dispensaries in durango Archives | Page 11 of 12

Posted on September 15, 2018 - 9:00 am

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Cameron Mask
Budtender, Paraphernalia Purchaser, Insanely Fast Joint Roller

About your Best Bud:

Cameron’s birthday is on the 29^th of this month, but that’s not the reason we’re featuring him this week—Cameron is a young professional and Army vet who’s truly passionate about this industry. He’s two years away from earning his business degree, and as soon as he has it, Cameron has aspirations of opening his own concentrate production company (he plans to call it “Tree House Club Concentrates,” and the hidden THC acronym is awesome). But for now, Cameron is cutting his teeth as a Budtender and the guy who orders all our non-marijuana products. He’s soaking up knowledge and learning the ins and outs of legal marijuana with the best team in Durango. And since he’s part of the reason we’re the best, we figured you should meet him this week:

Q. When did you start working for The Greenery?
Cameron. “March sixth of this year.”

Q. What’s your favorite way to enjoy marijuana?
Cameron. “Dabbing. I really enjoy dabbing, and I love the taste of Live Resin.”

Q. What’s your favorite outdoor activity?
Cameron. “Running.”

Q. Tell us about your pet.
Cameron. “I have two. I have a Border Collie named Panda, and a Blue Nose named Kya.”

Q. Which station do you stream while you’re working at The Greenery?
Cameron. “I let other people pick. I’m flexible, as long as it sounds good.”

Q. What do you like most about working at The Greenery?
Cameron. “I love the professionalism, and the education we impart to our customers. But as to the industry, I love educating tourists so they can go back home and push for marijuana legalization in places that don’t yet have it.”

Cameron really is an expert connoisseur when it comes to concentrates. He makes them in his home, he smokes them, and he knows more about them than just about anyone who works at The Greenery; he’s our resident aficionado. We all like working with him behind the counter because there’s no such thing as a question about hash Cameron cannot answer, and there’s no such thing as a customer who deals with Cameron and leaves our store without a smile and a little more knowledge about this industry, just like he said in his last response.

So, this week, we’d like to thank Cameron for his service, for his dedication and passion, and for being a part of our team. Congratulations, Cameron, you’re September’s Best Bud of the Month!

Why is Marijuana Illegal?

Posted on September 1, 2018 - 9:00 am

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Well, it isn’t in Colorado, but we’re much smarter than those federal people who can’t seem to figure out that pot is just a plant. However, it’s not really their fault when you think about it because ignorance is an insidious thing when it gets intrenched, and that’s what Washington has been dealing with for decades. But truth is the best remedy for ignorance, so that’s what I’m gunna give you in this week’s post.

For the record, I made it all the way through my writing program in college without writing a single paper on the absurdity of criminalized cannabis because that’s the type of paper every student writes at least once, and I wanted to avoid the cliché. But as it turns out, this choice was an ironic one because now that I have my writing degree, I spend my days writing only about marijuana… whatever, I’m going to embrace it. So, this week, I figured I’d write for you the paper I avoided for all those years, because after all, there are some things about cannabis prohibition that everyone needs to know. Here we go:

A Brief History of Cannabis Prohibition

In the beginning, it was the snake oil salesmen who ruined it for everybody. They’d travel through towns and make all sorts of nonsensical claims, like “cannabis cures erectile disfunction!” So, in 1906, the Pure Food and Drug Act was passed which made it illegal to make medicinal claims about any substance without proof, and it limited the sale of narcotics and cannabis to pharmacies. This was the first time cannabis was mentioned in any sort of legislation.

As an aside, it’s infuriating when people refer to legalized cannabis as a “social experiment” because when you think about it, weed has only been illegal for about 100 years. Throughout the rest of our history, cannabis was legal, so criminalizing a plant was the real social experiment, and it didn’t work. Anyway, moving on…

Then came the first of three butt-heads you need to meet: William Randolph Hearst. This guy was your archetypical fat-cat—he owned the world’s largest newspaper chain and a bunch of forests that he used to feed his paper mills. And do you know what’s a threat to people who make their living making paper out of trees? Hemp. It grows faster and makes better paper, so Hurst hated it. And it didn’t help that Pancho Villa invaded one of Hurst’s forests because Pancho was from Mexico which is where all the pot came from back then. So, Mr. Hurst used his newspapers and political clout to spread all sorts of misinformation about “evil marijuana.”

