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The store has a television lounge and a pool table, and
snacks and acupuncture are free for customers who drop up to
$US130 ($NZ176.41) an ounce on 16 varieties of marijuana.
But a reviewer of the business warns the decor looks a little
cliche, what with the Grateful Dead posters on the wall and
the Mexican-blanket tablecloths.
The medical marijuana review business is booming as states
like Colorado and California have seen an explosion in the
number of pot shops.
The United States considers marijuana an illegal drug, but
some states have legalized it for medicinal purposes.
The growth of the medical marijuana business has created
clashes with local, state and federal authorities, prompting
the US Attorney General to issue guidelines this week telling
federal prosecutors that targeting people who use or provide
medical marijuana in strict compliance with state laws was
not a good use of their time.
A Denver alternative newspaper recently posted an ad for what
some consider the sweetest job in journalism -- a reviewer of
the state's marijuana dispensaries and their products.
Medical marijuana users can also look to dozens of review
websites, even mainstream rating sites such as Yelp or
Citysearch, to find their high. At least five iPhone
applications allow weed fans to find the closest place to
legally buy bud in the 14 US states that allow some sort of
medical marijuana.
The Denver paper, Westword, has already has gotten
more than 120 applicants, many of them offering to do the
reviews for free. When the newspaper settles on a permanent
critic for its new "Mile Highs and Lows" column, industry
watchers say, it will be the first professional newspaper
critic of medical marijuana in the United States.
There's one condition: The critic has to have a medical
ailment that allows them to legally enter a dispensary, and
buy and use marijuana.
"More and more people are having the opportunity to use
marijuana for whatever illness they have. So we want to be a
place they can come to find out which place is the best, the
cleanest, the closest, that kind of stuff," said Joe Tone,
web editor at Westword.
Most current reviews focus on dispensaries in California, the
first state in the nation to approve medical marijuana in
1996. Los Angeles now has an estimated 800 medical pot shops,
up from only four in 2005. Colorado has more than 100,
including one across the street from the state Capitol.
Sites such as marijuanareviews.com and weedmaps.com boast
thousands of users who dish on the merits of various strains,
from "White Widow" to "Afghan Gold Seal", which is cheap but
one critic warns "delivers a very heavy stone with the same
degree of munchies to go along with it." The pot review sites
say they're getting dozens of new users a day as people
acquire permission to use medical marijuana but aren't sure
where to go or what kind of pot to use.
"People are really desperate for this kind of information,"
said Justin Hartfield, manager of weedmaps.com, a Laguna
Hills, California-based Web site that now has five employees
and is planning new sites for Colorado. "There are so many
places to go that users are really looking for honest
reviews." The idea for Westword's column came from a writer
who doesn't use marijuana.
Features writer Joel Warner has been covering Colorado's
medical marijuana industry for years, and he noticed a wide
disparity in the places selling pot.
"Some really looked like your college drug dealer's dorm
room. You know, Bob Marley posters on the wall and big
marijuana leaf posters," Warner said. "But then some were so
fancy, like dentist's offices. They had bubbling aquariums in
the lobby and were so clean. I thought, somebody needs to
review these. Somebody needs to tell people what these places
are like."
So Warner started the column. A back injury made him eligible
for the medical card needed to enter Colorado dispensaries.
But because Warner doesn't use marijuana and fears legal
trouble if he gives it away, Warner suggested the
professional critic who would review both the dispensaries
and the products they sell.
The newspaper hasn't yet settled on a freelance fee for the
reviews; it's currently running an essay contest and sharing
excerpts of potential critics talking about what marijuana
means to them. "Marijuana isn't just important to me, it is
my life," gushed one hopeful.
On one recent visit, Warner stopped in the dispensary across
the street from the Colorado state Capitol to pick up some
cannabis-infused candy. The office was nondescript, a couple
couches and a sleek modern glass receptionist's desk in front
of a flat-screen TV.
You'd have no idea what the Capitol Hill Medicine Shoppe was
if not for a pervasive marijuana smell and a few small
marijuana plants plopped on the front desk.
Another shop is located in a charming Victorian with exposed
brick walls, cushy leather couches and a coffee counter
serves lattes and herbal teas. The drinks, of course, are
spiked with cannabis-infused honey tincture that a reviewer
says is "guaranteed to give you more than just a caffeine
buzz".
Reviewers say there is plenty of room for more critics.
Photographers are cashing in, too, with new Web sites popping
up that look like lush food photography sites -- except the
pictures feature marijuana instead of fancy desserts.
Hartfield just started a new advertising-supported weed photo
site called nugporn.com and says there is plenty of work for
photographers and even stylists for the pot shots.
"This is professional stuff," he said.
Laura Kriho, spokeswoman for the Colorado-based Cannabis
Therapy Institute, a pro-marijuana legalisation group, said
it's natural that the review industry is growing like, well,
weeds.
"This is such a new industry. Just like anything else, the
market is going to decide which places survive," she said.
"It's going to be a battle, and patients want to do their
research just like for any other medicine."
