Visiting Seattle Tonics - a Seattle Recreational Weed Tradition on Aurora Avenue

$183 worth of legal recreational weed in 2025 Washington State

Behold the sheer variety of today’s shopping outing: disposable vape cartridges, a cartridge for vape pens, two eight’s of flower, two 5-packs of pre-rolled joints, an impulse purchase of a single joint of a strain called 'redneck wedding' a pack of something called CHILL edible capsules (10 count) and a funky capsule shaped flavored disposable unit.

What have we here? I don’t know (yet).

The selection, prices, shop layout and product range combine into the ideal shopping experience - with the best value for hard earned money, without a close second. I am not paid by these folks and I have no connection to this fine local business. Seattle Tonics is my favorite shop simply because it is a better mousetrap. 

Seattle Tonics occupies a funky, reclaimed ‘no-tell’ motel on Aurora avenue, a local strip famous for car dealerships and street walking sex workers. This business, with their huge funky 21+ flag like sign waving in the breeze, has been a major factor stabilizing and improving the general, imho. Visitors from wholesome hamlets might find the area tawdry. 

So tasty, I had to break into this one...

Stopping by this evening, I managed to  catch my limit ( ie - purchase the maximum allowed per visit in Washington State, as specified by our recreational cannabis law.  In WA, that is 7 ounces of cannabis flower (or 7 grams of concentrates including cartridges, hash, RSO among others).  Everything for a total of $183 -  all taxes included. That, my friends, is value. Value for hard earned money. 

Stay tuned for upcoming reviews of these fine products, available legally in Seattle, Washington.

(c) 2025 Stoner Living Blog

Legal Pot in Seattle - (Almost) 5 Years of Recreational Weed Stores

Legal marijuana stores opened their doors in Seattle in the summer of 2014. Emerald city stoners are now spoiled with a bumper supply of top-quality flower, extracts and edibles. It takes a cross country voyage to remember the dark days of prohibition which still reign across the American South and Midwest, where grams of schwag still cost $20, if you are lucky enough to know where to find it.

Greenline- 3.5g Dragons Breath ($20, w/tax, Dec. 2018)

Nearing five years of legalization, prices, product availability and product diversity are at an all time high (pun intended). Market shelf space dedicated to concentrates and cartridges has increased, 'pre-rolled' as a category has increased, with an exciting diversity of enhanced joints featuring hash oil dips, rolls in kief and other combinations thereof.

Overall, prices are significantly lower and quality higher than at any time since the early 1990s. When Nirvana dominated the airwaves, black market top-shelf weed sold for 30-40$ per 'eighth' of an ounce or 3.5 grams. By the mid 1990s, lax Canadian drug laws led to a surplus of relatively good quality 'BC Bud' in the Seattle market. Medical collective gardens were legalized in Seattle in 1998. By the late 90s, this seedless product came on the scene and ultimately made low-grade, seeded 'mexi' weed un-saleable in the Seattle market by the turn of the millennium.

Hi Guys - 14g Pre-rolled joints ($20, Dec. 2018) Seattle Tonics

Prior to legalization, the US marijuana market was dominated by dried flower, which was smoked rolled up in paper or in a pipe. Marijuana smokers don't smoke pot leaves - the unfertilized flower of the female plant is where the active ingredient is concentrated. This point bears repeating because it takes the uninitiated a while to understand that whippersnappers aren't rolling up leaves to smoke their reefers.

The advent of medical marijuana in the 1990s and the rise of collective gardens saw the introduction of extracts like water process or screen processed hash products - bubble hash. Butane hash oil began the modern era of hash oil extractions, which continues to blossom today with an array of extracted products sold in cartridges and used in systems virtually indistinguishable from electronic cigarette systems. A whole universe of cannabis users who prefer dabs, concentrated extracts used with specialized equipment.

Phat Panda's Panda Pen - $15 rechargeable pen vape w/usb charger.

Vape pen cartridges with cannabinoid concentrations (the active ingredients) in the 70-90+ percent ranges are available for as little as $25 for a 1 gram cartridge. (re-chargeable vaporizer pens with three heat settings are widely available for $15). Indeed, many cartridges are more expensive, with 500mg (1/2 gram) cartridges selling for $36.

