Here's What It's Really Like Inside A Marijuana Shop
“What's it like inside a pot shop in Colorado?”
Whenever I travel, this is the first question people ask once they learn I'm visiting from Colorado. I'm always quick to pull out my phone and share photos of marijuana flower inside jars, concentrate and wax by the gram, the rainbow of options in the edibles cases.
I remember my first experience inside a Colorado rec shop when I first moved to the state in November 2014.
I nervously walked into Frosted Leaf on Colfax and immediately smelled the sweet, skunky scent of cannabis in the air. I held my head, um, high, told myself, “I can do this,” and promptly tried to walk past the security desk through a very locked door. Rookie mistake.
The security guard laughed, and I fumbled for my wallet to give her my Pennsylvania drivers license.
“First time in our shop?” she asked.
It was. And not only that, it was my first time in any shop. The guard buzzed me through the door, and I was greeted by my first-ever budtender. She walked me through all of the different strains, and I picked a smorgasbord of flower by the gram to try out for my first Mile High high.
A year later, I've visited shops all over the state and have learned through my own mistakes, by asking questions of our pot critics and by finding stores with knowledgeable bud tenders whom I can trust.
“What's it like inside a pot shop in Colorado?”
The answer has changed since that first visit, but what I really want to do each time I encounter the question is just bring the asker to a shop. Enter Periscope. Live video streaming was the answer, so pot critic Jake Browne and I got up early on a Saturday morning and drove to Medicine Man's Denver shop.
We waited in line with the other early risers and used the time to get to know our viewers better. As soon as the door was unlocked, we went in.
“What are you excited about right now?” That's how Jake started our visit, and the critic says it's the first question everyone should ask the budtender in any pot shop. Bud tenders know their stock better than anyone.
We were helped by bud tender Dillon Robertson, and viewers were encouraged to ask questions about anything and everything. Snoop Dogg's new cannabis line was a popular topic of discussion.
Medicine Man grows their own flower in their 40,000-square-foot cultivation facility, so they didn't have any of the rapper's bud; however, they do sell Snoop's edibles.
Robertson pulled edibles, flowers and concentrates for the Periscope audience. Jake gave his tips and pointers as a consumer for the audience, while Robertson offered his expertise as a bud tender.
Medicine Man is unique in Denver pot shops because their cultivation facility is attached to the store. Manager of social media and brand communications Trey Fisher also took our audience on a tour of their grow.
We were escorted through their grow rooms, from seed to flowering, and then Fisher guided us through their drying rooms, trim rooms and even allowed a peek into their mother room.
The mothers are the plants that all the others are grown from; losing a mother plant potentially could mark the end of a strain.
This post was originally written by Vincent Chandler for The Cannabist.
Citations: 'What heaven looks like': Take a tour of a Colorado pot shop and its grow (The Cannabist)
