Feeling Wanderlust? What It’s Like To Buy Weed on Vacation with Hayley Dineen, Lana Van Brunt, Carrie James and Cindi Schultz

[00:00:00] Ellen Scanlon: This podcast discusses cannabis and is intended for audiences 21 and over.

[00:00:12] Ellen Scanlon: Support for How to Do the Pot comes from Cann. Cann is a social tonic, drinkable, delicious cannabis that’s as bubbly, refreshing, and sociable as your favorite cocktail, but hold the booze. Use promo code, do the pot for 20 percent off when you visit drink can. com that’s drink c a n n. Try a can today and have a great time without the hangover.

[00:00:49] Ellen Scanlon: Welcome to how to do the pot, a podcast helping you feel confident about cannabis. I’m your host, Ellen Scanlon.

[00:01:03] Ellen Scanlon: One of the misconceptions about shopping for legal weed is thinking that you need to know a lot about Cannabis before you go. You do have to bring your government issued ID and it will make it easier if you bring cash But visiting a dispensary has become a lot like a regular shopping experience now that more states have legalized it This series is dedicated to providing you with a support system of women all across the country who have been in your shoes.

[00:01:35] Ellen Scanlon: I’ve been going through a lot lately. It turns out that the house we bought a couple of years ago is filled with toxic mold and I have been really sick from it. We are going to have to move out and gut the whole house. So I am focused on little pleasures and the ways that cannabis can help enhance the everyday.

[00:02:00] Ellen Scanlon: In that spirit, today’s stories are about traveling and making a special effort to visit a legal state to buy weed. I hope they help you feel supported, less alone, and a little lighthearted when you decide to make your first cannabis shopping trip. I really want you to have fun.

[00:02:28] Ellen Scanlon: Have you signed up for how to do the pots newsletter yet? You don’t want to miss out on this twice a month resource that continues the conversation on how to feel confident about cannabis for health well being and for fun. Join the thousands of subscribers who are already reading and responding. This is your direct line to me.

[00:02:50] Ellen Scanlon: Just hit reply and let me know what you’d like to hear more of on the show. Please go to dotheplot. com to sign up and thank you so much for supporting the show.

[00:03:09] Ellen Scanlon: Cindy Schultz is an Alabama based technical writer who traveled to Colorado for a two month camping trip. Cindy hadn’t tried cannabis since the 1970s, and she decided to go on a dispensary tour when she crossed over into Colorado. 

[00:03:26] Cindi Schultz: The first time I bought legal weed, I planned a two month camping trip the summer of 2020 and I went to Colorado.

[00:03:33] Cindi Schultz: I had wanted to buy weed for quite a while since it became legal. I have chronic pain and I hope to use it. To manage sleep and pain. I hadn’t smoked weed since the late seventies, which was not a great experience, mostly paranoia and anxiety inducing. I have no idea how much I smoked in one sitting back then and had zero idea how to use it to get a good experience.

[00:03:56] Cindi Schultz: So on my trip in 2020, pretty close to as soon as I crossed into Colorado, I found my first dispensary in Trinidad. I called to make an appointment to go in. I bought Juana brand Indica gummies and one Chemcrush Sativa hybrid pre roll and one Durban Poison Sativa pre roll. Then I went on to Crested Butte.

[00:04:16] Cindi Schultz: I tried half a gummy in the evening, which was five milligrams. It was an uncomfortable experience that gave me a spinning feeling and an extremely dry mouth, but I slept through most of it. I tried one of the pre rolls the next day, and it was an amazing experience. I wrote notes to myself through the whole high, so I would remember what I felt like in the moment.

[00:04:36] Cindi Schultz: It was a little disorienting, but the best part was that I spent the majority of it speaking the kindest words I’ve ever spoken to myself in my whole life. I’m 60 and it’s still the best thought telling you this. After that, I bought a few different strains from two more dispensaries in other parts of Colorado and I’ve loved trying them out.

[00:04:56] Cindi Schultz: The main thing I experienced in addition to speaking kindly to myself has been the very fast paced feeling of thoughts when I call. But if I take my time and I don’t smoke too much at a time, it’s always a good experience. I waited a long time to try the gummies again, but once I figured out I needed to take smaller amounts to get used to it, I ended up giving myself the best sleep ever by taking a third of one each night and going right to bed.

[00:05:21] Cindi Schultz: Eventually, the five milligram was perfect. Each dispensary I went to was fine. I wasn’t really relying on my knowledge. I knew I was going to be okay with anything and it was my chance to test out how I’d react. So I counted on advice from the tenders and I had fine experiences. The first and the last shops I went to, were the Spot 420 in Trinidad and the Canna Farmer in Silverton, and they were great about listening to what I wanted to accomplish and helping me figure out the different experiences between different strains over a few days.

[00:05:52] Cindi Schultz: I appreciated it a lot. I got what they call mid grain strains of tangy and citrus snap from the Canna Farmer. The tangy was too intense, but I love the citrus snap. I don’t live in a legal state, but I plan to make weed part of my life on a regular basis as soon as possible. And experiment even more over time.

[00:06:14] Ellen Scanlon: Haley Dineen and Lana Van Brunt are the New York based co founders of Accessories and Cannabis Lifestyle Brand, Sackville Co. A few years ago, they traveled to California to see what the hype about legal weed was all about. They had high expectations for what they would find in Los Angeles and wound up confused and pretty intimidated.

[00:06:39] Ellen Scanlon: Alana called it a bromosphere, which happily is not always the case, but you should know it can be. 

[00:06:48] Lana Van Brunt: Haley, it’s been a while now. Do you remember those early days of going into a legal dispensary, like coming from this initial legalization? 