The second butt-head we need to talk about is Harry Anslinger. This guy rose to prominence as the head of the Treasury Department during the alcohol prohibition years, but when alcohol was legalized (because making drugs illegal doesn’t do anything), Anslinger found himself twiddling his thumbs. He was about to be unemployed, just like all the jerks under his command who used to make their livings busting alcohol smugglers, so he used his influence to spread false propaganda about pot. People believed him because people are dumb, and then Congress passed the Marijuana Tax Act in 1937.

1935 Anti-marijuana poster

You see, nothing in the constitution allowed the federal government to ban a plant like cannabis, so they decided to “tax” marijuana, but then they intentionally forgot to create the system to generate licenses or collect the taxes. Ergo, since nobody could get a license or pay tax, it became illegal to grow or sell cannabis.

Everyone has heard of the third and final butt-head: Richard Nixon. He championed the Controlled Substance Act of 1970. Under this act, marijuana was classified as a Schedule 1 drug (right alongside others like crack) because it was a “harmful substance with no medical benefits.”

This brings us to where we’re at today. A handful of states have pulled their heads out of their butts and legalized pot because it sure as hell isn’t a harmful substance with no medical benefits, but most places still believe all the “reefer madness” lies and propaganda that got us into this mess, even though papers like this one are written every year by college students who are smart enough to look in the history books. And lobbyists from privatized prison systems and big pharmaceutical companies spend millions each year to keep pot illegal because there’s a ton of money to be made by locking up pot smokers and making pills that don’t work nearly as well as a plant.

There… that’s why marijuana is illegal in most places. Isn’t it irritating? But hey, Colorado isn’t one of “those places,” so if you’re like us and you prefer fact over propaganda, come into our Durango dispensary at 208 Parker Avenue and we’ll set things straight with some of the highest-quality cannabis on earth. We’re Your Best Buds!

Dealing with your Friendly Neighborhood Dispensary Budtender

Posted on August 25, 2018 - 9:00 am

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I have strict rules for tipping: at the bar, it’s a dollar per drink, at the restaurant, it’s twenty-percent for awesome service, and a passive-aggressive fifteen-percent for anything less. But the first time I purchased legal weed, I had no idea what to do—there was a tip jar by the register, so when I bought my first joint, I stuffed two dollars in that jar for the budtender and then looked at her to see if she thought it was acceptable. She didn’t notice, so I went on my way hoping it was okay.

Now that I stand on the other side of the counter, I know that a two-buck tip for a joint is perfectly acceptable, if not overkill. You see, dispensary budtenders are nothing like bartenders or servers even though the jobs are similar: we receive a regular wage, so tips are an added bonus, not the cornerstone to our living like they are for a waitress. Throwing a buck or two into our jar is simply a way to say “thank you” if we’ve answered all your questions and provided the type of customer service you expect, but it isn’t necessary; we’ll never judge you behind your back if you go on your way without leaving a tip.

But if you really loved your experience in our Durango dispensary, there’s an even better way to show us: leave us a Google review. After all, this is the modern age, and Google makes the world go ‘round (and it’s probably how you found this blog). If you leave us a review, it lets us know how we’re doing and how we can improve; we need your input because we want to be the best.

For example, if you Google “The Greenery,” click “rate and review” over to the right, select the number of stars, type something like, “Jesse writes the best pot blogs on earth,” and then click “publish,” I get all sorts of kudus. Fun, right? But if there’s something we need to do better (like if you found a typo in this blog), please tell us that too; we want to hear it.

We also need to talk about your I.D. I’ve told you this before and I’m sure you already know it, but you must have a valid government-issued form of identification proving that you’re twenty-one or older to purchase anything in our dispensary. That being said, I know how annoying it can be to take out your driver’s license and show it to a budtender, but we don’t have a choice—if my grandmother were still alive (and if she got over that whole “devil’s lettuce” thing when it comes to pot), I’d have to card her if she came in here just to make sure her I.D. wasn’t expired. It’s either that, or a hefty fine and the loss of my ridiculously fun job.

And what makes this rule especially irksome is that if you show your I.D. to a budtender when you come in, but someone different rings you up, you’ll have to show your I.D. again even though you’re still the same person. We don’t have a choice. So please, even though it’s annoying to pull that I.D. out of your wallet or purse, bear with us. Budtenders don’t make the rules, but we have to follow them.

