Demystifying the cannabis buying experience

Join me on a video tour of my local neighborhood dispensary

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For more than half of Americans, who live in states where cannabis is fully legal, and who can just walk into a dispensary, the days of furtively buying small, overpriced baggies stuffed mostly with stems and seeds are largely over. Millions more live in ‘medical cannabis only’ states where a medical card grants them access to marijuana dispensaries. For those of us who have been involved in the cannabis legalization movement, this couldn’t be a more welcome development – even if the regulation in many states can be chaotic and subpar.

As a friend of mine, a veteran of the legalization movement, recently said, ‘every time I pass by a dispensary, I feel like dancing for joy’. He had spent decades fighting the Drug War tide that swept up more than twenty million people, mostly among people with dark skin, arrested for nonviolent cannabis possession.

Legal weed is safer and healthier, for individuals and for society, than criminalized weed.  (You can make an argument that this is true for all drugs.)

Most of us are comfortable going into the local package store and buying a six-pack, as alcohol has been legal and tolerated by our society since 1933 (despite the fact that it kills 140,000 people a year). In contrast, only a minority of adults have been in a cannabis dispensary, even though our society is rapidly relegalizing cannabis, and lowering the perceived ratio of harms to benefits.

Cannabis is likely safer than alcohol on all metrics, and it is obviously far safer than tobacco. All three are unhealthy for teenagers, pregnant or breastfeeding women, and people with a history of psychosis. Ideally, all three of these substances should be avoided in these populations. For the rest of us, the harms of cannabis are significantly less. Many are switching to cannabis from alcohol, as there is now a legal choice between the two.

Many may wonder: what is it like to visit to a dispensary? Watch my latest video (link below) where I tour my local dispensary to help demystify the process for newcomers.

Entering the dispensary

Some dispensaries subtly blend into the woodwork and can be difficult to find among other storefronts, while others seem to shout, ‘buy weed here!

The first step in visiting a dispensary is finding the closely guarded entrance and showing the identification that they require. Dispensaries are extremely strict about this, whether medical or recreational. Some speculate that this practice is why teenage use of cannabis is stable or dropping as legalization spreads: dispensaries card people while drug dealers don’t.

Once you’ve shown your I.D., to prove that you are twenty-one years of age, and your medical I.D. (if you are a medical patient), staff members unlock the doors and let you in. It is important to note that the main difference, if you have a medical card, is that you will pay less for the marijuana (e.g., no tax, if in Massachusetts) and, sometimes, the dispensaries will have slightly different products available. There is nothing magical about ‘medical’ versus ‘recreational’ cannabis and, often, both types of dispensaries are housed within the same building. One might find separate, adjacent lines for service with the same ‘budtenders’.

One surprising thing about visiting a dispensary is that many of them are tastefully decorated and it can feel like you are entering a spa. They are, in many ways, the opposite of the grungy corner package store, as they have artfully decorated displays of products and paraphernalia in gleaming showcases.

Another notable aspect is how friendly, knowledgeable, enthusiastic, and helpful the staff are. Of course, this could be because they are stoned out of their minds…just kidding. Many are lifelong cannabis enthusiasts who are grateful to be living and working in a world with legal weed.

What can be bewildering is the multitude of products and types of cannabis. The number of strains to choose from used to number in the dozens whereas now there are thousands to pick from. Each dispensary has its own varieties (save for the few celebrity brands, which, while ubiquitous and which tend to be overpriced, as you are paying mostly for the name). To make things even more confusing, every ‘strain’ has a similar description, which goes along the lines of, ‘starts with a cerebral burst of creative energy followed by a deeply relaxing full body high’. Yes, all weed tends to do that! These bland descriptions certainly don’t help consumers pick and choose.

A common demarcation between strains is an ‘Indica’ (‘in-da-couch’), which is relaxing and calming, versus a ‘Sativa’ which is uplifting and energizing. These terms are quite imprecise and lost their biological reality decades ago. (Most became ‘hybrids’ of the two breeds during the Drug War – I discuss how this happened in my book, ‘Seeing Through the Smoke’). To help differentiate, one might ask the ‘budtenders’ what the differences are between different types of cannabis, and what might be helpful for whatever symptom relief you are trying to accomplish. Don’t forget that ‘budtenders’ aren’t medically trained and shouldn’t be giving out medical advice.

Please remember to ‘start low and go slow’ as some of the products sold in dispensaries have insanely high levels of THC. For example, a beginner might start at 2.5 milligrams of THC and I have seen a chocolate bar in a medical dispensary which had 1100 milligrams of THC – enough to put most people in the hospital!

Different delivery vehicles

There has been a profusion of methods to consume cannabis, far beyond joint, pipe and brownie.

Some of the major ones are as follows:

Smoke: (which doctors don’t generally recommend); one can buy cannabis flower (to put into a pipe or to roll into a joint), or a pre-rolled joint, which is more expensive but also more convenient.

Vape: 2 different methods:
a)     A ‘dry-herb vaporizer’ which is the safest method to inhale, as it heats the cannabis up but doesn’t combust it, so one can extract the medicine without the combustion products.
b)    A vape pen or a vape stick, which burns oils saturated with THC. It is unknown how safe or unsafe these products are.

Oral: Pills, gummies, and other food products (honey, seltzers, etc.). Be careful to store palatable foods safely so kids don’t get into them. Also, it is critical to watch the dosing of these products so that you don’t overconsume!.

Tinctures: These are old-fashioned under the tongue preparations which are convenient to use, kick in within 20-30 minutes, and are often helpful blends of CBD and THC, which tend to be more medicinal.

Topicals: These are great for muscle and joint pains. Topicals are likely the safest consumption method as very little is absorbed systemically, so there is no psychoactive effect to worry about.

Other products: Variably, one might find skin patches, oral spritzes, inhalers, and suppositories. One can also find the paraphernalia to smoke cannabis with, such as pipes and rolling papers.

Checkout

One must use cash to check out, due to the ongoing Federal illegality of cannabis, and the way in which affects banking laws. At times one can use one’s bank card but it is best to be prepared with cash, or you might leave empty-handed. Most dispensaries have bank machines out front.

It is important to remember that cannabis laws vary state by state, and it is imperative that you check your local laws and regulations. It is also illegal to fly with cannabis, to mail it, or to cross over state lines with it. Please remember not to sample the cannabis products until after you have driven home, as cannabis should not be consumed before driving. Do not use cannabis if you are a teenager, pregnant or breast feeding, or have a personal history or family history of psychosis. Use with extreme caution of you have a cardiac condition. Do not use with alcohol.

Enjoy safely!