Member #3315
12-12-08, 11:00
I don't drink, smoke cigarettes, snort coke, or even include coffee in my regular diet. I pretty much never take pharmaceuticals aside from the occasional ibuprofen and I've been able to sustain on nothing but my right hand and an internet connection for months, even year (s) on end.
I'm not a health nut or anything, I've never eaten well or exercised regularly, and as such I've definitely got some extra weight around the midsection; I just never caught the bug for drinking or cigarettes. I do have one strong predilection though: weed. Also known as pot or marijuana. I love me some mary jane. Oh by the way did you know Obama has expressed a desire for decriminalization? The guy really does have actual common sense it's pretty incredible for a politician.
I've lived in BA for a year now, gotta another year or so to go. I've been hanging out doing some writing and programming, and smoking like a chimney because all I've been able to marry my strong habitual addiction to herb with is the paraguayan brick that seems to be status quo in these parts.
Now I'm from New York by way of Seattle, and I've been lucky enough to have had fairly consistent sources of good quality ganja. In Seattle there's a ton of good herb around because of it's proximity to British Columbia, and it's fairly affordable. Again I was very lucky to have lived there when I was in high school and post high school and generally not in the wealthiest of positions. When I moved to New York the prices went up, way up, but eventually I found a hookup that while more then double the price of what I used to pay in Seattle was pretty definitely the best weed I ever smoked. The strain was / is called Sour Diesel, and man, it's aweeeesome. It's all I ever wanted to and pretty much all I did smoke for years. Sure it was seven bills a zip, but man it was worth it. The thing with paying more for good weed is it often pays for itself simply by way of not needing to consume as much. Anyhow, I was spoiled and it was good times, but I left and came here and brick it was.
After over a year of brick brick and more brick, sometimes even bricks of mostly leaf which is just terrible, I finally started to get the itch. I suppose it helped that I started to make a little more money as well so maybe I was simply letting the itch be felt.
So I started asking around, but with little luck, and finally, unexpectedly, bang, I meet this chick (non pro) who said she knows a guy. It's pretty expensive she says but I don't even hear her say that. Yes I say. Please. Yes.
I get her number and a few days later she let's me know she talked to her friend. When I first talked to her she said last time she checked (which seemed like it may have been a while ago) it was 20 pesos a gram. If it was quality weed that sounded plenty cheap to me. So I talk to her after she's got the 411 and now it's 40 pesos a gram. Whatever I think, to be expected. So I'm pretty excited. The taste of fruityness in my mouth, maybe even the ability to catch a buzz with just a piece of glass. Yes, I say yes.
So she says she can get me 35 grams. Let's meet later today, no prob I respond. Then she says the price is $1000 pesos. Now 35 grams at 40 a gram is 1400 but whatever, I'm not going to complain. I make the trip to the bank and then to meet her and she's having dinner with her daughter or something so there's no time to chat. She asks me if I want to check it out and say no that's alright. She says we'll talk tomorrow, cheek kiss, taxi, apartment.
Now. I didn't have super high expectations. Considering I've been buying quarter kilos of brick for a while now to roll large joint after large joint day after day I figured most any type of quality would be refreshing.
So I open up the bag, and what do I find? Stems. Big ones, picked over pretty well too, with little fluffy not so thick and juicy chunks of bud around them. I can't really even believe what I'm seeing for a second, because it just doesn't make any sense. In a bit of a daze I proceed to pick off all the bud from the stems and put them into a zip lock bag so I can see what I'm actually getting. I do this, and man, it ain't pretty. I don't have a scale or anything but there's maybe eight or nine grams of actual bud there. That's right, out of '35 grams' there's maybe 8 or 9 of actual usable herb.
OK, so let me get one thing out in the open here. I'm an American, born and bred, and living here in Argentina is my first experience abroad. At first all the differences I disagreed with or didn't approve of (electronics wtf?) Bugged me, but then after a while I started to realize that it's just different here. Sure maybe things are fucked up or however you want to describe them but bottom line is this is a different place where they do things differently and that's just the way it is.
So when it came to getting good weed, I assumed I would get ripped off to a certain extent. Over charging seems like a big thing here, and there's often a lack of vision for the future, repeat business, etc. But man, charging 40 pesos a gram for a sack that's two thirds stem is just mind blowingly insane. I mean seriously, what the fuck. I've been smoking weed my whole life and I have never, ever, even heard of some shit like this happening. I mean, it just doesn't make any sense. If it's really 120 pesos a gram then charge me 120 a gram. Like I'm not going to notice that's it's two thirds stem? Am I a total retard? Do you not want me to come back? Isn't that how you make money, on the come back?
I don't think this chick ripped me off. She probably taxed me, maybe even pretty good, but again that's to be expected. In a way I don't even fault the actual provider with the whole kit and kaboodle, no, there's something deeper here, something sociological and pathological. Something really deeply ingrained somewhere somehow that would allow a decidedly premium service provider to do something so horrendously unfathomable and consider it OK on whatever level they must to sleep at night.
Anyhow, I'm going to stay on the lookout, continue to shake the trees as a friend who was consoling me was saying earlier this morning. But man, seriously, I found this experience truly depressing. Not because of the money exactly, just the fact that someone would do something this dishonest/shady/scamy and somehow think it was ok, somehow think it was a reasonable strategy with which to run their business. I could easily spend a couple few grand in this arena during the rest of my time here and now they're never going to see another dime, all for a hundred maybe a hundred fifty bucks in profit.