Other than that, the only thing you need to know is that we’re here for you; it’s our job to provide you with an educational experience when you come in to The Greenery. It’s what we do. I don’t care if there’s a line out the door: if I’m helping you at the counter, I’ll take my time to answer every question you have each and every time, so don’t be afraid to ask. That’s what makes The Greenery different than all the other dispensaries in town, so please don’t feel as if you’re in a rush while you’re here, because to us, your experience is more important than anything else. And that’s how it’ll always be when you’re dealing with our budtenders, because We’re Your Best Buds!

Dispensary FAQs

Posted on August 11, 2018 - 9:00 am

As a budtender, I’ve heard them all: Is marijuana instantly addictive? Will this stuff make me see flying animals? Would you please mail some of that marijuana sex spray to me here in South Africa? For real, I’ve answered all these questions, and I tried my best to do so with a straight face. And somewhere along the line, it made me realize that I’m a professional question answerer—all day every day, I field questions from people who are trying to learn about this industry, so this week, I figured I’d answer a few of the most commonly asked questions preemptively. Here we go…

1.) What’s the difference between Indica and Sativa?

Well, I wrote an entire blog about it that you can read HERE, but basically, the Indica strains are famous for relaxation, and the Sativa strains are known for stimulation. The indicas evolved in India (thus the name), and the plants are short and bushy, as where the sativas (that originated in Africa) are tall with thin fronds. Just remember “indica, in-da-couch,” and “viva Sativa!”

2.) What’s your most potent edible?

On the recreational side of things in Colorado, edibles are capped at 100mg THC per package, and 10mg THC per serving, so they’re all equally potent. However, we do sell a few edibles that come in 5mg servings for people with a lower tolerance.

3.) How much am I allowed to buy?

Each adult can buy one ounce of flower, or 800mg worth of edibles, or 8g of concentrates. And yes, there is an equivalency chart to follow. Basically, you’re allowed to purchase eight eighths, and one eighth is equal to one gram of concentrate or a 100mg edible. So, hypothetically, you could buy four eighths, two grams of concentrate, and two 100mg edibles, and that would be your maximum.

4.) Do you sell any CBD-only products?

Nope. Those are available online, but they’re derived from hemp, and everything we sell is derived from cannabis (they’re completely different animals). However, we do sell a few products that are “mostly” CBD, such as our Lucky Turtle Tincture that contains 500mg CBD and only 10mg THC: each serving will give you roughly 14mg CBD and 0.25mg THC, which isn’t enough to get you “high.” Just so you know, the proverbial “they” have figured out that CBD can be more effective if it’s accompanied by a little THC thanks to the “entourage effect,” and I wrote an entire blog you can read HERE if you’d like to learn more.

5.) Do you have anything on sale?

Almost always! We have rotating deals throughout the week (for instance, I’m writing this on a Wednesday, and today, all our concentrates are 15% off). For a complete list of our daily deals, click HERE.

6.) I’m from out-of-state and I don’t have a medical card; can I still buy from you?

Yes. We’re a recreational-only dispensary (but we offer a 20% discount to customers who have a valid Colorado-issued medical card), and all you need to show us when you shop here is a valid, government-issued I.D. with a picture proving that you’re twenty-one or over.

7.) What’s the difference between a smokable and an edible high?

The stuff you smoke hits you almost instantly as where an edible can take up to two hours to hit you completely. The biggest mistake people make is eating more after twenty minutes or so because they aren’t feeling anything, and then boom, it all hits you. Please go slow and don’t do this: once you eat it, you cannot un-eat it, and an over-the-top edible experience is something you want to avoid. Trust me… Lastly, a smokable high lasts about an hour and a half, but an edible high can last for up to six hours, which is why caution is so important.

8.) Where can I smoke?

This is the tricky one. To consume any sort of marijuana, you must be on private property with the property owner’s permission. That’s what makes things tricky for tourists. However, plenty of the local hotels allow you to consume cannabis in designated areas—all you need to do is ask, and I promise they hear the question multiple times a day. And yes, I wrote an entire blog about this too, and you can read it HERE.

9.) Where are you located and what are your hours?

We’re at 208 Parker Avenue in Bodo Park right behind the GMC dealership. Simply call us if you need directions. We’re open from 9am to 9:30pm on weekdays, we’re open from 10am to 9:30pm on Saturdays, and from 10am to 7pm on Sundays. We’re closed on Christmas and New Year’s Day, and we have shortened hours on a few other holidays, but you can click HERE for a map and all sorts of other info.

