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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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

National Cannabis Industry Association Meeting - Denver

The Infused Product and Extraction Symposium
Denver, Colorado
October 27-29, 2014

NCIA Infused Product & Extraction Symposium Meeting, October 27-29, 2014, Denver CO

The National Cannabis Industry Association (NCIA) held a 2 day workshop, symposium and vendor fair in Denber, Colorado - America's poster child for the somewhat successful launch of the legitimate legal cannabis industry. The NCIA is the legal Cannabis Trade Association its meetings are eerily similar to any other trade meetings - for instance, the Institute of Food Technologists annual meeting and trade show I attend annually to stay in contact with graduate school and professional friends.

Colorado legitimized medical cannabis and quite a robust industry including flowers, edible products and extracts blossomed in Colorado. Colorado's approach to legitimizing the recreational side of the market was to give the exiting medical cannabis industry the first chance at licenses under the new recreational system.

NCIA Symposium Registration - Just like any other trade show

Differences in 'medical' versus 'recreational' in Colorado have implications beyond taxation (which are severe). New emergency legislation has capped the extracted/edible serving size of THC at 10 mg per serving. Many 'medical' products have deliver in the 50mg - 100 mg/serving size.This led to a flurry of products such as the Dixie Elixer one series of ultra-low dose products intended for the legal recreational marktet.
 Editors note: future articles will cover the product development and marking implications of the new emergency regulations in Colradao. 

The vendor fair was filled with a mixture of extraction product makers (like Apecks and Eden Labs, product manufacturers (like Dixie Brands) and so many more. Many entrepreneurs were swapping business cards and discussing opportunities and shared interests. Apeks supercritical CO2 extraction systems had a good booth with knowledgeable sales people and relevant samples of processed samples made from hops (the only member of the family Cannabaceae other than Cannabis).

The tour of the Dixie Elixers processing facility was full, but I hear it is like a brew-pub set up where product can be observed during processing from behind a sanintary glass wall. 

The "Science and Sale of Extraction" workshop on Wednesday was disappointingly low on science, but did instill the sense of a need for a disciplined but fun corporate structure approach for the nascent cannabis industry. The representatives from O-Pen Vape who led the symposium avoided all technical questions and at one point said he had "nothing to say" about terpenes or "temperature + pressures" during processing. Unfortunately, this is what I specifically came to Denver to learn, So I was disappointed.

Fortunately  I am in the process of reviewing a surprisingly thorough treatment of extracted products from Ed Rosenthal - perhaps my upcoming review of his newest effort will provide uerful rules of thumb for use of these ever-more-popular formats of cannabis. His treatise will provide an invaluable guide for people who were seeking the kind of information I went to this conference seeking.

I took advantage of time between sessions to go on a 'market walk' of the new recreational stores available to out of town visitors. Although I am a medical patient in the state of Washignton, Coloroda does not have any reciprocity program. Each retail store visited will be discussed in future articles

Frosted Leaf - A VERY high-end cannabis retail store with well graded, quality merchandise!

 Editors note: future articles will cover the specific consumer experience of each of the retail cannabis stores in Denver that we had the opportunity to visit. 

I enjoyed the event and especially enjoyed to opportunity to meet fellow cannabis entrepreneurs from all over. Any attendees of the NCIA event want to weigh in? Please keep us posted.

Please stay in touch and follow me here - stonerlivingblog@gmail.com




(C) 2014 Stoner Living Blog