dry herb vape Archives | The Grand Junction Greenery

How to Become a Budtender

Posted on December 30, 2019 - 7:42 pm

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Out of all the questions I get standing behind our bud counter, “how do I become a budtender?” is one of the most common. I guess there’s just something mystic about my job, something romantic or salacious, that makes everyone want to jump on board (or maybe it’s my employee discount). Either way, I get it, because being a budtender is awesome. We get to slang ganja all day and talk about it nonstop with the people who want it. Seriously, if you’ve always loved marijuana, the legal cannabis market is the place to look for your dream job, but most people already know that because we meet a jobseeker almost every day. So, this week, I wanted to write about what it takes to become a budtender so you’d have a resource if you’re one of the many people who are looking to jump into something perfect.

However, this all comes with a disclaimer or two. For one, we’re not hiring or accepting resumes as I type this. Selling legal weed really is a dream job for many, and since we’re the best Durango dispensary, and the highest rated dispensary in the southwest, people usually swing by here first, and our roster is usually full. But that’s not to say we won’t be hiring soon because employees are always moving up or out, so keep checking in. And two, please take everything I say with a grain of salt; just because I’m telling you “how to be a budtender” doesn’t mean you can actually be one. I’ll explain…

Step one in becoming a budtender is to get your badge. It’s the license you’ve seen around the neck of every budtender you’ve met because it’s an absolute necessity, and not everyone qualifies for one because the state does a background check. I can’t say for sure what type of recorded offence leads to a “no,” and I know it’s difficult to get a badge with a felony on your record, but you’ll never know if you don’t try. And I’ll tell you from experience that it’s pointless to walk into a dispensary looking for a job without a badge because the guy who came in right before you already had his, and dispensaries won’t usually waste time on someone who may or may not get a license.

So, click HERE or google “MED occupational license application” to find all the paperwork you’ll need to submit to get your badge. After you print and fill out your paperwork, there will be a couple hoops to jump through before getting your license (like driving to the closest MED office for fingerprinting and whatnot), but you can learn about all of the hoops HERE.

Once your badge arrives, make a photocopy of it and then staple the copy to the back of your resume. Then all you need to do is blanket all the town’s dispensaries with copies of your badge and resume just like you’d do if you were looking for a regular job. And that’s the key: “regular job.” Most applicants assume that because we sell marijuana, we don’t have the high standards held by other employers, but that’s false. Our business is a business plain and simple, and when we’re hiring, we’re looking for professional businesspeople. Just because we sell things that get you high doesn’t mean you should be high when you come in looking for a job; just because pot is associated with lazy stoners doesn’t mean that’s who dispensaries are looking for when it comes to employees. So, dress professionally, act professionally, and for the love of everything holy, don’t come in with red eyes and a pipe tied around your neck (it’s happened).

Now, here comes the part you wouldn’t expect: nobody cares that you don’t have any cannabis industry experience. Frankly, it’s not like they teach this stuff in school (although you can read a list of colleges offering pot-related degrees HERE), and it’s not like all experience is good experience. Many shops are like our own Durango dispensary, and we prefer applicants to have no experience in the cannabis industry because most of the shops out there don’t do things correctly—it’s easier to teach new behaviors than to correct bad ones. That being said, retail experience is definitely a good thing, but I’d never touched a cash register before working here, so it’s still not necessary.

However, if you’re the anxious type who feels naked without a hint of cannabis experience on your resume, there are resources out there for you. For instance, there’s a state-regulated program called “METRC” that all dispensaries use to track legal cannabis. METRC is used in many states, so experience with it is a boon no matter where you’re looking to work. “METRC,” which we pronounce “metric,” stands for “Marijuana Enforcement Tracking Reporting Compliance,” and if I’m being honest, knowing this fact alone will give you an advantage because I’d bet a few of my coworkers don’t know the meaning behind the acronym. And there are plenty of METRC tutorial videos on YouTube that you can watch HERE if you’d like to add a touch of “experience” to your resume, but remember, it’s not necessary, and these videos are for reference only and shouldn’t be taken as gospel.

Other than that, there are plenty of “how to” books out there about being a budtender, but I’d steer clear of them if I were you. For one, most of those books are written by ex-budtenders who are looking to make a buck (and there’s usually a reason for the “ex” part), and for two, this industry is constantly changing. Our regulations are always evolving. There’s a huge chance that most of the book you might buy is centered on the regulatory dos and don’ts, and they change so often that most books are irrelevant about a month after publication.

Lastly, if you want to work in the marijuana industry, it’s pretty damn important to like marijuana; most of us are downright passionate about it. And you need to know a lot about pot if you want a leg up, which is easy—you’ve obviously found this blog, and if you go back through our archives, you’ll find more than 100 blogs just like this one that’ll teach you more about cannabis than any resource I can think of. That, and please feel free to come in and chat with us at our Durango dispensary on 208 Parker Avenue. Even though we’re not hiring presently, any of our budtenders can give you the inside scoop as to what it’s like to do this for a living, and we’ll teach you anything you’d like about cannabis for free if you’re looking for free knowledge. Other than that, if you’re looking to become a budtender, we wish you luck, because We’re Your Best Buds!

