This dispensary has closed.
Jane Medicals has been a dispensary fixture on East Colfax Avenue for the last three years. But I have no idea what it used to look like -- or what it soon will look like, for that matter. My first and, so far, only visit to this center coincided with a complete interior remodel of the place, and fresh green paint on the walls was about the only clue I could see to its future appearance.
Jane Medicals7380 East Colfax Avenue Denver, CO 80220 303-388-5263 www.janemed.com
Hours: 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday; 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday; 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday. Raw marijuana price range (non-members): $30/eighths, $50/quarter-ounce, $200 ounces for regular strains, $40/eighths, $70 quarters, $250 ounces for premium strains, tax included. Raw marijuana price range (members): Members receive 10 percent off non-member pricing, tax included. Other types of medicine: BHO shatter, limited edibles. Online menu: No. Handicap-accessible?: Yes.
Instead of being greeted by herb perfuming the air, Jane Medical smelled more like a dusty Home Depot. When I walked in, my feet stuck to the floor, thanks to the sticky adhesive left behind after the old floor was ripped up. A receptionist behind a glass window in the entryway checked my red card and ID and buzzed me back through a series of sticky hallways to the equally unfinished bud-bar area. The noise from a flat-screen TV on the wall echoed through the cavernous space and made it feel emptier than it was. All in all, the place was about as welcoming as a construction site, but I understand not wanting to inconvenience customers (and sales) by shutting down for a few days while the renovation was completed.
My budtender, a tall skinny guy in his early twenties, waved me over and apologized for the paltry selection while motioning to the large screw-top jars in the black-and-glass cabinets in front of him. It was late in the day, and he explained that Jane had seen a rush of patients in the days following the passage of Amendment 64.
But it appears that Jane is often down to stems and shake. I've found several online reviews talking about its "frequent outages," and even my budtender said that while the center starts every day with about fifteen to twenty strains, most jars are down to the shakey bottoms by 5 p.m. or so -- which was pretty much the case during my visit.Of the eight or nine strains remaining, two -- Flo and Critical Mass - probably wouldn't have weighed out to more than three grams each; they should have been pulled from the display and turned into pre-rolled joint food. The few jars that were full weren't the most appealing strains; for example, the frosty but dense Grape God bud was three months in a vacuum bag away from becoming beasters (mid-'90s to mid-2000s imported, rock-hard buds from Canada, for you young'uns out there). The rest of the strains, including an aged-cheese-stinking but leafy UK Cheese and an orange-hued Island Sweet Skunk, fell somewhere in the middle of the quality scale.
At Jane, herb is divided into two price tiers, with most selling for about $26 an eighth at member prices; premium herb, like the Kandy Kush, sells for about $10 more. Jane does charge more for non-members, but it also offers "early-bird specials" and gives member pricing to anyone who comes in before noon. Keep that in mind if you're going to visit; there's absolutely no reason to pay the non-patient markup if you don't have to.While there were a few strains that interested me, the small bits and popcorn buds in those jars were far from photogenic. The Kandy Kush had an overwhelming rubbery funk to it out of the jar, and though tiny, the pebble-sized buds had a silver glow, thanks to the heaping helping of trichomes spread across the light-green and purple calyxes. The soil-grown buds smoked well, though, burning down to a fine white ash and leaving my mouth and office with a delicious, lingering kushy tartness. The potency level was what I expected, as well, with a bowl leaving me medicated for a good two hours, even after I ate a meal halfway through.
Page down for the rest of the review and more ganja photos. As I was going through buds at the counter, another patient came in and loudly asked the other budtender for "that purple shit." With a huge grin, he then asked nobody in particular if the shop was going to be opening up to everyone in a few weeks now that Amendment 64 had passed. I felt bad ruining his little cannabis fantasy when I told him that he wouldn't be seeing recreational shops until at least 2014, and he went from a huge smile to a big frown.I returned to my selection. The Lamb's Breath had a better overall look, but it didn't have nearly the same level of strain-specific smell as the Kandy Kush; the frosty, dense buds had more of a general citrus-skunk finish to them once they were out of the jar and broken up. Under a scope, the bright-green and -orange buds looked clean and coated in long, skinny trichomes with fat, clear heads. Smoked, the bud had a light hashiness but managed not to move into rough-on-the-throat territory; instead, it smoked easy and light.
The Cherry Lime was similar to the Lamb's Breath in overall bud quality. In the jar, the thumb-sized, dark-green Cherry Lime buds all looked similarly coated in crystals, but after a few days in the Ziploc baggie they went home in, they lost a lot of their Cherry Lime scent and ended up being more akin to dried hay than anything else. Under the scope, the slender trichomes on the surface of the bud looked like the tangled rough end of a silver Velcro strip. Breaking up the buds let out some of the fruit-punch scent, but I didn't get much flavor aside from an initial sweet burst when burning this strain through a bubbler or a clean, dry piece. The potency was decent, though, and puffing a bowl of this after a day off puffing fried the circuit of my frontal lobe for a good half-hour before I eased down into a classic giggly sativa buzz.
Jane's hash selection was as small as it gets, with only one batch of mixed shatter BHO on the shelves selling at $25 a gram. Not bad pricing, but I wasn't impressed enough by the cloudy, rock-candy caramel appearance to bring any home.
From my visit, I got the impression that the meds at Jane Medicals are a lot like the dispensary itself: incomplete. A little bit of effort on things like dealing with the hacked trim on the Kandy Kush buds, removing the jars full of shake that shouldn't be sold at regular price, and watching out for the hay-like finish on the Cherry Lime, though, and most of the herb would easily rate Jane Medical's $35 top-tier price tag.
Read more reviews from Westword's medical marijuana dispensary critic, William Breathes, in our Mile Highs and Lows blog, and keep up with all your Colorado marijuana news over at The Latest Word.
