If you’re a part of the subreddit r/FLMedicalTrees, you’re likely already aware that many Florida cannabis patients hate Trulieve. Whether that be for minor reasons like long waits and not answering the phone or deeper reasons like their shady business practices, MMJ patients are turning against the industry giant in droves. In fact, its own employees participated in a walk out on July 28th.
So where did Trulieve, the leading Florida cannabis company (by a long-shot), truly go wrong? Well, in a lot of places really, but let’s start with their latest-to-surface misdeed.
Trulieve CEO Kim Rivers and husband J.T. Burnette are shady people
For a quick background, Trulieve’s CEO Kim Rivers chose herself a boastful, shady man named J.T. Burnette, and together they did some questionable business. Fast forward and Burnette, River’s now-husband, is proven guilty on four different counts, including racketeering, extortion, fraud, and making false statements.
A recorded conversation between Burnette and undercover FBI agents revealed that he was involved with “tweaking” state regulations, restricting certain competitors from qualifying for a Florida license. On the recording, Burnette went into detail about how he worked with then-State Rep. Halsey Beshears, brother of Trulieve board of director Thad Beshears, to make the changes happen.
The Capitolist reports the criteria Burnette was involved in, stating, “The added criteria required a nursery seeking an application to put up multi-million-dollar bonds, to have an inventory of 400,000 plants, and be in business for 30 consecutive years.” (Side note: you would think that Florida’s cannabis flower would be much better with those requirements, but surely it is not. But, that is a story for another day.)
Back to Halsey Beshears, Burnette’s childhood friend, so you can understand the type of people the couple hangs around. It’s reported that earlier this year he was on a party plane to the Bahamas with Florida congressman Matt Gaetz. This exact plane is now a focal point of an investigation into a marijuana pay-to-play scheme, as well as potential sex trafficking.
Image via Trulieve’s website
Burnette admitted that he and Rivers barely knew anything about medical cannabis
Also on the recording, Burnette shared that he and Rivers barely knew anything about the medical cannabis industry at the time, but they knew obtaining a license and entering the market would bring them great fortune. And it certainly has. In 2020, Trulieve reported 49% market share in oil and 53% market share in flower in Florida. To put this into a different perspective, they sold 93.7 million milligrams of oil and 36,330 ounces of flower; in other words, over one ton of flower.
Regardless of how high their numbers are, it isn’t the least bit surprising. Trulieve has clearly had an unfair advantage from the very beginning, putting them well ahead of every other Florida cannabis company by a long shot. In comparison, the second largest cannabis company in the state is Surterra, which has 39 dispensary locations. Surterra only sold about a quarter of the amount of oil and flower that Trulieve sold in 2020.
Trulieve’s unfair head start has made them untouchable by Florida competitors
With their unfair advantage, Trulieve has been able to afford over 2 million square feet of cultivation facilities. It’s no wonder that they have the widest variety of products out of every dispensary in Florida. The advantage certainly had a domino effect.
Due to their immense resources, Trulieve has the ability to offer some of the best and most consistent deals and prices in the state. While some of their products, like rosin, have trouble staying consistently in stock, they do a pretty decent job at keeping most of their products available. Regardless, they always have a huge overall inventory. This attracts much more patients than anywhere else. In turn, it takes away from the profits of other companies and creates an unbalanced cannabis market in Florida.
Supporting Trulieve is not supporting the overall Florida cannabis industry, financially or ethically
The convenience, vast inventory, fair prices, consistently great deals, and (usually) quality products certainly makes it hard to stay away. But supporting Trulieve isn’t supporting the overall Florida cannabis industry financially or ethically.
Reddit user u/imkatmandude explained it best, “If you have any courage and care about the MMJ scene you will boycott Trulieve after the revelations of this week. We all assumed and felt in our guts that Kim Rivers was a slimey snake but now we know she, her current husband and some politicos rigged the game at the last minute. So do you have the guts to forsake mini mondays and the deals and the convenience factor of having 3 dispensaries within walking distance to remove your portion of these assholes funding? Understand that with every good deal you get you pay for the lobby and the machine that is 100% against your interests.”
That all being said, this recent situation is just the cherry on top. Florida cannabis patients and employees have been fed up with Trulieve for awhile now and have consistently been vocal about it on r/FLMedicalTrees. Despite the continuous suspicion that Kim Rivers is a “slimey snake,” patients are annoyed at Trulieve for many other reasons.
With a simple search on r/FLMedicalTrees, many complaints come up about Trulieve in Florida
From incredibly long waits to safety hazards, the Florida cannabis Reddit community has plenty to say about their experience with Trulieve. Here are a few complaints:
u/jdnnekakme posted a picture of mold on their Trulieve edible brownie. With a quick scroll to the comments, you’ll find multiple others have had the same problem. There’s also been multiple occasions of mold and bud rot on Trulieve’s flower. Search “trulieve mold” in r/FLMedicalTrees and you’ll learn all about it.