I just don't get it.
Tiz
I'm not a health nut or anything, I've never eaten well or exercised regularly, and as such I've definitely got some extra weight around the midsection; I just never caught the bug for drinking or cigarettes. I do have one strong predilection though: weed. Also known as pot or marijuana. I love me some mary jane. Oh by the way did you know Obama has expressed a desire for decriminalization? The guy really does have actual common sense it's pretty incredible for a politician.
I've lived in BA for a year now, gotta another year or so to go. I've been hanging out doing some writing and programming, and smoking like a chimney because all I've been able to marry my strong habitual addiction to herb with is the paraguayan brick that seems to be status quo in these parts.
Now I'm from New York by way of Seattle, and I've been lucky enough to have had fairly consistent sources of good quality ganja. In Seattle there's a ton of good herb around because of it's proximity to British Columbia, and it's fairly affordable. Again I was very lucky to have lived there when I was in high school and post high school and generally not in the wealthiest of positions. When I moved to New York the prices went up, way up, but eventually I found a hookup that while more then double the price of what I used to pay in Seattle was pretty definitely the best weed I ever smoked. The strain was / is called Sour Diesel, and man, it's aweeeesome. It's all I ever wanted to and pretty much all I did smoke for years. Sure it was seven bills a zip, but man it was worth it. The thing with paying more for good weed is it often pays for itself simply by way of not needing to consume as much. Anyhow, I was spoiled and it was good times, but I left and came here and brick it was.
After over a year of brick brick and more brick, sometimes even bricks of mostly leaf which is just terrible, I finally started to get the itch. I suppose it helped that I started to make a little more money as well so maybe I was simply letting the itch be felt.
So I started asking around, but with little luck, and finally, unexpectedly, bang, I meet this chick (non pro) who said she knows a guy. It's pretty expensive she says but I don't even hear her say that. Yes I say. Please. Yes.
I get her number and a few days later she let's me know she talked to her friend. When I first talked to her she said last time she checked (which seemed like it may have been a while ago) it was 20 pesos a gram. If it was quality weed that sounded plenty cheap to me. So I talk to her after she's got the 411 and now it's 40 pesos a gram. Whatever I think, to be expected. So I'm pretty excited. The taste of fruityness in my mouth, maybe even the ability to catch a buzz with just a piece of glass. Yes, I say yes.
So she says she can get me 35 grams. Let's meet later today, no prob I respond. Then she says the price is $1000 pesos. Now 35 grams at 40 a gram is 1400 but whatever, I'm not going to complain. I make the trip to the bank and then to meet her and she's having dinner with her daughter or something so there's no time to chat. She asks me if I want to check it out and say no that's alright. She says we'll talk tomorrow, cheek kiss, taxi, apartment.
Now. I didn't have super high expectations. Considering I've been buying quarter kilos of brick for a while now to roll large joint after large joint day after day I figured most any type of quality would be refreshing.
So I open up the bag, and what do I find? Stems. Big ones, picked over pretty well too, with little fluffy not so thick and juicy chunks of bud around them. I can't really even believe what I'm seeing for a second, because it just doesn't make any sense. In a bit of a daze I proceed to pick off all the bud from the stems and put them into a zip lock bag so I can see what I'm actually getting. I do this, and man, it ain't pretty. I don't have a scale or anything but there's maybe eight or nine grams of actual bud there. That's right, out of '35 grams' there's maybe 8 or 9 of actual usable herb.
OK, so let me get one thing out in the open here. I'm an American, born and bred, and living here in Argentina is my first experience abroad. At first all the differences I disagreed with or didn't approve of (electronics wtf?) Bugged me, but then after a while I started to realize that it's just different here. Sure maybe things are fucked up or however you want to describe them but bottom line is this is a different place where they do things differently and that's just the way it is.
So when it came to getting good weed, I assumed I would get ripped off to a certain extent. Over charging seems like a big thing here, and there's often a lack of vision for the future, repeat business, etc. But man, charging 40 pesos a gram for a sack that's two thirds stem is just mind blowingly insane. I mean seriously, what the fuck. I've been smoking weed my whole life and I have never, ever, even heard of some shit like this happening. I mean, it just doesn't make any sense. If it's really 120 pesos a gram then charge me 120 a gram. Like I'm not going to notice that's it's two thirds stem? Am I a total retard? Do you not want me to come back? Isn't that how you make money, on the come back?
I don't think this chick ripped me off. She probably taxed me, maybe even pretty good, but again that's to be expected. In a way I don't even fault the actual provider with the whole kit and kaboodle, no, there's something deeper here, something sociological and pathological. Something really deeply ingrained somewhere somehow that would allow a decidedly premium service provider to do something so horrendously unfathomable and consider it OK on whatever level they must to sleep at night.
Anyhow, I'm going to stay on the lookout, continue to shake the trees as a friend who was consoling me was saying earlier this morning. But man, seriously, I found this experience truly depressing. Not because of the money exactly, just the fact that someone would do something this dishonest/shady/scamy and somehow think it was ok, somehow think it was a reasonable strategy with which to run their business. I could easily spend a couple few grand in this arena during the rest of my time here and now they're never going to see another dime, all for a hundred maybe a hundred fifty bucks in profit.
I just don't get it.
Tiz