10.) Is marijuana instantly addictive, will it make me see flying animals, and can you mail it to me here in Africa?

No…

That’s it! Of course, if I didn’t answer one of your questions, there’s nothing wrong with calling us to ask: (970) 403-3710. And there’s definitely nothing wrong with coming into our Durango dispensary to ask us in person because we’re all professional question-answerers, and We’re Your Best Buds!

Total THC

Posted on July 28, 2018 - 9:00 am

Occasionally, I’ll write one of these blogs, Faith will post it, and then I’ll realize I forgot something important. It’s frustrating. And it happened a few weeks ago when I told you how to tell the good from the bad when it comes to flower (for a refresher, click HERE) because I didn’t say anything about THC percentages… sorry about that.

I used to be a THC snob. Whenever I shopped for flower, the numbers were the first thing I looked at; smell and appearance took a back seat to potency. But those were ignorant days and working in a dispensary has changed my outlook. About a year ago, Sloane suggested that I try some Deep Chunk and I scoffed at the suggestion because the flower barely broke the fifteen-percent mark per THC. Sloane looked at me like I was an idiot and said, “don’t be a THC snob,” so I took her advice, and it was the right thing to do. The high from that flower was complex and perfect, and it was difficult for me to trust THC percentages from that point forward.

The reason is simple: there are well over one-hundred cannabinoids in cannabis, and THC is just one of them. So, the higher the THC percentage climbs, the lower everything else falls. But that’s something I’ve written about before, and now, things have become even more complicated because the scientists have gotten involved.

You see, flower has a very low level of active THC; most of the THC in bud is actually THCa (the acid form of the cannabinoid). When you burn flower, the THCa is decarboxylated by the heat and it turns into THC, which gets you high. Get it? THC needs to be activated by heat to make you feel good (that’s why it doesn’t do anything if you eat a handful of flower). And about a month ago, the scientists thought that THCa converted over evenly into THC. So, hypothetically, if a strain of flower had a 28% THCa percentage, it was thought to give you 28% THC after you smoked it, but that’s not the case.

Now, only .877 of the THCa turns into THC once it’s decarboxylated. So now, when we have a strain of flower that tests at that hypothetical mark of 28% THCa, it’ll be labeled as containing “24.5% Total THC.” Isn’t that confusing? And the reason I’m writing this for you is that this new conversion formula doesn’t apply only to flower—it’s also used to determine the potency of concentrates, and as such, it’s something I get asked about every day as a budtender.

For instance, we’re selling some Zero Gravity shatter right now that contains 799mg of THCa, and a couple months ago, it would’ve been labeled as providing 79.9% THC. But now, after the new conversion, the label says “70.3% total THC.” See what I mean? The percentage for the flower example I gave you really didn’t change that much due to the new equation, but the percentage on the shatter dropped by nearly ten percent. And at least once a day, I encounter an irritated customer who wants to know why our “concentrates are so much weaker than they used to be.”

That’s the frustrating part. At least once a day because it really does look like our Durango dispensary has started selling less-potent concentrates, when really, all we’re doing is using a new mandated formula to figure out total THC.

But you don’t need to worry about that because you’re reading this. And you really don’t need to worry about that because you know We’re Your Best Buds, and if you bring your valid I.D. proving that you’re twenty-one or over into our dispensary at 208 Parker Avenue, one of our knowledgeable budtenders will show you the new labeling requirements and prove that our concentrates are just as potent as they used to be. That’s the type of service and information you get when you come to The Greenery (it’s what makes us different), and frankly, you shouldn’t expect anything less.

Blunts in Durango

Posted on July 23, 2018 - 6:40 pm

Blunts were special things when I was younger because they combined two things I wasn’t supposed to have: marijuana and tobacco. My friends and I would buy one of those nasty Swisher Sweets with a honey-dipped tip, break it open to scrape out all the brown stuff, and then we’d fill it with way too much pot. We’d light it and smoke it with exaggerated nonchalance, kind of like we were godfathers in an old-school gangster movie. The smoke was harsh and the high was too intense, but those were ridiculous days.

