A Kush Connoisseur's Guide to Denver's Best Marijuana Dispensaries

Colorado is a wonderful place: the people are friendly, the weather is amazing and the entire state seems to love the great outdoors. Oh, and there is also a lot of weed—a lot of really potent, accessible, painstakingly perfected weed. And you can buy it in a store. It was a pleasant surprise when I moved to New York City from Denver and realized you can stumble into a bodega at any hour and buy beer. (You can’t do that in Colorado.) But what you can't do in New York is walk into a legitimate business establishment and buy any sort of weed your heart desires.

Now that smoking weed is a legal, taxable thing in Colorado, the “culture” is flourishing, and every time I go back to Denver the main thing I notice is that the whole town smells of marijuana. Sure, that means the horrible fashion, EDM and frustrating conversations about politics are even more annoying, but the product is better than ever, and the money is pouring into the state. On a recent trip back I took a tour of some of Denver’s dispensaries with local weed expert Josh Bachrach. Here's our guide to the best of the best.

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Address: 1133 Bannock Street
When it opened: 2014
Bestseller: Golden Goal
Kush quality: "Knees are like...leg elbows."
Website: puremmj.com

This is quite possibly the best dispensary in Denver. It has excellent quality and prices. The consistency of the weed is always impressive, as are the $25 eighths. Pure seems to only hire true weed nerds, people with a level of understanding that borders on absurd and can only really come from years of obsession. They also own Colorado Cannibus and 710 laboratories, making a wide range of hash and extracts. They're super strict here and you can only shop once a day, but they have ridiculous product.

Address: 1617 Wazee St #B
When it opened: 2014
Bestseller: Purple Train Wreck
Kush quality: Doorbell rings, "Dude my house just got a text."
Website: lodowellnesscenter.com

This place is great even though it looks like it's run by a bunch of hippies (something of a red flag for me since I went to school in Boulder.) The perma-stoned owner walked us back, apologized profusely for the mess, and then showed off some of the best strains.

Address: 1444 Wazee St. #115
When it opened: 2014
Bestseller: Blue Dream
Kush quality: Coma inducing.
Website: lotuscannabis.com

This place is tucked away in this weird little office space in Lodo. It is definitely one of the most relaxed, comfortable spots in town. It is also strictly medical. The staff is super calm and helpful. (They even have a sweet dog named Charlie that you can pet.) The weed here is probably the most underrated in Denver. They are very serious about maintenance, and they have lots of purple nugs—even during warmer months, which is rare. I smoked half a joint and was too high to function. This is unheard of for your boy. When I was ready to move again, we went over to the market and picked up a turkey sandwich with gravy and mashed potatoes. I highly recommend both Lotus and turkey sandwiches.

Address: 910 16th St. Mall #805
When it opened: 2014
Bestseller: Snoop Dogg OG
Kush quality: Rip Van Winkle mannerisms.
Website: nativeroots.com

These guys sell both retail and medicinal, so this spot is very popular. Be prepared to wait in line. But, that is about the only downside to this place. The people are really friendly and the weed is affordable. I picked up a half-eighth of the "girl-scout cookie" weed for $14. It was perfectly grown with hints of purple and a beautiful crystal sativa. They grow some weed for Snoop occasionally and therefore have a strain named after him. (They also have a big selection of glass pipes and some truly horrible hats that you can buy.)

Address: 1909 S Broadway
When it opened: 2014
Bestseller: Banana Kush
Kush quality: Remember smoking out of an apple or something in high school and laughing every two seconds and having chapped lips and spilling Cool Ranch Doritos crumbs all over your friend's living room? That feeling.
Website: thc.com

These guys kept the name of their establishment very simple. The d̩ecor is also pretty boring, but that isn't the point of dispensaries anyway. What they lack in presentation they make up for in amazing weed at cheap prices. I paid ten dollars for 2 grams of top-shelf weed and two blunt wraps. That's unfuckwithable. This is a poor man's paradise.

Address: 2251 S Broadway
When it opened: 2009
Bestseller: Grandpa Larry
Kush quality: Mad potent.
Website: patientschoiceofcolorado.com

This dispensary has a fancy atmosphere. It is upscale and relaxed at the same time. The place is clean, everyone is friendly, and the menus are updated daily. The weed is well-cured and very dense. It is on the cheap side for members, but pretty expensive for non-members. The Grandpa Larry is $25 eighth hybrid, very dense and airy. It has a sour mix that gives a dank smell. The Girl Scout cookie is $30, has an awesome smell, really great taste, and purple hues.

Address: 1 Broadway A150
When it opened: 2009
Bestseller: Sour Diesel
Kush quality: Like cold pizza or bad head.
Website: denverrelief.com

This place is medical-only and the staff is friendly, but it's overpriced. The guy who sold me an eighth of mediocre weed was nice and was wearing a vintage Supreme bucket I had never seen before, but that was pretty much the best part of my experience. (Shout out to Jamir whose picture we couldn't take because they yelled at us when they saw our camera.) The quality here is decent, but that's just because weed is an inherently amazing thing. After you light up here, you end up wishing you didn't get a half-assed version of the real deal. That being said, this place has received some amazing reviews. Maybe they were just having an off day.

Address: 3054 Larimer St.
When it opened: 2014
Bestseller: Lavender Durban
Kush quality: "Bruh, hella dank nugs."
Website: botanicommj.com

This was my boy's favorite Denver dispensary until we got there at 3 o'clock on a Friday afternoon and they were "on break," even though I could still see employees in the window shaking their heads and looking mildly confused as to why someone would wish to enter the store during normal business hours. Stoners have a hard enough time getting off the couch to go to dispensaries. Having that shit happen is just an added level of frustration. We didn't actually make it into this one, but my boy says it's worth a return visit.

Address: 852 Broadway
When it opened: 2014
Bestseller: Sour Grape
Kush quality: The smokeable equivalent of a Curren$y track.
Website: milehighgreencross.com

This place is fantastic. The lighting is perfect and the general aroma is amazing, which is something of a substantial feat considering the highly suspect vibe of many dispensaries in the Denver area. Everyone was beyond friendly and they gave me an overweight gram of Sour Grape, their Cannabis Cup winner.

Address: 432 S Broadway, Denver
When it opened: 2013
Bestseller: Blue Dream
Kush quality: You'll forget you spent too much money.
Website: livwellco.com

This place had a beautiful lobby. The bathrooms were super clean and there are some framed pictures of over-sized nugs. That's not very original, but aesthetics aren't my main concern. We waited in the lobby for a good half hour listening to dubstep. Then my boy picked up an eighth—for $75 dollars. Back in New York everything is expensive and I understand that prices in general have gone up, but I wouldn't have paid half that for what we grabbed.