Marijuana Strain Review: Lemon Sweet Skunk at Pure

All three Pure Medical Dispensary locations now cater to the recreational crowd, but their employees are quick to tell you that their patient-friendly practices remain the same as always. I had never tried any of Pure’s flower before stopping by the original shop on Bannock Street, and I was interested to see what made its bud different from the rest of Denver’s.

The waiting room at this Pure would pass for a physician’s lobby if it weren’t for the smells and long-haired dudes in their twenties going in and out of the bud room. One of the budtenders was an excitable old man in a lab coat; although I wanted the mad scientist, I got one of the longhairs. No lab coat, but he still knew his stuff. Pure shops generally carry fewer than ten strains, and of the ones available that day, the real contenders were two sativas: Lemon Sweet Skunk and Moon Boots. My budtender told me that the Moon Boots was a little heady, so I took a gram of the Lemon Sweet Skunk for $14 after tax.

A child of sativas Island Sweet Skunk and Lemon Haze — both of which have strong scents of their own — Pure’s creation smelled like a mixture of diesel fuel and fresh-cut lemons, and the wispy buds already had me on high alert for an energy boost. There was only one problem: The gram was visibly short. Three light nugs teetered back and forth between seven- and eight-tenths of a gram on my scale (which I calibrated twice just to be sure). Pre-weighed or not, this is inexcusable — and any pot smoker with a few months of experience would’ve noticed the shortage.

The nugs were dry, and the trichomes looked clear and a little underdeveloped, but the smoke was smooth through a pipe and a joint. Zesty, tart lemon flavors flowed through after each puff, with floral notes backing them up: It tasted like a hibiscus flower. Both of my highs were clear and full of vigor, and my focus was on point for a few hours before the comedown; I even thought about going for a jog. I didn’t, but to consider the act of running is huge for me.

Even so, it’s hard to sit still on Lemon Sweet Skunk, so don’t burn this before watching a movie or going to bed. But if you’ve got some anxiety, depression or just something stressful you want to forget about for a while, this is a great strain to clear your mind without erasing your intelligence. The light gram still irks me, but the sativa high was as pure as advertised. I may stop by Pure again to see if its indicas are just as strong — but I’ll bring my scale with me.