When I moved to Colorado, long before landing this dream job, I got in one of those nostalgic moods that make old people famous, and I started shopping around for dispensaries that sell blunts. I didn’t find any. As it turns out, it’s illegal to sell both tobacco and cannabis in the same place (even though you can sell alcohol and tobacco in one place, which makes no sense whatsoever). So, I gave up, because I was way too old to buy a Swisher Sweet and act like a godfather.

But then a few weeks ago, someone from District 8 called us to tell us about a promotion he was running to help the foodbank right here in Durango during the 416 Fire; he committed to donating one food item for every pack of blunts that we sold. That was super cool, but wait… how’d he manage to get around that nonsensical “tobacco and cannabis aren’t allowed to be sold in the same place” rule?

Hemp.

District 8 has figured out a way to cure hemp paper until it’s brown and musky, just like a tobacco wrap. They dip their hemp blunts in honey for that sweet tip blunt-lovers remember from the Swisher Sweet days, and District 8 nailed it. Each pack of blunts contains two half-gram hemp cones that’re filled with 100% pesticide-free flower. And District 8 always uses strain-specific bud, not trim. Their blunts are nicotine-free but you still get that tobacco taste, each one is the perfect size for one or two people, so nothing is wasted, and these things smell amazing, like a humidor filled with cannabis.

However, there’s an issue: Durango seems to love these things. As I’m writing this, we only have four packs left, but we’ll hopefully have more for you by the time you read this if everything goes well. So, if you’re a fan of blunts, or if you’ve never tried one and you’d like something a bit more robust than a traditional pre-roll, bring your valid I.D. proving that you’re twenty-one or over to Your Best Buds at 208 Parker Avenue and we’ll hook you up!

July’s Best Bud of the Month

Posted on July 14, 2018 - 3:48 pm

Faith Frazier

About your Best Bud:

Everyone at The Greenery is a budtender—from the owners all the way down to the lowly guy who writes our blogs, everyone who works here will gladly come up to the front and sell you cannabis with a smile. But until now, every Best Bud you’ve met has been a budtender first and foremost, and today, you get to meet Faith Frazier, our CMO.

Faith is an anomaly. She’s one of those people you stare at trying to find a flaw because it doesn’t feel fair to meet someone who’s so damn good at everything. She’s a happily-married mother of two absurdly cute daughters; she’s brilliant and educated; she’s kind and compassionate, and she’s a valued friend. But professionally speaking, Faith is the reason our Durango dispensary is so popular. She runs our website, she handles all the public outreach, and she forged our brand into something that’s trusted by locals and tourists alike. Honestly, it’s past time that you met Faith:

Q. When did you start working for The Greenery?
Faith. “December of 2016.”

Q. What’s your favorite way to enjoy marijuana?
Faith. “Outdoors. And I prefer a good Sativa.”

Q. What’s your favorite outdoor activity?
Faith. “I love skiing, trail running, and floating the river. I really love it all, essentially, but skiing is the best.”

Q. Tell us about your pet.
Faith. “We have a cat named Fisher who mainly annoys everyone, but he’s a good mouser. We’re also getting a family Lab, and we have the names narrowed down to Lemon, Maisie, Pearl, or Willa. We’re open to suggestions!”

Q. Which station do you stream while you’re working at The Greenery?
Faith. “Lately, it’s been Leon Bridges, Alabama Shakes, and Tom Petty. But the first concert I went to was New Kids on the Block!”

Q. What do you like most about working at The Greenery?
Faith. “The people; I love getting to interact with people every day by seeing locals and meeting tourists!”

And you know what? People love meeting Faith more than Faith loves meeting people. Her smile will dilute the worst of days, and customers always seem to linger at the counter when Faith is up front. Actually, from the stories we hear, that’s just the way it’s always been. She spent a few months as an exchange student in Mongolia (which just adds to the whole “anomaly” thing), and the entire country loved her. They gave her a tattoo—the back-alley type, complete with a shot-glass full of booze to kill the germs on the needle—of the Mongolian word for “rainbow” because Faith brings color with her wherever she goes.

It’s true. The Greenery is a more colorful, wonderful place because Faith works here, and even though we aren’t gunna give her a tattoo, Faith deserves all the thanks we can throw her way. So, thank you, madame, you’re July’s Best Bud of the Month!

CBD in Durango

Posted on June 30, 2018 - 9:00 am

CBD stands for “Cannabidiol.” I wanted to say that right off the bat because most people think “CBD” is an acronym that stands for something (like “cannabis, because duh”), but it’s not—it’s simply an abbreviation, just like “THC,” which stands for “tetrahydrocannabinol.”

