Cannabis Season – Week 10
This week includes a High 5 Tour of Coffee and Cannabis, as well as the continuation of my Dispensary Tour, continuing (completing?) my wander west of the Willamette River. Here is how I walked 29.6 miles from Sunday June 11 through Saturday, June 17.
Sunday, 6/11/17, 5.1 miles. Today I am going to head up to NE Portland to visit Frankie and share some of my recent finds. It is so nice to spend time sampling many different flowers and oils with my buddy. Before I leave the North Mississippi/North Albina area to wander around downtown, I decide to drop by the wonderful Rose Garden at Peninsula Park, located at the intersection of Albina Ave. @ Ainsworth St. It is a week or so past its prime, but it is still wonderfully colorful and very fragrant. Yum!
Monday, 6/12/17, 0.2 miles. Today I stay home, write last week’s blog, do some cleaning, and be a good life-partner.
Tuesday, 6/13/17, 7.9 miles. Today the weather has cleared just enough to make me think that I can resume some Dispensary visits. I start with the store that was too busy last Friday evening and proceed further up Barbur Blvd and SW Taylors Ferry Road in the Multnomah area.
Nectar (SW 53rd Ave) – TriMet bus route 12 drops me off on Barbur @ 53rd and it is a short wander to the dispensary. They have a nice reception area to check you ID, and there is a restroom just past the entry to the dispensary. There are stanchions and ribbons to keep patients in a queue until a budtender is available, with a printed menu on the wall so that selections can be considered while you wait, and you may need all the time you can find, considering that there are 93 chemovars on their shelf! When asked to show me a few wonderful choices, Tone responded with Qrippler (an extremely frosty indica) and Colorado Sunshine (a Jack Herer cross with Bubblegum that is a very frosty sativa), both from Eugreen Horticulture. Applegate Valley Organics is Nectar’s own farm so they are usually able to have a few flower choices available for $4 a gram or $99 per ounce. I also discovered that they have grams of Kief for $10, something I haven’t seen in quite a while.
Marijuana Paradise – A bit of a wander up Barbur Blvd brings me to what is now a medical dispensary but will (hopefully) soon be a recreational dispensary. Although they have only 8 chemovars today, they hope to have many more soon. Since they will soon be changing over, they have a lot of left over OMMP product being reduced to sell. I found Empower 4Play 1 gram trial vial for $7, and year old gram joints for $2.60 each. The retail bag is even imprinted as if I am walking out of a pharmacy drug store with Rx, PRESCRIPTIONS and Thank You. That is so cool.
Green Goddess Remedies – First things first – they take plastic! No surcharge, nothing special, just take plastic via 4square. Of the 19 chemovars on the shelf, 13 of them are from their own farm, Nebadon. One of those chemovars is Super Silver Haze at 28.73% THC at $14/gram. Another $14/gram chemovar is Sour Tangie at 25.4% THC, from Cascade Valley Cannabis. Both of these are very pretty. In January of this year, this is where I found Hashberry, one of the best samples of an indica I have sampled this year. Also, they are one of my top 10 dispensaries.
Green Cottage Remedies (Closed) – This dispensary is located at the rear of a building, behind another business by the same owners, The Coin Cottage. When I visit them at 5pm there is a note on the wall letting us know that they were closed on Saturday and Sunday to perform a security upgrade, and maybe Monday 6/12. Nothing about Tuesday, other than a very locked gate to the fence keeping us away from the front door. I may try them again some time.
Calyxes (Closed) – a sign on their door tells us: “To Our Loving Patients, Due to complications with our supplier and our lack of inventory, Calyxes is forced to close its doors. It’s been a pleasure serving you. Calyxes Management”
The Human Collective II – I have been here a few times over the past months, for cookies from She Don’t Know and Green Ribbon flower from High Valley Organics. Today there are 25 chemovars on the shelf as well as some product from the older testing requirements still on their shelves. The budtender told me that all of their joints are rolled in-house, and they usually have pre-rolls of many chemovars (strains). Per their menu today, they have 1.0 gram pre-rolls of 13 chemovars, for $5, $6, $8 and $10 apiece.
Natural Remedies – This is another medical only dispensary, although they have 25 chemovars on their shelves, much more than many of the other medical only dispensaries I have visited. They have very few edible choices and even fewer extract choices.
Wednesday, 6/14/17, 5.2 miles. Today is when I get to tag along on the Coffee and Cannabis Tour, presented by High5Tours. Sam Rosenbaum is the owner of the business and met me at Coava Coffee Roasters Public House on SE Main to begin the tour. On our way to Cannabliss and Co. – Firestation 23 on SE 7th (and listed as another of my top 10 dispensaries), Sam explains that it is legal for us to light up on the bus and proceeds to light a pre-roll of Corazon, the CBD-rich, sativa dominant flower from Yerba Buena. As I enjoy a couple of puffs on the joint I learn that the only other folks on the tour are two women who do not indulge in cannabis and are on the tour to find out how the cannabis system works so that they can discuss it with folks who book tours to Portland. Sam and I tried to answer as many of their questions as honestly and thoroughly as possible, but only as knowledgeable folks in the community. From SE 7th Ave we made it across the river to Nossa Familia Coffee on NW Johnson and learned quite a bit about coffee and coffee processing. And had a sample of expresso. Next it was back across the river to visit Farma, where the budtenders were able to answer many more questions. This is a wonderful tour which provides quality information for those seeking knowledge, and a safe experience for those looking for guided cannabis recreation. In a city which does not yet provide adequate venues for social consumption of cannabis and cannabis products, High5Tours offers a fabulous choice. Leaving Sam and the Yellow Bus, I wandered to SE Portland to visit Leia Flynn at Leia’s Place, a place for Tea and Cupcakes. It is always a treat to visit with Leia and Pixie, and today was no exception. I was lucky enough to try out a Nectar Collector, a specialized glass and titanium pipe for inhaling vaporized CBD and/or cannabis extract. I recommend it, but I’m sure it is not for everyone.