Packaging for legal marijuana products have diversified in terms of materials and design while working within legal parameters in terms of security, labeling requirements. Meeting child resistance requirements mean some products are sealed into a plastic sarcophagus designed to torment rheumatic sufferers of all stripes. Woe unto you, sufferer of Lupus or Rheumatoid Arthritis - there is no opting out of the child-proof cap, which is an option at prescription drug pharmacies.

Different weed retailers cater with varying degrees of success to the consumer segments of weed store customers. Several different weed 'ghettos' have evolved where customers can go to one neighborhood and hit a large number of stores in a small area. Good examples of such areas are the SODO region and out on Aurora avenue, past 100th or so. Stay tuned for an article highlighting the retail scene as it has evolved in the Seattle market.

-GK

Note: all pricing and availability information are provided for informational purposes only and are not intended as an advertisement to sell or an offer of availability. Please obey all laws and respect local ordinances. We are not affiliated with any of the products or retail outlets mentioned in this article.

(C) 2019 Stoner Living, all rights reserved. Article may be shared or re-posted as long as credit is given to Stoner Living.


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The Dab Lounge at the NW Cannabis Market - the Stoner Living Field Trip Report

Artist's Interpretation of a Hash Oil Dab Bar by Hubba Hubba

In the back room of the NW Cannabis Market, the dab lounge makes it possible for patients to sample extracts from the medical marijuana vendors up front. The NW Cannabis Market on Seattle's Rainier Avenue is open 7 day a week. Access is restricted to medical marijuana patients authorized to use medical cannabis in Washington State.

At the dab lounge, a budtender skillfully wields the blow torch, making it possible to relax and do nothing but inhale the vaporized fumes of the many extracts available. Prices range from $3 - $7 suggested donation per vaporized puff, and a wide selection is available. Basic extracts are priced at a recommended $3 donation (and Tuesdays are 'double dab' Tuesday where 2-for-1 pricing applies to selected dabs), CO2 extracts priced at $5, and some special extracts priced at $7 donation.

For $7, I tried a cryo-purged BHO (Butane Honey Oil) product. The budtender took out the small container of extract, and pulled a tiny amount onto the metal dabber stick (I selected the one with the Godzilla head on it). She fired up the blow torch and heated the metal bowl (the "nail") at the end of the glass waterpipe until it was glowing red hot. When I was ready, she 'dropped the dab' onto the side of the 'nail' as I inhaled through the cooling water.

Cinex BHO from Local Roots

She warned me not to hold the smoke in too long as it would expand in my lungs. I took her advice and exhaled the first hit mostly through my nose to enjoy the full aromatic spectrum of the extract. I survived with my lungs in tact but a distinctly peppery burn in my lungs. It was smooth, but I certainly felt the power of the concentrated smoke.

At the end of the exhale, the budtender smiled and handed me a cup of cold water.

Before preparing a dab for my companion, she opened an alcohol wipe and cleaned the mouthpiece of the waterpipe.

We sampled a $3 dab next. The difference between a $7 dab and a $3 dab is primarily smoothness (the $3 dab was a bit rougher on the throat going down) as the potency seemed similar. Most concentrates sold at the market reportedly range from 60-90% THC.

A heavy hand during the extraction procedure can strip all the delicate aroma and flavor rich terpenes from an extract. Likewise, failure to completely remove the solvent can lead to off tastes and outright toxic products. All of the 'dabs' we saw and smelled during our visit to the NW Cannabis Market appeared to be acceptable - and in some cases excellent - products.

The dab lounge at the Galaxy location of the NW Cannabis Market is open 7 days a week. The White Center location also has a dab lounge open on occasion. Because the product is vaporized and there is no smoke involved, it seems that indoor smoking ban legislation does not apply to such operations. Of course, a multitude of other prohibitive legislation will slow the spread of such establishments.

A home set up for enjoying extracts can be purchased from one of the vendors of glass smoking accessories at the market.  There are specialized devices as well as 'nail' attachments which can be attached to a multitude of standard waterpipes. Concentrates may also be mixed with cannabis flowers and rolled, or smoked through a pipe or waterpipe. 

Editor's note - A full Stoner Living report on home options for enjoying BHO or 'dabs' is in the works for April.

Reported by Stoner Living field reporter Greta Kraftt

-------- (c) 2013 Stoner Living