But what CBD does is more important than what it means: Cannabidiol is a non-psychoactive cannabinoid (meaning it doesn’t get you high) that may help people with anxiety, inflammation, or pain management. This is the stuff that puts the “medicine” in “medicinal marijuana,” and it’s becoming quite popular. In fact, the FDA just approved the first-ever marijuana-derived CBD pharmaceutical to treat epilepsy (read the article HERE), Walmart is selling CBD products derived from hemp, and one of our local pet shops is even selling CBD-infused dog treats, which should tell you something about this compound’s popularity and efficacy. However, since you’re reading this, you probably aren’t a dog, so I’ll focus on what CBD can do for humans instead of for pets.

In short, CBD is awesome. I’ve had a few people come in to ask, “does CBD cure cancer?” because they’ve heard rumors. I wish this were true (we’d be a lot busier if it were), but unfortunately, CBD hasn’t been studied enough to prove what it can or cannot do. So, for now, I can only tell you what CBD “may” do:

• If you’re an anxious person who clams up when life comes flying your way, CBD may take the edge off. In fact, we have a slew of customers who buy CBD products to combat their PTSD, and they swear by the calming effects of this popular cannabinoid.

• Personally, I feel like I’ve taken a handful of ibuprofen after a dose of CBD. This stuff beats the pain down for me, and it does so without the side effects that make pills so infamous.

• Other than that, CBD is renowned for its possible anti-inflammation abilities. Swelling, redness, discomfort: CBD is something to experiment with if you suffer from any of these maladies.

Alright… that covers what CBD might do for you, so now we need to talk about how to use CBD, and it’d be easiest to list a few of our bestselling CBD products and let you decide which one might be best:

1.) Incredible Power: There are quite a few CBD-dominant strains of flower out there, but most people come in asking for Charlotte’s Web because it’s the most famous. However, I’d argue that Incredible Power is better because it contains around 12% THC and 15% CBD, as where Charlotte’s Web is lower in both categories. This flower is a slightly indica-leaning hybrid, so it’s doubly relaxing, and it’s definitely a shop-favorite.

2.) Chroma CBD Distillate by Evolab. If smoking flower is a bit too harsh, I’d suggest this cartridge for a vape option. Frankly, Evolab makes the best vape oils known to man. These cartridges fit on any universal 510-threaded battery, and the 500mg of oil contained in each one comes in at 56% CBD and about 17% THC. If you’re looking for the highest concentration of CBD in a high-quality vape product, there’s nothing better than the Chroma CBD cartridge.

3.) CBD Therapy Pucks by Highly Edible: If you’re not a smoker, there are plenty of edible CBD options out there, and this product is a perfect place to start. These gummy pucks come in peach or golden strawberry, and each serving contains 20mg CBD and 2mg THC, so this product will provide the relief of CBD without the high of THC.

4.) Ripple Relief: If you’re not a smoker and you don’t like the calories that come from edibles, there’s still an option for you. Ripple is an odorless, tasteless, instantly-dissolvable powder that can be added to any drink (or spaghetti sauce, for that matter) to turn it into a CBD-infused edible. Each serving contains 10mg CBD and 0.5mg THC so this won’t get you high either, but the best part is that drinks usually take effect sooner than other edibles, so Ripple can deliver relief much sooner than other products.

5.) Mary Jane’s Salve: If you don’t want to smoke or eat anything, but you still want to try CBD, this topical is our bestselling option for you. Topical salves are favorites among people who suffer from arthritis, muscle pain, or severe dry skin. And if you’ve never tried cannabis-infused salves, we have a 2oz trial size that’s perfect for first-timers; it contains 60mg THC (but it still won’t get you high) and 20mg CBD per jar.

Of course, we have about seventeen-billion other CBD-infused options available for sale in our Durango dispensary (including quite a few that have a perfect 1:1 balance between CBD and THC) and this list barely scratches the surface, so if you’d like more options, check out our menu HERE.

And yes, as one last note, you can in fact purchase CBD products online, but they’re derived from hemp rather than cannabis, so they don’t contain any THC (which is why you can buy these products online). This might sound like a good thing to those of you who are looking for CBD’s relief without THC’s buzz, but it isn’t because of one thing: the “entourage effect.”

