I've been driving past the thing for at least fifteen years, and always assumed it was a really tiny apartment complex due to the balconies and stonework/log cabin look. (Yes, it would have been an oddly located apartment, but I've lived in stranger locales.) Turns out I was pleasantly wrong.
Rocky Mountain Organic MedicineRocky Mountain Organic Medicine shares a commercial space with a yoga studio and (I think) some sort of commercial painting/cleaning company. Even more interesting, this corner of the metro area is technically in Golden -- part of what I assume was an industrial land grab at one point to help build up the tax revenue for the county. That Golden address, though, would prevent Rocky Mountain Organic Medicine from going recreational right now, as Golden isn't allowing any recreational sales.511 Orchard Street Golden, CO 80401 720-230-9111 RockyMountainOrganicMedicine.com
Hours: 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday, noon to 5 p.m. Saturday, closed Sunday. Raw marijuana price range (members): $10/gram $32/eighth-ounce, $200/ounce. Raw marijuana price range (non-members): $13/gram $35/eighth-ounce, $225-$250/ounce. Other types of medicine: BHO, caviar, hash, edibles, tinctures, lotions, drinks. Online menu? Yes. Handicap-accessible? Yes.
Not that the folks at the shop mind. According to the guy who checked me in at the dispensary's front counter, the owners don't really want to move over to recreational sales right now; to them, the whole thing seems like a big mess in Denver.
By the way, the shop was started in 2009 by a husband-and-wife team. According to their website, the pair got into medical cannabis after the wife was diagnosed with colon cancer, and after visiting dispensaries open at the time, they quickly grew tired of shops with low-quality cannabis and lackadaisical staff -- so they decided to open their own center.
What they came up with certainly isn't very pot-centric in feel. Again, the commercial center where they are located looks like someone's winter cabin in Granby, complete with evergreens and aspens in the front yard. Inside, the patient lounge is simple and refreshingly light on weed-happy decorations. Instead, it feels like a health clinic in a small town like Durango -- except for the skunky smell, of course.I took a seat in one of the chairs next to the receptionist counter while the guy copied me into the shop's system. He sent me back down the hallway to the bud bar within a few minutes.
What at first looks like a tiny room for the bud bar opens up as you round the corner into a huge, boardroom-sized space. It's actually much more space than the shop is currently using, so it's been divided off, with a display of hats and T-shirts behind one side of the L-shaped bar to split the wide room in half. Bud and edibles are kept in two glass display cases on the other side, with indicas on one side of the long shelf and sativas on the other.
I got the usual first-time patient mini-tour ("Here's this, here's that, and this is what you'll pay") before the two women behind the bud bar started pulling out jars with plump, fat buds of herb in them for me to peruse. First-time patients get their first eighth for $18, and then everything else is $25 an eighth. Returning customers pay $25 an eighth, with non-members' second eighth rising up to $35. Signing the shop up as your primary center drops that second eighth price to $32, as well as bringing the ounce price down to $200.
All of which is decent pricing considering the top-notch level of cannabis I saw in most all of the jars I made my way through. We started with a stinky, plump and trichome-blasted batch of Rascal OG that instantly filled the void between my nose and the buds with a rich, piney sandalwood smell.
Continue for the rest of the review and photos. Up next was the earthier Chocolate OG, which my budtender considered to be one of her top indica choices for a heavy body high. It had a cool, light licorice-and-sage smell out of the jar, and since I needed something to help me relax this week, I went for it. She was right: A large bowl of the fresh-turned-soil-smelling (and -tasting) buds gave me jelly legs and a spongy back and suddenly made napping a high priority in my day.Other OGs on the shelf were equally impressive. The Pre-'92 and Diablo both would have been fine to take home, even at the full price of $35 an eighth if you're a non-member. But what really turned my nose (and, later, head) was the tart, rubbery deliciousness of the White Fire OG. The display jar Rocky Mountain had was a phenomenal example of this cut, and it instantly went in my take-home pile. As potent as it was delicious, the lemony/earthy flavor distracted me long enough for the first few minutes after puffing that I didn't even realize how incredibly high I had become. Mentally, it was euphoric and vaguely uplifting, but the body buzz was outstanding, and it wiped away all of the soreness suffered playing hooky Monday to take advantage of a powder day at (where else?) Mary Jane.
On the sativa side of things, I took a shine to the blingy Blue Dream and the spicy Zeta, which I was promised would deliver a roller-coaster ride of THC ups and downs. But my choice came down to a rotten-orange Tangerine Haze or the fuzzy orange buds of Golden Goat. Eventually, the Golden Goat's sugary, kids'-cereal sweetness (not unlike a handful of Cinnamon Toast Crunch) won me over. The buds were coated with a sheen of tiny silver crystals that smacked me upside the cerebellum after two bowls and sent me buzzing through the house on a cleanup mission. It's always a good strain for appetite, as well, and a few regulated puffs through the day kept my hunger cycle moving without getting me too lifted.The shop also has a decent selection of concentrates, ranging from $20/gram bubble hash to processed wax going for $32 gram. It's also one of the few shops I've seen that are still making and carrying cannabis "caviar" -- buds dipped in hash oil then rolled in kief. It's a cool novelty, but I didn't realize there was still a market for it. Grams of the caviar sell for $25, though I'm not sure if that's reasonable or not, since I never really smoked caviar on the regular.
I walked out with just over a quarter of herb for right around $46 after taxes. On a second visit, that would run me around $65 -- still a pretty decent deal considering the high-quality cannabis on sale. Check online for sales and specials, too. In the last week, there have been coupons for $150 and $120 ounces of buds like Sour Diesel.
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.
