I bought marijuana legally for the first time in the summer of 2017. I’m a student at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, and as soon as I finished my last final exam in the Spring semester, I biked across College Avenue to buy some weed to celebrate with. I had shared a friend’s joint once or twice before, but my experience ended there, and I had no idea what to expect when I walked into Elite Organics. My nervous mind conjured images of a grimy, dimly-lit head shop staffed by paranoid, perpetually baked high school dropouts, but I shook my head and cleared away those thoughts. A conservative religious upbringing had ingrained certain prejudices in my mind, but my first few semesters away at college had shattered those biases one by one. Some of my best friends smoke weed regularly and continue to ace their classes and lead fulfilling lives, exhibiting no signs of the extreme loss of ambition that my parents had always warned me that marijuana would cause.
I pushed the door open to Elite Organics, and was greatly relieved to see that the dispensary looked absolutely nothing like I had imagined it. An older man with a full head of waist-length graying dread locks greeted me as I entered, and asked me what I was looking for. I mumbled something about “just browsing.” I was here to buy weed, but I was too nervous to say so. So, I browsed. The front of the store is devoted to smoking paraphernalia – assorted pipes, vape pens, rolling papers, bongs, dab rigs, and more. I dropped ten dollars on a small, basic glass pipe. I didn’t know for sure if I’d like it, so I didn’t want to shell out for a nicer pipe at the time. In retrospect, it would have been a good investment. After that small purchase, I told the guy at the counter that I’d like to go back into the dispensary portion of the store.
In Colorado, individuals under 21 aren’t even allowed to enter a dispensary, let alone make a purchase. Once I stepped inside, I could understand why. The air was heavy with the sticky sweet smell of marijuana, and I suspected that someone with a low tolerance could get high just by breathing in there for a few minutes. Products were divided into four different sections. Sativa-heavy strains were to the left, strains that favored Indica were on the right, edibles were along the back wall, and the wax was in a glass case in the middle of the room. I wandered around for a few minutes, looking. They sold a wide variety of edibles – chocolate bars, lozenges, cookies, gummies… and brownies, of course. I skipped past the wax display and looked around at the unprocessed weed. Different strains were labeled with names like “Super Lemon,” “White Widow,” or “Pineapple Kush.” I had no idea what any of it meant, so I gathered my courage and asked the employee.
Well, not quite. I walked over and stood mute in front of the cash register, trying to compose my question. I didn’t know where to begin; I knew nothing about weed. After a few seconds, he got tired of watching me think and helped me out.
“Hey man, how can I help you?” he asked.
“I, uh, want to buy some weed,” I stammered. Yeah, no shit. I’m in a dispensary.
“What kind are you looking for?” he asked, smiling. He seemed friendly, and I finally relaxed a little.
“I don’t know,” I said. “I haven’t smoked much before.”
“Well, are you looking for an indica or sativa strain?”
I shrugged, feeling helplessly ignorant.
“I don’t know what the difference is,” I admitted.
“Well, the sativa’s gonna give you more of a head high,” he said, his tone shifting from that of a salesman to that of an educator. “It’s more uplifting and energizing. The indica strains are a body high. They’ll make you really relaxed, and maybe a little sleepy. Personally, I think it’s a little more intense than the sativa, too.”
“Okay, okay,” I said, mulling it over. I knew what I was looking at now, but I still couldn’t make a decision.
“What would you recommend?” I asked.
“Honestly, I’d go for one of the hybrids if you haven’t tried much before,” he said. “You can’t really go wrong with those.”
“Any recommendations?”
“I’d go with the Super Lemon OG here, personally,” he said, lifting a small jar of buds out of the glass display case. He unscrewed the lid and held it out for me to smell. With my lack of experience at that time, the scent didn’t tell me much, but it smelled delicious. I nodded.
“Yeah, I’ll have that.”
“Cool, cool,” he said. “That one’s on sale today too, so that’ll be fifteen bucks. And can I see that I.D. one more time?”
I left the dispensary with my pipe and a small resealable plastic bag containing one gram of Super Lemon OG, and headed home to smoke. I didn’t have a grinder, and at that time I didn’t even know that you’re supposed to grind up the buds before you put them in the bowl… So, I put an entire bud in and smoked it. The smoke burned my throat, but the high set in within seconds. I became fully aware of my entire body, as if I had suddenly gained the ability to focus on every nerve at once. I sat there on my back porch for a while and took time to appreciate the feeling. I realized that it wasn’t anything different from what I normally felt – the difference was that I could finally appreciate it, and I could finally see the beautiful things that had always surrounded me. I closed my eyes and leaned back against my house, simply happy to be alive. And then, suddenly, I was overwhelmed with the desire to go inside and eat some pickles.
Marijuana use has been legal in Colorado for several years now, but there is still a slight stigma attached to it. I was nervous on my first visit to a dispensary, but I found that it was just as comfortable as a visit to any other business. Employees were kind, helpful, and knowledgeable, and I have returned to Elite Organics many times since my first visit. It continues to be my favorite dispensary, and Super Lemon OG is still my favorite strain.
-Elijah Petty
Please don’t take anything you read here as medical or legal advice. If you need medical or legal advice, consult a doctor or lawyer. The articles and content that appear on this website have been written by different people and do not necessarily reflect the views of our organization.