It’d take a blog of its own to tell you all about the entourage effect, but in short, they (scientists) have found that CBD is most effective when combined with other cannabinoids such as THC because the compounds work together synergistically to provide a better effect. So, even if you’ve tried the hemp-version of CBD that provides CBD all by itself, you might have better luck with a product that provides both CBD and THC, even if the THC percentage is minimal like it is in the five products I listed above.

So please, if you’re over twenty-one with a valid form of identification (a driver’s license is peachy) and you’re looking for a little CBD relief, come see Your Best Buds at 208 Parker Avenue in Durango, Colorado, and we’ll tell you and show you everything you need to know about CBD!

How to Identify Quality Marijuana

Posted on June 9, 2018 - 9:00 am

Part of me wants to say, “go to The Greenery and look at our marijuana because that’s what quality looks like,” but I’m not going to do that to you. I’ve been writing these blogs long enough to assume that I’ve built up a bit of ethos with at least one of you, and I don’t want to lose your trust. So, this week, I’m going to teach you how to tell the good from the bad when it comes to all the green stuff that’s on the market.

I see it every day: someone new will walk into our shop and look down at the twelve strains we have on display, and they’ll have no clue where to start. But can you blame them? Some of our strains are purple, some have white crystals and orange hairs. Some strains are neon green and some are dark as moss. How’s a newbie supposed to figure out what’s what? There are well over four-thousand named strains of marijuana and they all look different—if I didn’t work with weed all day every day, I probably wouldn’t know where to start either. So, when a new customer looks up from our display and asks, “um, how do I tell which one is good?”, I tell them these things:

1.) Look at the pot.

I know that sounds stupid, but it isn’t as easy as you’d think to tell whether flower is “quality” just by looking at it. We all know what good food looks like because food has been legal forever, but pot hasn’t, so for that first-time shopper, all the visual differences can be difficult to judge. So, one of the first things to look for is density, and that’s what I tell our customers. Pick up one of our display jars and shake it a bit. If the pot rattles around like a little rock, it’s dense, which is good because it means the flower is highly resinous, and that it was grown and cured properly. If the pot feels light like a ball of grass, it’s “larfy.”

For the record, I’ll admit freely that most of the words we use to describe cannabis are ridiculous, and they’re usually lazy versions of real words. For example, the word “larfy” means “leafy,” and it’s the term used in the marijuana industry use to describe fluffy pot, which usually isn’t as good as the dense stuff. And the “usually” matters, because sometimes, a fluffy strain (like the 30% THC King Kong we’re selling right now) will come along that’s better than a lot of the dense stuff.

Secondly, look for crystals. Technically, the crystals are dehydrated trichomes (the resinous glands that grow out of a plant’s epidermis), but all you really need to know is that crystal-covered flower is usually awesome because plants that produce a ton of crystals are usually potent and flavorful, and that’s always a good thing.

Third, check the bud structure. Round or conical buds are usually the best because the shape suggests the plants were grown properly. For instance, if you see long spindles of bud shooting off here and there (these are called “foxtails”), it could mean that the plant was grown with too much heat, which will affect the taste and cannabinoid content. But again, the “usually” matters, because there are a few awesome strains out there (like Casey Jones) that grow foxtails no matter how they’re cultivated.

2.) Smell the pot.

Again, it’s not nearly as easy as it sounds. Just like a fine wine, good pot will have a distinct “nose,” and even though it sounds snobby, we use that word in our industry too. But it’s tricky to pick out pot by its smell. You wouldn’t think it, but some of the best strains smell bad. The UK Cheese we sell in our shop from time to time smells like a mild cheddar, but the taste is creamy and the high is spectacular. We sell a Sour Diesel strain that smells like a gas station, but the high is energetic and blissful. And we sell a Chem Dog strain that smells like bleached linoleum, but again, the high is perfect.

My point here is that you need to reevaluate what you consider to be a “good” smell and start sniffing for specifics. After all, a flower’s smell is determined by its terpene content, and different terpenes do different things. For example, if you come into our shop, smell one of our display jars, and encounter a musky, skunk-like smell, the strain you’re sniffing most likely contains a high concentration of B-Myrcene, which is a terpene that’s thought to provide relaxation and pain-management possibilities.

