The conservative voters of Grand Junction have not allowed recreational marijuana dispensaries to thrive in town, forcing those who want to partake in Colorado’s legal vice to drive 30 minutes east. The tiny town of Debeque (population of 496) is home to two dispensaries, one called Kush Gardens, which is visible from the highway, and a tinier dispensary hidden in the town called Elk Mountain Trading Post.
To test the quality of each dispensaries, I analyzed three components: wait time, prices and customer service. Because of its visibility from the highway, Kush Gardens has a steady flow of customers, almost always guaranteeing a wait time. When we visited in the middle of the week, we were asked to ‘chill’ in a cramped waiting room for fifteen to twenty minutes until an available budtender would be able to help us.
Begrudgingly, I waited. Seventeen minutes later, the budtender saw us. A middle aged budtender was professional and courteous, but uninterested while rapidly firing questions at me: what kind of products was I looking for? How often did I use marijuana? Indica or Sativa?
For a beginning recreational user, these questions could definitely be overwhelming.
The cheapest flowers would be $10 a gram out the door, and the cheapest edibles would ring up to about $25 with tax. I didn’t end up buying anything, much to my budtender’s chagrin. The wait time had killed any excitement to buy anything.
Within five minutes, I had left the congested dispensary and drove to Elk Mountain Trading Post, where a silver haired guard with a gun on his hip greeted me with a smile.
The front room of the trading post hung decorations of animal skins, Native American art and intricate glasswork in the cases. Past the guard was a second room, glass cases wafted with the earthy smell of marijuana. There were two people at the counter, both in their early fifties.
My budtender’s name was Patrick. His daughter had recently graduated from Colorado Mesa University and he made jokes about college kids needing to move out of the house. Patrick wasn’t pushy, and took his time explaining the effects of different strains and products. He made choosing the right strain and product simple, the prices at Elk Mountain were much more affordable than Kush Gardens. Their sale included $6 a gram and $18-20 for 100 milligrams of candy bar edibles. I happily obliged.
Perhaps the budtender at Kush Gardens was in the middle of a bad day, perhaps there are better times to shop at the dispensary that doesn’t include a fifteen minute wait. Kush Gardens is a two star dispensary; crabby customer service, expensive prices and a long wait time made me really not want to visit again. If I had to chose which dispensary to visit again, it’s definitely going to be Elk Mountain. Good vibes, great customer service, unbeatable prices and almost no wait time: Elk Mountain Trading Post gets 5 out of 4.20 stars.
