Medical marijuana dispensary review: The Medijuana Center in Denver

Though the logo for the Medijuana Center -- a Colorado license plate likeness with TMC branded on it -- hasn't changed in the year-plus I've been passing by it on my way home from the Westword offices, the management apparently has.

The Medijuana Center 105 E. 7th Ave Denver, CO 80203 720-328-4730 http://themedijuanacenter.wordpress.com

Hours: 10 a.m to 7 p.m. seven days a week.
Raw marijuana prices: $25 to $29 per eighth. Members capped at $19 eithths.
Online menu: Yes, but hard to tell when last updated.
Other types of medicine: Kief, vendor hash, vendor edibles.
Handicap accessible? Yes.

Within the last six months or so, the shop has come under the same management as La Conte's Clone bar, a discount shop that actually had some good herb for the price and extremely friendly service when we visited them last winter. A manager I spoke with after my visit said the La Conte's crew took over TMC with the same approach: passing on the bulk growing prices to customers while providing better-than-bulk-quality ganja. That move translated to a newer price structure for TMC patients that starts at $25 an eighth and is capped at roughly $36 with tax.

The change in management also brought on a change in layout for the dispensary. Though most shops are tied up with city and state regulations that prevent them from doing any big renovations, TMC had enough room to simply shift things around to make the bud bar more accessible. As I said, I wasn't in before this visit, but pictures on Facebook show the transformation. Now the waiting area is in the small entry way off Seventh Avenue and the bud bar is the main feature of the shop.

A long row of glass counters is set up in front of a bad-ass graph mural incorporating the TMC initials in dark purples and blues across the entire wall. It definitely adds to the more urban feel, and according to my budtender, the staffers like it that way: "It doesn't have that medical-office feel, you know?" Yeah, dude, I do. And it's cool with me, though it's probably not the type of spot that a grandma with glaucoma would search out. Or shit, maybe she would. Maybe you have a bad-ass grandmother who's into hip-hop culture and puffing tough.

I digress. I walked in during a lull in the shop, just as another patient was paying for her half-ounce purchase and the two employees on hand looked like they were sitting down to take a long-awaited break. Still, the budtender, a guy about my age (thirtyish) named Conal, greeted me warmly and with a wisecrack about my timing. He ended up being one of the more notable budtenders I've hung around lately, with a good sense of humor and plenty of knowledge about the strains he was carrying.

He gave me a brief tour of the shop, starting with the jars of bud shake and trim selling appropriately at around $70 an ounce. This wasn't anything worth smoking, in my book, but worthwhile if you're the type of person who likes making his own ganja edibles from scratch. It also has a cool apothecary vibe going for it, emphasizing the notion that every single part of this plant can be used. A manager I spoke with after my visit said the trim sales have been a big hit with customers. He has one cancer patient in particular who comes in and buys it just to make treats. He notes that it's a much better deal than spending $5 to $10 for one or two brownies from an edibles company.

At the other end of the glass counters were jars of actual buds. First one to catch my eye was a chunky, foxtailed Pineapple Express cut. It was grown, timed and trimmed well from the look of it, but the buds were more on the moist side than I'd like to see. The result was a rush of warm, wet, stale air when I cracked the jar lid, which did nothing for the bag appeal.

Same was true of most of the jars, several of which I recall having humidifying packets inside of them. A small shake of the jar and a few seconds uncorked brought most of the buds back to their strain-specific smell -- but some, like the OG x Bubba, still didn't seem salvageable in the smell department. I also passed over a mediocre Jedi Deathstar that lacked any distinct strain smell from my brief encounter with it.

Herb is broken down into three price ranges, with the low end selling for $25 and the "private reserve" cuts selling for just over $35 with taxes. First-time patients get any strain for $20, so I went straight for the top two in the house: Tangerine and Banana Kush. Also worth mentioning was an army-green cut of sativa-lanky Lambs Bread. The buds were down to the shakey bottom pieces, but it had a crazy sugary sweetness, like a freshly baked batch of snickerdoodle cookies. Maybe not worth picking up this harvest, but I'd be curious to see what the next one brings.

The shop also carries strain-specific kief from its grow, as well as pre-weighed half grams of solvent-extracted waxes and oils from a few third-party vendors. TMC was running a buy-one-get-one special for $35 that made the price worthwhile. Otherwise, a gram sells for $50. Hopefully they keep the BOGO going indefinitely, because $35 a gram is a damn good price.

I walked out spending just under $60 for a split eighth, a gram of wax and a good vibe about the Medijuana Center.

**Note: This article originally mis-quoted the price on a gram of hash, as well as misnamed one of the strains. It has since been corrected to show that a gram of hash sells for $50/gram and that the strain was Tangerine.

Page down for pictures and reviews on what Will brought home this week.