And you can do this proactively: if you’re looking for an uplifting strain, avoid the skunk smells and sniff around for something that smells like pine or lemons—these smells come from the terpenes Pinene and d-Limonene respectively, and they’re famous for day-crushing energy and creativity.

3.) Lastly, ask questions.

There are a few other visual cues and at least ten more terpenes that really matter, so come in and ask one of our budtenders to explain what you’re looking at and smelling. Tell them the type of high you’re looking for and your quality/price range, and our budtenders will point you in the right direction, because I promise they’ve looked at and sniffed more pot than most of us could ever hope to. And the iPads we use to ring you up when you shop at The Greenery double as computers; we’ll always take the time to look up answers to your questions if we don’t know them readily.

So, if you’re over twenty-one with a valid I.D., come to The Greenery at 208 Parker Avenue. We’ll show you our quality marijuana, and we’ll take the time to explain the differences, because We’re Your Best Buds!

Top Shelf Marijuana in Durango

Posted on May 26, 2018 - 9:00 am

Word abuse should be illegal. That way, if someone said “irregardless” or something else nonsensical, real-life grammar police could come along and issue a citation while the rest of us watched and shook our heads slowly. But grammar police aren’t real, and believe it or not, the word “irregardless” has been added to most unabridged dictionaries simply because it’s been said enough times to become a real word; the definition in Webster’s is “regardless.”

And the idiocy doesn’t stop there: if you look closely enough, you can find “gourmet” foods in the gas station, or “artisanal” meals in the frozen foods aisle. I mean seriously, is a TV dinner actually “artisanal” if you have to microwave it? Does the raw cardboard packaging really mean that what’s inside is somehow better than anything else you find next to the frozen waffles? No. It’s just advertising, word-doctoring, and it’s insidious, when you think about it.

True, I work in sales and advertising, so it’s possible that I’ve gerrymandered semantics a time or two, but in the end, I’ve found that honesty really is the best policy—gas station “gourmet” food will get you sick, and then just a little bit, the word “gourmet” loses some of its meaning, which is the reason word abuse should be illegal in the first place.

It’s no better in the marijuana industry. There are plenty of dispensaries that throw around the word “organic” even though their products are anything but (since marijuana is federally illegal, it isn’t regulated by the FDA, so people use the word “organic” without oversight). But the worst case of word abuse in this industry is the misuse of the term “top shelf marijuana.” It’s frustrating, so please pay attention to this: marijuana cannot be “top-shelf marijuana” just because someone put it on the top shelf. It irks me to no end because at least once a day, someone will come in and ask why our top-shelf strains are costlier than the ones downtown.

I’m always kind to these customers, because after I thought about it for a while, I realized it wasn’t their fault—they’d been lied to thanks to all the false advertising in other Durango dispensaries, and if anything, they deserve the truth (literally, I have a T shirt that says “grammar police” on the front). So, I take my time with these misguided customers, and I tell them this:

At The Greenery, our top-shelf marijuana is on the top shelf because it’s the best cannabis on earth.

My boss would get uber pissed at me if I told you exactly how we operate our grow because that’s the kind of knowledge people pay us to learn, but I can tell you that we’re straight-up scientists: our growers run around and shoot lasers at our plants to make sure the canopy temperature is perfect; we drop particulate gasses on the fanleaves of our plants to help them breathe; we use light-emitting ceramic bulbs and engineered growing mediums and all sorts of super-secret stuff, but I’ve already said too much. My point here is that our buds really are Your Best Buds because there’s no shelf in Durango that’s higher than our top shelf.

Why? The other guys use hydroponics and nasty-ass greenhouse grows just so they can pump out as much mid-range pot as they can. The other guys don’t take their time when they’re trimming or curing. The other guys take subpar pot, slap a “top shelf” label on it, and then piss me off because like I said, word abuse should be illegal. Yes, you’ll pay more for true top-shelf cannabis, but that’s how life works. Good beer costs more than the stuff with a blue ribbon on the front, good food costs more than the frozen stuff, and good marijuana costs more than the pesticide-sprayed stuff that’s sold elsewhere in this town. I’m sure that sounds harsh, but it’s true.

So come see us at our Durango dispensary on 208 Parker Avenue and talk to one of our budtenders. We’ll take our time and show you the difference between our “top shelf” and all the others. We’ll let you smell the difference between ours and theirs, and once you smoke it and taste the terpene-rich awesomeness, the term “top shelf marijuana” will start to mean something again.