Medical marijuana dispensary review: Green Meadows Wellness, LLC in Lakewood

This dispensary has closed.

Green Meadows Wellness' Steve Meadows is a gray-haired, gruff-voiced man of few words -- beyond the subject of Otis, the Italian mastiff shop dog.

Green Meadows Wellness, LLC

Location: 1701 Kipling St. Suite 104 in Lakewood.

Hours: Monday through Friday 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., Saturdays 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., closed Sundays.

Phone: 720-435-3830

Website: www.greenmeadowswellness.org

Owner: Steve Meadows

Opened: April 2009

Raw marijuana price range: $35 member, $40 nonmember, $7.50 shake.

Other types of medicine: Kief, a few edibles.

Handicap accessible? Yes.

I had been meaning to go to a dispensary in Lakewood for a few weeks now, so I pulled up their menu on WeedMaps. I soon discovered Green Meadows is in a basement-level suite in a dumpy two-story brick office building with the inappropriately grand title of the Kipling Office Park. The park probably doesn't get much traffic considering the number of "FOR LEASE" signs, and I didn't see any cars in the parking lot. In fact, I thought the place might have been closed.

Meadows was in the shop the day I stopped by, clicking away on the computer at the front desk while Otis slept at his feet. He said the dog was formerly abused and is a bit shy of new people, but he feels Otis has been making a lot of progress thanks to being in the dispensary. Medical marijuana can be good for dogs too, it seems.

Otis shied away from me at first, but by the end of my quick visit, I was on head-petting terms with the sizable pooch.

The shop is in a former doctor's office, and Meadows said he was trying to retain some of that health clinic vibe when he moved in. That's not how the shop comes across, though. There's the typical bud-bar service area, but compared to other shops that do the sterile-clinic thing, Green Meadows felt more like a weed-friendly retired neighbor's rec room.

The wood paneling on the walls was painted over in a light forest green, and instead of the fancy leather couches that seem standard in patient waiting rooms, Green Meadows had a weathered cloth couch occupied during my visit by a slumbering Otis. The patient lounge area was a wood picnic table in the middle of the shop covered with a few marijuana magazines, with a copy of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition on top. No marble top counters here, just simple utilitarian wood counter tops painted in the same earthy-green paint as the walls.

After copying my paperwork, Meadows shuffled over to the bud bar, which had been created by blocking off one of two doors to a back room with a counter. The display space isn't big, but the shop only had nine strains and a jar of mixed shake the day I was in -- and judging by website photos, it probably doesn't stock much more of a selection than that. Bud was kept in various sized square glass jars, each labeled with the strain name on a small white sticker. All bud is capped at $35 an eighth for members and $40 for nonmembers except for the slightly cheaper $7.50 per gram shake. First time patients get member pricing.

Four of the jars were better than the others, including the Mango, Afgoo and Cheese. The Cheese was fluffy and somewhat premature looking, but nothing egregious. The other strains, including the Headband and AK, were about the same quality but down to the shakey bottom buds in the jars. Meadows didn't say much about the strains and left me to sniff through them at my own pace. I ended up splitting an eighth of Mango and Afgoo, which Meadows weighed out to just over four grams.

Aside from the herb, the shop didn't have any real variety of hash to speak of during my visit, which was disappointing considering their day-old menu on WeedMaps said otherwise. There was a jar containing several ounces of kief for sale, but nothing of any higher potency or purity. Meadows said they usually have more hash in stock, including waxes, but he was waiting on his vendor to bring it. In my follow up interview, I neglected to ask if they make any in-house. The center also had a few Benjamin's Edibles candies on display, and a mini fridge full of cookies and brownies was behind the counter.

Like Meadows, the shop he runs is no frills and to the point. Green Meadows Wellness would be great for patients who just need a simple place to get meds without having to wade through dozens of strains or deal with obnoxious, fast-talking budtenders. But the medical pot snob connoisseur isn't going to find much here right now. They could feature some killer cuts considering how few strains they work with, and I would like nothing more than to hear good things about them in the next few months.

Page down for reviews and nug-porn of the strains William took home this week. Mango: $40/eighth for nonmembers Great bag appeal from outside the jar, with a pretty light-green-and-orange appearance. Also a good amount of trichome coverage on this herb, especially in the folds of the sugar leaves left behind. Under a scope, though, most of the trichome heads were still clear and undeveloped, with very few attaining a mature, dark amber color. I'm not a grower, but I think some more time developing could have brought out the full potential of this herb. It burned clean, but with little flavor coming out in the vaporizer. Not the best herb when dissected in one hitter bowls for a medical review, but I rolled up most of this in one big hash-mixed spliff the other night before heading out with friends to see Portugal. The Man at the Bluebird and really enjoyed my night and the headspace it put me in. At patient prices, this wasn't a bad deal -- but I wouldn't sign over my caregivership here just to get the $5 discount. Afgooey: $40/eighth for nonmembers Meadows said this strain has been his favorite for two years straight. The flowers in the big jar in the shop looked impressive and had a crazy milkshake sweetness to them -- but the few peanut-sized buds in the baggie I walked out with weren't nearly as appealing. It wasn't a case of the bait-and-switch, though. I just think that by comparison to everything else in the shop, these looked really, really good. Not that the cut I brought home was bad. Still, it's not going to make my top ten list. Outside of a big bag, the herb lost its smell, and only when ground up for my Silver Surfer did it emit a very basic skunky weed smell. The first hit was flavorful, but afterward it took on a burned popcorn taste. Out of the bubbler, I got some of the malted taste I was looking for when I took it home, but nothing strong. Thankfully, it was potent pain and appetite medication, and a small bowl every morning for the last week has helped me get back on a regular eating schedule -- even if I did smoke a bowl of Golden Goat from my caregiver afterward to end the morning with some flavor.

William Breathes is the pot pen name for our medical marijuana dispensary critic. See where else he's been and what else he's been puffing on in our Mile Highs and Lows archive.