Vaping Marijuana Flower

Posted on December 21, 2019 - 9:00 am

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Vaping Marijuana Flower

So… I owe you an apology. I’ve been writing these blogs for two years, and I thought I’d covered all the basics, but I’ve never written a thing about vaporizing dry marijuana flower, which means I’ve failed you. Oops. But hey, there’s no time like the present for reconciliation, so let’s do this…

I loved that book “Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury when I was a kid, and I’ll admit that I read it twice before my dad told me what the title meant: burning books was a central theme to Bradbury’s novel, and paper ignites at exactly 451 degrees Fahrenheit, so the title was clever. And if you think about it, paper is made from plant material, just like marijuana, so the two share relatively similar ignition points.

Now, the reason this is important is that when you burn marijuana, what you’re inhaling is smoke, but when you vaporize it at a temperature lower than 451 degrees, you’re actually boiling the oil within the plant and then inhaling the “steam” instead of smoke because the plant matter never ignites. It’s a much smoother experience, and the flavor that comes from the gently vaporized terpenes within the cannabis plant is simply superb. For real, it’s an entirely different experience that highlights each strain’s different taste in a way that you’d never achieve with flame. So, if you haven’t tried it, I’d recommend doing so immediately.

As I type this, we don’t have any “dry herb vaporizers” in stock here at our Durango dispensary, but we’re looking for one to offer. That being said, we don’t like to compete with the head shops in town because we work so closely together, so you’ll always be able to find a better selection of vaporizers elsewhere, and even if we did, the prices online for vaporizers will always be lower than you’ll find in a mountain town like Durango. See how honest I am? But regardless of where you get it, the first thing you’ll need to vaporize marijuana is a marijuana vaporizer (duh), and I’d recommend getting something nice because quality matters when it comes to something like this.

So, to help you in your shopping, I’ll show you a few of my favorites. For one, you’ll need to decide if you want a portable vaporizer or a larger “at-home” device. The portable ones are nice for obvious reasons (they fit in your pocket), but the larger ones that sit on coffee tables are much better because they vaporize the flower more fully, and you can get much larger vapor clouds; it’s exactly like the difference between a vape pen and a full-blown dab rig. In that vein, there’s really only one at-home vaporizer I’d recommend, and it was the first on the market, so it’s well vetted. All you need to do is google “volcano vaporizer” to find one because they’re sold everywhere, but you should expect to pay north of $600 for a complete setup (remember, quality matters). What you do with one of these devices, basically, is put a little flower on top of the volcano. The device vaporizes the flower right in front of you, and then it fills a large bag with all the good stuff. You then remove the bag and breathe in and out of it—doing so lets you take the same hit over and over, and then when you’re done, you blow the vapor out. It’s wonderful.

But if you’re looking for a portable option (or looking to avoid spending more than $600 to try something new), there are plenty awesome hand-held options on the market, and I’ll tell you about two of them. The most affordable of the two is the Eden from Lynx (that you can see HERE). Frankly, this is the only flower vape under $100 that I’d trust because you start to sacrifice flavor if you go any lower. Now, on the other end of the spectrum is the Pax 3 (click HERE). We used to sell these in our shop, and we might do so again, because there’s simply no better hand-held option on the market. A new Pax 3 will run you a little over $250, but you can also use it to vape concentrates, which is convenient. To use hand-held devices, it’s important to grind finely your flower, and then you pack it into a small chamber. Then all you do with your device is turn it on, wait for the preheat to complete (this is when the chamber heats up to a temperature that’ll boil the oil within the cannabis), and then inhale. Easy cheesy.

All that being said, we haven’t even gotten to the part that most flower vapers consider to be the best: AVB, or “already vaped bud.” As I’m sure you’ve figured out, since vaporizing your flower doesn’t burn it, quite a bit of the plant material is left over after you’ve vaporized it because all you’ve done is remove most of the oil from the flower. So, if you remove all the ABV flower from your device, you can use it for other things.

For one, if you were paying attention, you’ll remember that I said you removed “most” of the oil from the flower while vaping it. There’s still a bit left, no matter how good your vaporizer is, so you can take that AVB and smoke it like regular flower. It won’t taste that great, and it won’t get you that high, but at times, it’s better than nothing. But what most people do with the AVB is cook with it. Again, whatever you cook won’t get you as high as cooking with fresh flower, but it still works, and cooking with pot is fun. I wrote an entire blog on the subject that you can read HERE back when I thought I’d covered all the basics. Lastly, you can always make a salve or lotion out of your AVB if you know how to do such things, or throw the AVB into your compost heap.

There! I’ve addressed my failure to tell you all about vaping dry cannabis flower, and it only took me two years to get it done; please except my apology. And just as one more tip, most flower vapes have temperature settings that go well above 450 degrees, so remember not to go north of that mark. Doing so will burn your bud just like smoking it, and if that’s what you want to do, use a pipe. They’re much cheaper. And lastly, the most important thing you’ll need besides the vaporizer is the cannabis flower to put inside it (again, duh). If you’ve read these blogs before or if you’ve come into our Durango dispensary, you already know that The Greenery has the best flower in town. So come see us at 208 Parker Avenue right here in Durango, because when it comes to all things cannabis, We’re Your Best Buds!

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Tag: dry herb vape

How to Become a Budtender

Vaping Marijuana Flower

Vaping Marijuana Flower