Image via u/jdnnekakme on Reddit
Another complaint is that many budtenders aren’t very knowledgeable, and they share information that is inaccurate and potentially harmful. u/AntifekaPR shared about a time that a budtender told her RSO wasn’t oil. This may not be harmful but it shows the incompetence. Aside from Reddit, my mother, who is an MMJ patient, had a traumatizing edible experience. This was due to the terrible advice of a Trulieve budtender in Florida.
The budtender told her to start with a rice size piece of a distillate syringe, which likely equals somewhere around 50-100mgs. For an inexperienced consumer like my mother, this dose is incredibly high. She ended up so high that she felt sick and called an ambulance to take her to the hospital. Advice like this is vastly unsafe and should be prevented through a thorough education program for all budtenders.
Budtenders are trained on up-selling more than cannabis education
It seems that rather than training associates on the actual products, budtenders are trained to up-sell instead. One user described a time that they were at the dispensary and a budtender next to him was trying to up-sell an elderly lady who had never smoked before. The budtender tried selling the lady wax and an expensive Puffco pen, rather than just starting her off with something less strong and easier to use like a vape pen.
Not to mention, the many minor mistakes that can still be frustrating
Aside from harmful mistakes, Trulieve is notorious for their constant “minor” hiccups. u/TravelingRav1989 explained a time where he paid and got the wrong products, and overpaid for others. If you’re buying stuff at Trulieve, we definitely suggest you double check all prices and what is in your bag.
Another common complaint is that they rarely answer the phone or they leave you on hold for ages. I can personally testify to this, but many Reddit users have also voiced their frustrations. u/TyroneCalico explained, “I Work 28min from trulieve but wanted to call first to check availability as last time they said they had and I drove there and they were out. Was on hold for awhile so just drove there anyways. As I pulled in 28min later, they still hadn’t picked up so I hung up. I walk in and they tell me they have no flower. What a let down.” Everyone in the comments agreed, and stated their similar experiences.
But, aside from waiting long to reach them on the phone, many patients have experienced incredibly high wait times at the dispensary. One user posted about a time that he was 59th in line and waited over an hour. Another user posted about a similar wait time, with dozens of other similar posts. It is safe to say that it’s smart to avoid Trulieve, especially on “Mini Mondays” and “Ground Thursdays.”
Trulieve can’t seem to keep certain items in stock
A less serious problem, but one we’ve seen come up often is the lack of inventory of certain products. u/dylanpro1024 posted about how their local Trulieve hasn’t had any concentrates besides TruClear (which is only one of almost a dozen forms of concentrate they carry) for almost a month. Another user posted about how they sold half of his reserved order to someone else, and he was unaware until he showed up.
Trulieve employees are also fed up
The walk out that employees took part in on July 28th was just the effect of the continuous negative treatment and disrespect they have dealt with. Here’s what some of Trulieve’s employees have to say:
u/truscummy on Reddit talks about a time when Trulieve put its employees in danger, “With Elsa bearing down on Fl, Trulieve continues to show no care for its underpaid, overworked employees and drop two sales on us the day a storm is supposed to almost directly hit the area I’m in.” They continue, speaking about the training Trulieve employees receive, “we get trained on how to cash handle, upsell, etc. but never get trained on how to medically differentiate between different strains for different conditions.”
u/Bushido_Gi posted about a situation from a few months ago, which has received hundreds of comments. They relayed a message from an employee stating, “Today at trulieve pay was late – again – and when they got it everyone was screwed over on OT. After we put our blood sweat and tears into growing the plant for these guys to pay me $11 per hour. People walked off. Lots of people. I’m not talking one or two. I’m talking the whole damn joint. Then the vampires at corporate got panicked and sent out a message saying we are going to give you fifty bucks. Screw your fifty bucks. You owe us way more than that. But today we learned something. You’re scared of us when we act together.”
Workers express their concern on Reddit often
Another user, u/Dispensary_misery went even more in depth about what it is like to be an employee at Trulieve. They stated that, “When we receive trucks, majority of the items are not received properly. We can’t sell any products and the sad thing is most of the time, they come from the hub like that. Random stuff always gets posted on the website. Shit we haven’t had for WEEKS, and it ‘magically’ pops up on the website.” They also went on saying that they never know when sales are coming, they don’t get properly trained, managers treat the employees terribly, and more.
In conclusion: If you care about the Florida cannabis industry, bring your business to the dozen of other companies in the state
There is plenty more to this story, but this should be enough for you to make the right decision on whether you will continue to support Trulieve or not. Regardless of the many issues on the forefront that you may experience as a patient, the people behind Trulieve, including Kim Rivers and J.T. Burnette, are shady people that have been involved with stifling the industry so that they could easily lead the way. With over a dozen other cannabis companies in the state, we encourage you to purchase your medicine elsewhere.
Check out our full guide to cannabis in Florida
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