[00:07:00] Hayley Dineen: So we were both in LA and we were like on a tour to check out all the legal stores because we’re like, Oh my God, let’s do this.

[00:07:08] Hayley Dineen: This is the Mecca. It’s the Meccas. Yeah, we’re the expectations were really high but obviously when legalization first hit there’s a variety of storefronts out there And I just remember walking in and being Confused I would say would be the word the packaging is so It’s really hard to understand and read and know what it’s trying to tell you.

[00:07:30] Hayley Dineen: You know, there’s different percentages of cannabinoids. Some packaging has different terpene notes and things like that, but it doesn’t really explain what you’re looking for. And so you’re kind of just looking at the iconography like, is this going to make me sleepy? Totally. Totally. 

[00:07:46] Lana Van Brunt: Does blue mean asleep?

[00:07:48] Lana Van Brunt: Should I catch this? 

[00:07:50] Hayley Dineen: How about you? Do you remember your first day? Yeah. 

[00:07:52] Lana Van Brunt: Same thing. I get all the hype. But like full on intimidation because even though we work in the industry and we have for a while you still I cannot compete with the language and understanding of every detail of what each flower is going to offer me each strain each everything and I think like shamefully probably would have Walked like by a store many times before I got the nerve to like go in and try it Everything used to feel so intimidating You Stores now obviously are incredible and there’s so many, especially for women, like female focused ones that don’t make you feel like it’s this bro mosphere and you have to go in knowing everything and like being part of the crew before you can like get helped out.

[00:08:36] Lana Van Brunt: But yeah, looking at like microscopic images of a nug on the thing and like not trying to figure out what that meant is like, the most intimidating thing so like what is this supposed to mean it smells like weed this one smells like extra strong weed should i buy this one then like i don’t know i also think even if it felt like there was these puritanical ways of smoking so it’s like if you were gonna smoke Pre rolls and edibles and all these things you had to go in knowing exactly What type of smoker you are and if you’re like now you can go in and be like, let me try everything I don’t know where I’m landing yet I don’t know what vibe I’m in give me a little bit of everything and before it felt like if you were like can I have like a Mini joint, they’d like, shoo you out of the store.

[00:09:24] Lana Van Brunt: It just felt so overwhelming. 

[00:09:26] Hayley Dineen: Totally. I feel like now people realize how important good butt tenders are because they’re essentially just educating you on All of the nuances that exist within cannabis, like the different types of consumption, all of the different cannabinoids or terpenes or all of those things, how it’s going to affect you personally and having like someone who can actually guide you through the process.

[00:09:49] Hayley Dineen: It doesn’t make it this kind of like embarrassing feeling is so beneficial. 

[00:09:56] Ellen Scanlon: One way to feel less intimidated before you go into a dispensary, especially if you’re looking for pre rolls or flour, is to learn a little bit more about strains. And we’ve got you covered with our Essential Strains playlist on Spotify, which has all of How to Do the Pots strain episodes in one spot.

[00:10:17] Ellen Scanlon: I’ll link to it in the show notes. Carrie James lives in New Hampshire and is the co founder of a CBD brand called Clearly Balanced Days. When Massachusetts opened as a legal market, Carrie and some friends checked it out. 

[00:10:33] Carrie James: My first time buying legal weed was just after the Massachusetts recreational market had opened.

[00:10:39] Carrie James: There was a brand new dispensary, it was one of the first in the state, that had opened in Wareham, Mass., and we just happened to be visiting down there. So, a few of us had decided to go and check it out. When we got there, we were not able to park near the dispensary. They had a parking lot down around the corner that they had us parking in.

[00:10:57] Carrie James: And then when we got to the crosswalk, there was a police officer standing there helping us get across the busy intersection. So that was kind of funny. And then when we got to the building, there was a line out to the sidewalk and we got in line. We came to a table where we had to give them our licenses so they could put us on the list.

[00:11:18] Carrie James: And then when we got through the line and to the door, finally, we were, uh, asked to show our licenses again. And then when we got inside, we were asked to show it one more time. And then when we were checking out with the fantastic bud tender, we had to do yet again, show them our licenses. So we chuckled about that probably the rest of the day.

[00:11:40] Carrie James: It seemed like overkill at the time. It was very cool to be able to go in and look at a menu of items available to be able to see certificates of analysis as a CBD company. That’s a big part of our business model. We test every single batch of every product that we make with a third party lab. So we know what we’re looking for in our cannabis.

[00:12:02] Carrie James: My partner is not a person who tolerates THC very well, it’s not a pleasant experience for her. So we wanted to find something that might work for her. So we ended up settling on a one to one CBD to THC gummy, and those were fantastic. We were also able to get some distillate carts for me and one of our other friends that was with us.

[00:12:25] Carrie James: And overall it was a great experience as a person who has been an outspoken activist here in New Hampshire fighting for legal cannabis. I really enjoyed being able to go and purchase my cannabis legally. It meant a lot to me and the recreational dispensaries in Massachusetts are a lot more calm now.

[00:12:45] Ellen Scanlon: If you like this episode, please share it with a friend. We love new listeners and are here to help everyone feel confident about cannabis.

[00:12:59] Ellen Scanlon: Thank you for listening to this episode of how to do the pot. For lots more information and past episodes, visit do the pot. com and that’s also where you can sign up for how to do the pots newsletter. If you like How to Do the Pot, please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts. It really helps more people find the show.

[00:13:20] Ellen Scanlon: Thank you to producers Maddy Fair and Nick Patry. I’m Ellen Scanlon and stay tuned for more of How to Do the Pot.