Marijuana, as of this writing, is illegal under Federal law. However, 14 states have adopted laws that allow the cultivation and use of marijuana for medicinal purposes. In compliance with those laws, and for various reasons, many people have learned how to start a medical marijuana dispensary. If that is something that you wish to look into, this post provides some guidelines as to what to consider before taking steps to open up a “pot club”, “pot dispensary”, or “medical marijuana dispensary”.

This article is for informational purposes only. Do not rely on it for professional, medical, or legal advice. While the article presents useful tips, it is also just a summary.

Click here for complete instructions on how to start a dispensary.

First and foremost, you must ask yourself why you want to open a dispensary in the first place. If your incentive is to sincerely help people get the medicine they need, to be of service to those who need a safe way to obtain relief from their conditions, then opening a cannabis dispensary can truly be a rewarding endeavor.

Consider one of the most successful dispensaries in California – Harborside Health Center in Oakland, CA. Not only do they provide cannabis, they also provide other wellness services such as free acupuncture, hypnotherapy, chiropractic, Reiki, Naturopathy, Yoga, Herbalism, and other classes and sessions.

It’s to your advantage to consider Harborside’s example when looking at the following key areas in starting a marijuana dispensary:

Know the Laws

It goes without saying that before you do anything you need to fully understand what the laws in your state allow and what they don’t. If your purpose is just to make money, know that there is a lot of controversy right now about the legality of for-profit dispensaries, depending on the how the laws were written for each state. Understand the laws and how they apply to your dispensary.

You should consult an attorney who is familiar with this subject.

Training and Preparation

Running a dispensary is just like running any other business. There are two main areas that are critical to know – how to run a business in general, and what is unique about this business.

It’s a good idea to learn from an established dispensary in your area. Even if you have to pay for it, the knowledge gained is well worth it. You also want to become a patient as that will give you the freedom to deal with the product and will also give you a better understanding of other patients.

Other details:

• Establish the collective: You’ll need to establish the collective as a non-profit, then you can get the necessary licenses and permits. Hire a lawyer to make sure you have everything covered.
• Get a location: Sign a lease for the space you want to use, once you’ve found a suitable location. Again, you need a lease before filing for licenses and permits.
• Get your licenses and permits: Typical fees for a license can run around $100 a year.
• Get set up to pay taxes: Most transactions, even for medical marijuana, are taxable by law.

Starting the Dispensary

Following is a list of what you will need for your dispensary:

• Staffing: At a minimum you’ll need a front desk person, a bud tender, someone to handle the transactions, and security staff.
• Security: The security staff is for the safety of your patients as well as your product. You should also have at least one security camera set up. Keep an eye on the parking lot and make sure people aren’t loitering.
• Facilities layout: Make sure there are signs to help patients understand the process and what is expected and what is not allowed. You should have a waiting room where patients can check-in and have their eligibility verified. This must be separate from the bud tending area.
• Advertizing: You’ll need some way of getting the word out that you are open and available to meet patients’ needs.

When you finally open your cannabis dispensary, you’ll be on your way to running a successful venture. And you’ll be helping people obtain needed medicinal cannabis safely and legally.

Click here for complete instructions on how to start your own profitable medical marijuana dispensary.

Life can be full of fun and excitement! Inevitably, however, life can also be challenging, demanding, and even frightening at times. The conflicting conditions can create stress, which can be unbearable as there is a limit to what our minds and hearts can handle.

Sad to say, no magic pill has been developed to fix the problem. Wise men of old have therefore concluded that we must look within ourselves for the remedy. Among the methods developed are the practice of yoga and meditation.

How did yoga get its start?

Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism are among the cultures that embrace forms of yoga. The yoga of today has been influenced by all these cultures. In its essence, it is a cultivation of body and mind discipline, with goals ranging from improved health all the way to complete spiritual enlightenment. “Yoga” in Sanskrit, means “union” or “joining”, referring to union of yourself and the divine.

The practice of yoga includes a wide range of directives, for example in the area of breath control, meditation, personal ethics, diet, and physical exercises which is also known as hatha yoga.

Benefits of Hatha Yoga

Some of the benefits of hatha yoga include increased physical flexibility and strength, and improved heart health. It can help your body heal better. More and more studies reveal yoga’s many health benefits, and as a result hath yoga has become a favorite fitness program for health-conscious people. Some of the types of people who have a yoga practice include businessmen and women, actors and actresses, and professional athletes.

Do you know of any exercise that also massages the internal organs? Hatha yoga does! You might even experience better immunity from disease and improved awareness of the health of your own body.

