interaction within the system of drug distribution. Goldstein gives a few examples of systemic violence such as: 1) disputes over territories between rival drug dealers, 2) assaults and homicides committed within dealing hierarchies as a means of enforcing normative codes, 3) robberies of drug dealers and the usually violent retaliation by the dealer or his/her bosses, 4) elimination of informers, 5) punishment for selling adulterated or phony drugs, 6) punishment for failing to pay one’s debts, 7) disputes over drugs or drug paraphernalia and 8) robber violence related to the social ecology of copping areas .
As one might expect, systemic violence is typically not-present among medical marijuana collectives. For one, there are no formal disputes over territory. As stated earlier, The Corner is located in a corporate office building with a series of other dispensaries, recommending physician office, massage parlors and pizza parlors that all seem to benefit from each other’s presence. Likewise, there is no hyper-aggressive code of the street that governs interaction within The Corner. The bud tenders are typically courteous and flirtatious like one might expect from a bar tender. Eliminating informers, selling phony drugs and disputes over drug paraphernalia are non-existent in this social environment. In fact, the only realistic situation on Goldstein’s list is the robbing of drug dealers. This of course is most likely to occur for delivery drivers than for a dispensary as dispensaries typically employ various means to protect themselves such as video cameras, security guards and alarm systems. The office building where The Corner resides is actually located within a mile of the police department. Kepple and Freisthler , utilizing GIS spatial analysis of crime and medical marijuana dispensaries found no association between violent and property crimes and the density of medical marijuana collectives. Unlike the illegal urban drug markets popularized in television shows and movies like The Wire and Scarface, marijuana collectives operate in a relatively safe and stable manner. It is quite fascinating to think of a series of marijuana dispensaries operate entirely unabated less than a mile from a police station. Much like the drug market documented in Jacques and Wright’s Code of the Suburb, the medical marijuana market is relatively violence free. Indeed, the Kings took many steps to avoid conflict and violence, even to the point where one of the members, High-C was robbed through nothing more than intimidation. Likewise, unlike the drug dealing neighborhood documented by , the cannabis market is much sparser with no central hub. Cannabis growers and sellers interact, and intermingle on a daily basis with growers coming in and out of the collectives freely, jumping from one collective and delivery service to the next attempting to sell their product. Moreover, the structure of The Corner and many other medical marijuana collectives operate in a much more corporate business style than an illegal market. Curtis and Wendel created a typology of retail drug markets. They suggest that drugs markets are differentiated between the social and technical organization of distribution. Curtis and Wendel suggest there are three types of social organizations among drug distributors: freelance, socially bonded, and corporate. Freelance characteristics are a lack of formal hierarchy and the absence of a division of labor, and relationships between distributors are egalitarian. An example of this would be a low level street dealer. Socially bonded businesses are typically held together through extra economic ties such as kinship, race, ethnicity or some other common features that binds the members. This type of social organization is a type of middle ground between freelance and the more formalized corporate style. Corporate style distribution systems, dry racks for weed in which I am placing The Corner, are the most complexly organized ideal types. They are hierarchical and exhibit a high degree of division of labor, and the relationships between members are based on making money.
They point out that these typologies are conceptual and not mutually exclusive . The Corner is much more of a corporate distribution style brought together originally through social bonds. Moreover, High-C’s side business is a type of freelance organization as well. As was discussed, there is a very explicit hierarchy and division of labor within The Corner itself. Although they like to think of themselves as egalitarian, there were investors in the collective that serve as its corporate board. All of the members of the Kings were investors but some other people I do not know, and never met helped front the cash for the dispensary. I have theories about who these people are but I do not know for sure. In fact, many of the volunteers do not know the investors, and I doubt they spend time in the dispensary. Likewise, The Corner has a clear and gendered division of labor. At any given time there are three or four volunteers staffing the dispensary at any one time. This includes a manager; any one of the Kings can take on that duty. Also included is the security guard , and one or two bud tenders depending on the workload at the time. The delivery drivers, TBC and High-C, work sporadically and only come to the collective when they need to replenish their stash. However, they typically have cannabis with them at all times. Other than that, the collective calls one of them to deliver the cannabis. Moreover, the bud tenders activities are heavily monitored. There are security cameras everywhere and an extensive accounting of the cannabis and money is conducted routinely at the collective. The security cameras feed to a laptop at Dorian’s house so all transactions are recorded. Moreover, there are sharp divisions between ownership and volunteers. Being a small operation, there is not much room for the bud tenders to advance. There is a ceiling beyond which the tenders could never expect to pass. Additionally, new recruits come in daily with applications to work at the collective, but because of the structure of the business, the Kings try to keep the organization relatively closed. Moreover, drug market research suggests that distribution organizations inevitably evolve over time . They can become more, or they can become less complex over time. The Kings story is the story of changing drug markets. Technology Technological change is one thing that changed dramatically over the past decade, as was discussed earlier the introduction of Weedmaps.com created an easy and effective online system for medical marijuana patients to find recommending physicians, delivery services and dispensaries. As stated prior, before Weedmaps, cannabis dealing was contained almost exclusively within one’s own social network. Dealers would sell swag for 20$ a gram if an individual did not know many dealers, they would have to buy swag. Before delivering to a new patient, The Corner requires the patient to send a picture message or email a picture of the patient’s license and physician’s recommendation. This way, The Corner verifies the individual as an actual patient and has documentation of the patients ID in case the patient tries to rob the delivery driver. This system also deters police from entrapping the drivers. Prior to the enactment of Proposition 215 and SB 420, marijuana markets in Orange County were freelance and socially bonded business that operated as a type of delivery business. In fact, this description accurately describes the Kings drugs selling behavior prior to the establishment of The Corner. Likewise, the legalization of cannabis has led to a much safer, cleaner, potent and more regulated cannabis market with a minimal level of violence.13