How to Buy Weed: Everything You Always Wondered About Going to a Dispensary
What’s What, What to Ask, and What You Need to Know
By Rachel Burkons
Whether you’re new to cannabis or just new to legal weed, going to a dispensary for the first time can be daunting. With all of the different categories and brands and acronyms and milligrams and strain names and terpenes… it can all feel completely overwhelming. But here at The Clever Root, we believe knowledge is power, and we have a firm no gatekeeping policy, so it is our pleasure to present you with this guide to everything you need to know about going to a dispensary—and to assure you that no question is too silly or small! Read on and reach out if there’s something you’re still unsure about!
Before You Go
Before you go to a dispensary for the first time, you may want to take a few moments to browse their website and familiarize yourself with the menu. You will find that the menu may not offer exactly the same selection as what’s in the store at that moment, but if you’re feeling any first-time nerves, checking out the menu in advance gives you control and comfort. Take the time to read and review as much information as you’d like about the products you might be interested in from the comfort of your own home.
Once you’ve read up on what you’re interested in, grab your driver’s license and go! In most stores you’ll need to pay with cash, and if you’d like to avoid the dispensary ATM fee, swing by your bank on the way. Grab more cash than you think you’ll need—those taxes can really sneak up on you and add a hefty sum to your bill, and it’s always nice to live a tip for your budtender.
When You Get There
After showing your ID to security, you may need to wait in a lobby before being taken back by a budtender, or you may have just waltzed right in to one giant open space like a Mac store for weed. Each dispensary is unique in terms of process, size, overall vibe, decor, menu selection, and budtender styles. Visiting lots of different dispensaries gives you a chance to find the ones you love the best, so if the first one doesn’t feel like a match made in heaven, try and try again.
Take a moment to look at everything and get the lay of the land. Most stores group products by category, so you’ll usually find pre-rolls in one place, whole flower in another, and chocolates next to the gummies and other edibles. Depending on the dispensary and local laws and regulations, you may be able to pick up the product yourself and examine it like you’re in a grocery store. Alternatively, you may find all products locked behind a glass shelf and you may need to ask a budtender to help you get a closer look or ask some questions.
Budtender 101
Your budtender is the person who will help guide you in your selection. These highly trained dispensary employees usually kick things off by asking if you’re looking for something in particular, so let them know if there’s a category you’re interested in. Flower? Pre-rolls? Single or multi-packs? Edibles? Drinks? Topicals? Not sure? No problem! Their job is to help guide you to the best products for you in their store.
A Quick Primer on the Key Categories
Flower = dried bud; the stuff you smoke.
Concentrates = high potency cannabis extracts that come in varying styles, consumed as a dab or in your vape pen.
Edibles = Infused foods like chocolates and gummies.
Drinkables = Anything designed to be consumed as a beverage.
Topicals = Products applied to the skin, usually for medicinal purposes.
Tinctures = high dose oils, frequently featuring a blend of multiple cannabinoids to offer targeted effects.
Indica, Sativa, Hybrid = While these terms have become largely muddled and meaningless, brands and budtenders alike use them to indicate what type of effect a certain strain will have. Sativas are uplifting and energizing; indicas are sedating and relaxing; and hybrids are somewhere in between.
What to Ask?
The questions you’ll want to ask depend on the category of product you’re interested in, but if a budtender recommends a product and tells you they love it, stash these away in your quiver:
What do you like about it?
How will it make me feel?
What can you tell me about the cultivator/brand?
What’s the dose?
These basic questions can help guide you away or towards a specific product. If the budtender likes that a product is potent - but you’re a low dose consumer, maybe that’s not the right fit for you. Similarly, if they tell you a strain will make you feel very relaxed—but you’re a more of a puff-puff-reorganize-the-entire-kitchen sort of person, consider asking for another recommendation. Or if you’re an eco-warrior who shops Organic and cares about what goes into your body and the earth… but your budtender brushes off sun-grown as “bottom-shelf” when you ask for it, consider finding a new shop entirely. Explore a dispensary with a solid selection of sun-grown flower if that’s your jam.
What To Look For?
Flower: Examine its bud structure and pay attention to how it looks. Note its color and the sparkling white trichomes on your flower, which are the resinous glads responsible for terpene and cannabinoid production. Depending on where you live and your dispensary’s policies, you may be allowed to smell the bud. If so, take advantage of this sensory opportunity, and if it smells good to you, go for it—because the nose knows!
Edibles: Look for designations like rosin/live resin infused or solventless infused to indicate that a product’s infusion is powered by a full-spectrum concentrate. If nothing is called out, the product is likely infused with distillate, a neutral infusion that strips out all terpenes and cannabinoids, leaving only THC. Distillate-based products can be a high quality option—but full spectrum infusions made with rosin or live resin tend to have a more well-balanced high, thanks to the entourage effect. Many consumers may also find that THC-only edibles make them sleepy, and that solventless-infused edibles have a more potent effect per milligram.
Pay attention to the THC dose per serving and make sure you’re selecting a product that’s a good match for your personal dose. For example, if you’re a 10 mg. user, eating 5 two-milligram mints might not be your preferred dose/serving. There are lots of ratios, so find what’s best for you.
Drinkables: Again, pay attention to the dose per serving. However, consumers may find that they have more wiggle room in their maximum milligram consumption with beverages. Because beverages are made using a nanoemulsion technique that gives them a much more rapid onset—and offset—than edibles, beverages consumers the ability to play with “stacking” their dose. You can expect to feel the onset of an infused beverage in as little as five minutes, and the effect is more similar to smoking a joint or puffing on a vape pen than eating an edible.
Tinctures: Look for the right cannabinoid ratio. Depending on what effect you’re looking for, you will discover that some products are extremely high in a single cannabinoid (THC or CBD), with lower ratios of others. Tinctures also make for great on-the-go infusions; although they’re mostly oil-based and won’t seamlessly integrate into everything, they can be dropped, stirred, or shaken into a wide variety of food and drinks. Just call it your purse infusion.
What Next?
Taste, taste, taste, my friends! One of the most important things you can do on your cannabis journey is try as many new products as you can! Once you find something you like, let the budtender know what you liked about that product—and ask if there's anything else you should try that’s similar. Once you find the right ratio, strains, product, and infusions, you’ll be ready to enjoy and continue exploring the wide world of cannabis!