Benefits of Meditation

What many people are aware of, is that meditation is actually derived from the yoga system of teachings, and as such provides many of the same benefits, such as relief from stress. A meditation practice can lead you to a state of calmness. The foundation of a meditation practice includes focusing attention on a single item. For example, it can be a point, a thought, a word or series of words, or even just your own breathing. While focusing your attention, your mind’s attention is taken away from the stressful things in life, leading to a more relaxed mental state. The amazing thing is that you can accomplish this without having to take pills or medication. Meditation can help you learn to manage your own stress, and there are several meditation techniques for beginners.

Regularly practicing these yoga and meditation techniques can help you relax your mind and body, and the relaxed state can be maintained at all times. And, if you so wish, you can use meditation to progress your own spirituality. Some may even liken it to salvation. The great part is that anyone can perform these practices, and they can be performed in your own home without having to join a gym.

This review of the VaporGenie (Vapor Genie) vaporizing pipe is for those who enjoy smoking herbs but are concerned about the adverse health effects of inhaling smoke. At the very least, inhaled smoke is an irritation to the lungs that can result in emphysema, bronchitis, and chronic airway obstruction. Inhaling vapors from the herb, on the other hand, do not carry these risks as vaporizing does not produce carbon monoxide or other byproducts of combustion. For this reason, many prefer using vaporizers.

While there are many vaporizers on the market, they can be quite expensive – costing anywhere from $200 to $600. If you are looking for a low cost way to vaporize your herb, then the Vapor Genie is a great solution.

How does it work?

The VaporGenie vaporizing pipe acts like a regular pipe, but instead of lighting your herb, you use the lighter flame to heat it just enough to vaporize the active ingredients. A special flame filter separates the flame from the product, and you regulate the heat by a combination of the position of the flame and the pace at which you inhale the hot air through the herb. This can take a few tries before you learn the sweet spot between doing nothing to the herb and burning it. That is the only drawback, but once mastered it is a very cost-effective way to vaporize.

The following is a typical Vapor Genie review:

It took me a couple of tries to get the hang of using this thing, but now that I have, it works wonderfully. I find it a good way to conserve my legal herbs –smoking destroys some of the actives, so vapor is an alternative that allows maximum potency. It’s also more discreet. There is still a pleasant herbal odor but you don’t get that strong burning smell. The vapor tastes awesome compared to smoke too, again just a pleasant herbal taste. And of best of all, it’s easy on my lungs! The only thing I would like is if they gave it a longer/flexible mouthpiece so you can more easily see what you’re doing when lighting it. I added a 5″ length of rubber tubing over the mouthpiece of mine and it’s now by far the favorite piece in my collection. Still worth 5 stars for the price (compared to other vaporizers out there), effectiveness and overall satisfaction. – Amanda B. Mamba

Click here to see other VaporGenie reviews.

How cost-effective is it?

You can order the VaporGenie from safe and secure Amazon.com for under $60.

Click here to order yours.

Are psychics real? Can they really do all the things they claim – like read minds, foretell the future, or talk to dead people? I can’t vouch for every claim made, but several years ago I became acquainted by someone whom I consider to be an authentic psychic – Dougall Fraser, and have since attended a few of his talks and workshops. What I’ve learned during the workshops as well as through observation of his style and honesty has convinced me that, understood correctly, psychic “abilities” are very real.

I recently saw Dougall at a talk he gave in Mountain View a few weeks ago. During his talk he gave readings for a handful of people in the audience, and there were a couple of things that I took note of.

Often times psychics will give readings for an audience by throwing out a guess and seeing if it resonates with anyone – something along the lines of “I’m sensing an older male whose name begins with a P …” Chances are someone can match it with someone else in their life, so it’s easy to debunk that type of approach.

Dougall Fraser does not use this approach. Instead, he would pick someone from the audience and then give a brief reading based on the colors he saw around the person. It seemed as if he picked people whose colors jumped out at him or intrigued him in some way. And what he had to say resonated with the handful of people had time for that evening.

The other thing that impressed me was that he acknowledges that sometimes he just gets it wrong. He doesn’t claim to be infallible and doesn’t try to cover up for a bad reading or try to make it work no matter what. Not to say that any accuracy in his readings is due to random chance. No, his hit rate is too high for that to be the case.

But the main reason I’m convinced that there is actually something real happening is based on my own experience. Dougall Fraser believes that everyone can learn to be a real psychic, and so conducts workshops to help people be on their way to develop those abilities. It was during one of those workshop that I saw firsthand what it’s like to pick up impressions that have some connection with the outside world.

