Peak: A Denver Cannabis Shop for Adult Use Consumers - Legal Marijuana Retail Sales w/ MMJ Sales

Peak: A medical and 'Adult Use Market' store in Denver, CO

Peak MJ
260 Broadway
Denver, CO 80203

The Stoner Living field team stumbled upon Peak while strolling down Broadway through the mix of vintage clothing stores, tattoo parlors, cafes and used book stores. Their door had a small, slightly abstracted green cross logo and text saying they were now offering non-medical marijuana sales.

Although Peak opened as a medical marijuana dispensary in early 2014, this was their first week participating in the 'recreational' - or as they like to call it in Colorado, the 'Adult Use Market'. The laws in Colorado are different for 'medical' marijuana patients (sometimes called MMJ) versus 'Adult Use' marijuana consumers - allowing more potent serving sizes, larger quantities and lower tax rates for 'medical' users.

Kindman Brand Cannabis - 1g of 'Grape Ape'

At Peak, unlike some of the other marijuana stores we visited, it was easy to tell which products were intended for 'Adult Use' (ie - the 'non MMJ' products out-of-staters are eligible to purchase.) After a standard ID check to verify that we were over the age of 21 we were allowed into a spacious back room with display cases with boxed marijuana ready to go in single gram or 1/8 oz packages. There were extracts, concentrates, candies, medical salves and suckers. There was a separate counter for in-state medical marijuana patients.

The well lit environs kept any creepy adult video store vibes at bay. It was clean and smelled nice. Our budtender Jon, the General Manager, was extremely helpful in product selection and was helpful all around. Most of the pre-packaged flower in their display cabinets came from the brand 'Kindman'.

Child Proof Packaging for Kindman's Retail

Child Proofing - It's Not the Budtender's Fault
Due to legislation based on child-safety paranoia, child-safe, tamper-proof packaging is required. The 1g of Grape Ape flower came in a small pill bottle with wadded up paper to fill the excess space and keep the flower from rattling around. On the up side, the paper looked like it could be used as rolling paper in a pinch. This was sealed with a tamper-evident seal and a child-proof lid. This was then placed into a box which was neatly stacked up in jewelers display cabinets for sale.

There are nice glass "presentation" jars where the consumer can smell (but not touch) the flowers. But buyer beware - what you see is not necessarily what you get. All of the flowers in the "presentation" jars looked like the top colas (ie - the prime pieces) from each plant.

Opaque packaging does provide optimal product protection, but  it prevents the consumer from seeing what they are purchasing. The reality of what any particular boxed gram or 1/8 oz. (3.5g) package can vary and may be completely non representative of what was in the "presentation" jars. The classic bait-and-switch.

Bait & Switch? Or should I just be happy to have retail cannabis available?

After browsing for a while, my consideration set included a nice looking hybrid called the Spirit of 76, but I ended up going with Grape Ape which a friend said he once sampled and it was like a 'party in your mouth'. Legendary stories tell of a strain with concord grape juice super-grape flavor. The Grape Ape did have some classic purple flavor reminiscent of other classic purple strains like Grandaddy Purple, Purple Urkle, The Purp.

At this point I should have inquired about the large glass jars of cannabis sitting deli style behind the counter, but I was only buying one gram - and we were chatting up the bud-tender about the cannabis conference we were attending and he was offering us Kindman at a discounted price of $20 for a gram - including all taxes (which are substantial and vary by locality).

Here's What 20$ of Retail Legal Cannabis Looks Like in Denver, Colorado

Maybe my expectations were too high - the Grape Ape didn't have the magic I was hoping for in a $20 gram of cannabis. 

But I shouldn't complain. After all, I just flew into a new city and purchased cannabis at a clean, safe and downright pleasant retail store. 

If you are interested in cannabis, are over the age of 21 and are in the Denver area, you may visit Peak's retail location at the address below:

Peak MJ
260 Broadway
Denver, CO 80203

Note: Peak MJ is in no way associated with Stoner Living Blog and does not endorse or have anything to do with the content of this blog or this article.


(C) 2014 Stoner Living