Four Hot Tips for Buying Legal Weed in Colorado Today

As just about everyone in the world has heard at this point, Colorado became the first state in the nation to allow the sales of recreational marijuana on January 1. It’s a historic step to bigger legalization measures around the country, but until legal weed comes to a city near you, Colorado will be the only legal game in the United States until Washington starts up in March.

As a budtender (though now officially a “customer service representative”) at a medical marijuana dispensary that has just recently converted to support recreational sales to any ID-carrying adult over 21, I have several tips for those that are planning on coming to Colorado.

So here’s a few things that you may want to think about before making your first legal cannabis purchase:

1. Bring cash. 

This is a good place to start, because it’s still one of those weird things. A majority of dispensaries in Denver don’t accept credit cards or any plastic at all because banks are still regulated by the federal government, which continues to see marijuana as an illegal substance, and therefore views all legal dispensary earnings as dirty drug money.

While I certainly do understand that being in a legit store that sells weed certainly does make it seem like said store would function like every other legal business in the world and be able to accept plastic, any legal recreational shop that is actually following the rules will not accept your credit card. While there are certain medical marijuana dispensaries that have definitely been known to accept credit cards without a problem for the patient, they’re not really doing the right thing; chances are that spot has another account in another name somewhere that allows them to pull that off, which any sane person can tell you is not a good way to run an already legally-questionable business.

Those shops that are 100% compliant with the rules will not take cards, but will probably have a work-around in the form of a cashless ATM, which will allow them to run your debit card for a certain amount and make the whole thing work. However, this will almost always charge you a $2 fee and just generally be a hassle for both you and the dispensary that has to deal with processing all the cards.

Now, maybe my frugal upbringing just makes me the kind of person that not only gets annoyed by these little fees and typically does everything in my power to avoid them (especially since my banks charges an EXTRA $2 on top of the first) but easier for you.

2. Budget a few extra dollars.

After the taxes, the price is probably going to be what you might expect to pay your illegal drug dealer wherever you’re from, which is pretty cool because now you get to have a choice of several strains, all of which are going to be total fire. 

In Denver, there is a total 36% tax on top of the advertised price, with similar numbers to be found in other parts of the state.

That is pretty steep, sure, but some shops actually factor some of the taxes in the price, driving it down for the consumer; even with that, you should expect to do a bit of mental math and should also probably budget at least a certain percentage higher than you really want.

Here’s a picture of just the tax breakdown of a marijuana purchase made on one of the first few days of legal cannabis in Colorado. Even with all the tax, the total price comes in close to illegal “coast” prices, and considering how much better the quality and overall experience is, it really is a sweet deal.

3. While you’re budgeting, budget a few extra minutes to account for line and wait times.

It took until Sunday, January 5 until I could say that the rush wasn’t constant all day. Yes, it took 5 full retail days before there wasn’t a ridiculously long line that was pretty much at capacity. Most news outlets reported the insanely long lines that happened on the 1st; I really only think that has a chance of happening again on 4/20 this year (and would say that chance is probably pretty high).

So you probably won’t have to wait in a 2 hour line, but don’t expect that you’ll be able to just pop in at any time of the day and get something drive-through style; it’s just not that kind of thing, even if you already know what you want ahead of time. To get checked in, shop and check out all the different products, put your order in the computer, get your bud, and get cashed out, it takes a few minutes. Any other busy retail store is the same way, so don’t expect that retail marijuana has somehow figured out how to reinvent the retail wheel.

4. If you are planning on coming to Colorado to check it out in the next few weeks, you may not be able to get every item you want.
4a. Even when everything gets to a normal working level, there will still be limits on how much you can buy at a time.

Most people have been incredibly cool and understanding about the current limits that we really have to keep on products to make sure we can get to everyone. At my job, we’ve been enforcing a 1 preroll joint, 1 edible limit for everyone, and a ½ oz limit for Colorado residents. This is to ensure that we can serve everyone something, but even with doing this we’ve been running out of prerolls and edibles very quickly every day. This will not be permanent and is just what one shop is doing to help maintain inventory.

On that note, not all products are available to recreational yet; many edible companies have not yet been fully licensed in time to sell wholesale to those dispensaries that were ready in time. The next few weeks will definitely see more coming on line every day, but know that it’s very possible that you will see shelves full of edibles and still be told that you can’t buy any if you don’t have your Colorado medical marijuana card.

It’s also helpful to have expectations about what the state limits are:

-All Colorado residents can buy 1 oz or less

-Anyone over 21 with an out of state ID can buy a ¼ oz or less

-This is the total limit you can buy, which means that if you want a gram of wax, that counts towards your respective ¼ or ounce limit. If you want to do this, you will not get a better price on 6 grams of bud and a gram of hash than you would on a full ¼ in most cases. So, if you’re traveling in a group it’s a good idea to plan on splitting your order up to maximize the amount of different strains, edibles, and other goodies you can collectively sample.

I really have seen some amazing people who have been incredibly stoked to finally be coming close to some common sense. One of the coolest parts of the new way we need to do things is that I get to see where everyone’s ID says they’re from, and have so far met folks from both coasts and everywhere in between.

Something that is not at all surprising but still amazing is just how many people admit to having not smoked for several years, and seem to be making their first marijuana purchase in the better part of a decade literally just because it’s now OK. Even after almost a week of recreational sales, I’m still amazed at just how many older folks are coming in and admitting to having not smoked in 15 or 20 years and yet they’re buying weed within the first week; all it took was a change in law and the creation of a new industry to expose many people’s inner Weedist.

If nothing else, the last few days have definitely made me hopeful for the future of cannabis legalization in the United States.