These impressions are subtle, and require two things in order to be perceived, especially at first – stillness and attention. It was after some meditation and exercises to open up our consciousness that I knew that another participant had a daughter. I wasn’t trying to play detective or pick up on cues … I actually saw a young woman that had an obvious strong connection with this gentleman, and I knew she was his daughter. The focus was intense so I also knew that she was his only child. It’s hard to explain the sensation of “knowing”, but it was there.

So What Now?

The scientific side of me does believe that eventually science will discover the physical mechanisms that are at work to make psychic abilities authentic. The fact that science hasn’t reached that discovery doesn’t detract from the fact that something is going on that enables people to gather information in a way not easily explained. But be warned, there are charlatans out there who do play on people’s beliefs and who are masters of psychology. This makes it even harder to figure out what is real and what is not.

The thought of experiencing psychic abilities was intriguing to me at first. But for some reason I don’t feel the desire to work (and yes, it would take work) to develop them to any meaningful level. Maybe because I don’t have to develop them … what little I’ve seen and experienced is enough.

Learn more about Dougall Fraser and his awkward path to modern psychic in his book But You Knew That Already: What a Psychic Can Teach You About Life.

Talk of the end of the world in 2012 has been going on for a number of years now. And if anyone hadn’t heard of this Mayan prophecy, they most certainly do now with the release of the movie 2012. That movie depicts a common idea regarding what will happen in December of that year. Talk about a disaster movie, and one in which only a small percentage of the human race survives. But I’d like to share a couple of other ideas that I’ve come across regarding the 2012 prophecy that aren’t as devastating, yet could be just as world shattering!

The reason that this doomsday topic is called the Mayan prophecy is that the Mayan calender’s 5,125-year-long cycle ends in December 2012. Many interpret this to mean that the Mayan’s knew that the world would no longer exist past that point.

Terence McKenna’s View

The late Terence McKenna came up with the concept he called Time Wave Zero. It is based on I-Ching number intervals which he then used to divide up human history. What he found was that there is a consistent ratio of time that correlates to periods of increased novelty – major events in mankind’s biological and cultural history. These periods shorten until the fluctuation of novelty stops, or diminishes to zero, around December 2012.

He came up when a fascinated idea that could account for the elimination of novelty – even time itself. What if, he proposed, people finally invented time travel? If that were to ever happen, it would result in a number of consequences that I had never heard before. For one thing, he McKenna suggests than in that moment the world would experience a mass visitation of time travelers from the future who would all be wanting to witness when time travel first occurred.

There would be no time travel prior to that point because it had not been invented yet. But after that point, with people going back and forth through time, no event would be set in stone. Whatever happens would be subject to change as people go back in time to change it. Literally, time would cease to exist, at least as far as we experience it today.

Would this be a shining moment in human history? It almost reminds me of that X-Files episode where the inventor of time travel goes back in time to kill his previous self to prevent himself from inventing time travel. Apparently time travel made everything boring and meaningless because there were no more surprises in life.

Paramahamsa Nithyananda’s View

Paramahamsa Nithyandanda has a huge following of devotees who consider him to be an enlightened master. He recently gave his view of the 2012 prophecy, but proclaimed that his words aren’t meant to be prophetic – they just describe what is.

So, what is the truth about 2012? Well, according to Nithyananda, an event will occur that will be considered a catastrophe for some, but a blessing for others.

On the physical plane, everything will lose a small amount of mass. This is supposed to have huge ramifications to the human experience. In a nutshell, all action will become more automatic and require less thought. Not “no thought”, just “less thought”.

For some, this will be an experience of bliss, as it will be easier to go about daily life in a state of samadhi. Samadhi is that spiritual state many spiritual practitioners spend years pursuing. But after 2012, it will be readily available – even for those who haven’t been pursuing it in earnest.

But this will be an experience of depression for those who need constant mental stimulation. Many people cannot relax their minds for one second, even though we all need to take breaks from constant thought every so often.

According to Nithyananda, there will be millions of enlightened people on the earth as a result. That might not be such a bad thing.

Plenty of Time to Contemplate

Fascinating ideas these. Maybe science fiction. Maybe spiritual wishful thinking. One thing is sure – we don’t have to wait long before seeing if any of these ideas are validated. Either way, the topic is sure to be heard more and more as the day draws near.

Here is a video of Terence McKenna explaining his views of Time WaveZero.

And here is a video of Paramhansa Nithyananda explaining the dual consequences of the event of December 2012.

If anyone is still interested in the Mayan prophecy, an eBook written by J. Michael Sayer claims to provide yet another explanation:

Learn how you can help turn what many believe to be the darkest period in history into the most enlightened. Could universal racial harmony really be achievable?

See 2012 Official Countdown to look into it further.