Thursday, 6/15/17, 0.1 miles. Stay home; work on the weekly blog
Friday, 6/16/17, 0.6 miles. Rain in the am, stayed home.
Saturday 6/17/17, 10.5 miles. This looks like a good day to wander, so I think I will begin by seeing if Green Cottage Remedies is closed for good, or only for security work.
Green Cottage Remedies – Today this medical only dispensary is open for business, and running a half-price sale from 9am to noon on pre-rolls. All of their flower is sold in increments of 1/8th of an ounce, so don’t come looking for a gram unless you wish to purchase a pre-roll. Today they have 19 chemovars, ranging in price from $15, $20, or $25 per eighth. Their ounces are available from $85 up to $175. I found an eighth of Platinum Goo for $20 and was able to use my debit card at their register for the sale, with no fee associated with it. Not until I got home did I discover that this flower was tested in November, making this flower no younger than 8 months old. I may need to rehydrate this flower.
Attis Trading Company – I arrive during a wonderful lull in the usual Saturday morning rush, and Oscar, the manager, takes his time with me, going over the dispensaries highlights. Attis utilizes the Linx card system for accepting debit and/or credit cards. There are 30 to 35 chemovars on the shelves, with some new ones in the store but not yet ready for the shelf. The staff makes most of the pre-rolls sold, so they have more control over pre-roll quality control. A new (to me) product in their refrigerator are flavored beverages from Ganja Grindz Coffee Company in Tigard, all with 25mg of THC per $16 bottle. Flavors include Pomegranate Matcha, Spiced Apple Cider, and Roastmaster’s Blend.
Nectar (was DIVINE KIND) – When it was Divine Kind, this dispensary was operated by the company who operates Select Strains cartridges, so it was mutually beneficial for each company when Nectar took over the space and continued supplying product to the customers who frequent this dispensary. It is a wonderful space with tons of natural light streaming in their west facing windows. They do have a restroom available in the registration area of the dispensary. This store has at least 80 different chemovars, with more coming in every day. Nectar supplies its dispensaries with prepackaged flower, cutting down on the cannabis odor in the store and allowing the budtenders to quickly care for customer’s requests. Ben (store manager) took the time to discuss much of their offerings for me. They have prepackaged ounces starting at $99, and offer pre-rolls starting at $3 (medical, $3.60 recreational) for select 1 gram pre-rolls, with many strains available at many price points. They have eighths available from $16 to $48. Their shelves are full of 30 +/- different extracts (shatter) and at least that number of oil vape cartridges.
Little Amsterdam Wellness Center – Last year there were two Little Amsterdam dispensaries along SW Macadam; today there is only the one remaining after their consolidation. They do have a restroom available for their customers. Today they have 34 chemovars on their shelves. They offer their Squibb 100’s to medical patients for $18, and the Grön bites for $14. I also noticed the new Smokiez packaging displaying the fact that they now contain 2 pieces of 47mg THC candy (94mg total), and are being offered for $18 each. (For me, this would be 6 servings of 15mg +/-, at $3 a serving. For me, that comes across as a decent deal!)
Canna and the City – Welcome to an example of a real neighborhood dispensary. This store is located in a beautiful neighborhood hidden between the medical complexes “on the hill” and the ever-growing medical complexes along the Willamette River south of the downtown oval. Today they are offering 14 chemovars, ranging in gram prices from $10, $12, and $15 for medical pricing ($12, $14.50, and $18 recreational). This is one of the few dispensaries I have found to offer kief to its customers (you can’t make moonrocks without kief). Pre-rolls are offered at $8 and $10 each. This is also the first dispensary I have seen that offers 2ml RSO syringes. Yummy!
Zion Cannabis – This is another neighborhood dispensary located northeast of the new Under Armor building (on Barbur Blvd). Today there are 17 chemovars on the shelf, and some oil cartridges from Select Strains and The CO2 Company. Among the chemovars available, the budtender offers Mt. Hood Magic from Resin Ranchers, a 27.4% THC flower that is wonderfully frosted with milky terpene sacks. Another equally frosty choice is Rude Boi, also from Resin Ranchers. Pre-rolls are available for $5 (half gram) and $10 (1 gram) recreational, or $4.17 and $8.33 medical.
The Dispensary – This shop was located on 1st Ave in downtown and has been a medical-only dispensary since October when the new OLCC regulations took over. Unfortunately they never were able to get product for their shelves under the new regulations. I had visited the dispensary twice over the past few months and was disappointed to find that they were having issues with product. Now the doors are locked and the sign on the door simply states: “CLOSED”.
