Medical Marijuana

Pot parties in Sacramento: A fund-raiser, a farewell, a fright

2011-10-26T22:41:15Z

Two cannabis-themed events with “frightful” overtones are planned for Saturday night at two Sacramento medical cannabis dispensaries. One event is a fund-raiser for a group of patients, medical professionals, scientists and concerned citizens promoting safe and legal access to cannabis for therapeutic use and research. The other event marks a dispensary’s closure as Sacramento County and the federal government put the scare on the industry.

At Common Roots Collective in south Sacramento, the cannabis activist group Americans for Safe Access hosts “Puff Puff Politics.” According to ASA’s flyer for the event, “It’s like a wine tasting but with cannabis.” Three top medical strains will be tasted, and cannabis activists will lead discussions between tastings. There’ll even be a silent auction of jack o’ lanterns carved in cannabis themes.

Tickets are $50 per person; you can buy them online. Attendees are promised swag bags of goodies. Bhang, the top-tier cannabis chocolatier, is among the sponors. The promoter told me today that other sponors, speakers and tasting panelists won’t be revealed until Friday.

Americans for Safe Access is the largest national member-based organization of patients, medical professionals, scientists and concerned citizens promoting safe and legal access to cannabis for therapeutic use and research. Common Roots is like a farmers market collective, with licensed cannabis growers offering their products directly to patients. No grams over $10. Commom Roots offers art therapy and yoga, and has hosted reggae bands and an African dance troupe in its large warehouse space, which has been blessed by a shamanic healer.

The Farmers Market could use some healing juju. The medical cannabis dispensary on the edge of the old Mather Field in Sacramento County is throwing a party on Saturday night, but instead of raising funds with a frightful holiday event, The Farmers Market, like many medical cannabis dispensaries, is being scared out of operation. Saturday’s customer appreciation party will be The Farmers Market’s last — its last party and its last day of business before it switches to a delivery-only business model.

I had the pleasure of attending The Farmers Market’s two previous customer appreciation parties in the past month. Both were fun and informative, featuring food — grilled hot dogs and polish sausage one night, a do-it-your-self nacho bar the other night — and soft drinks and snacks. One event featured edibles makers who not only offered samples of their products but offered insight into infusing cannabis into water — a simple prodedure with powerful effects. Of course, both nights offered heavy doses of bonhomie — people talking, sharing, enjoying themselves and enjoying each other’s company, the things that happen in clean, comfortable social settings. Many people were enjoying cannabis — in joints, in pipes, and vaporized in elaborate bongs that cried out to be shared, if only for their conversation-piece value.

The Farmers Market bills Saturday’s event as a Harvest Party. But, really, given the cannabis crackdown, the party marks anything but a harvest. What Sacramento County is doing — spitting in the face of a voter-approved state initiative, turning its back on jobs and tax revenue — amounts to burning your fields in the face of famine. What the federal governent is doing — withholding cannabis research approval, threatening to seize property and prosecute landowners, ensuring ever-larger profits for the pharmaceuticals industry — is a fright worth fighting.

Puff Puff Politics, a fund-raiser for Americans for Safe Access: Oct. 29, 7 p.m.-midnight, Common Roots Collective, 3039 52nd Ave., Unit B, Sacramento. Tickets: $50.

The Farmers Market Harvest Party, 7 p.m.-midnight, 3791 Bradview Drive, Sacramento.

Disclosure: Ed Murrieta is publisher of PotAppetit.com.

Combat vet with PTSD soldiers on against county's cannabis war

2011-10-12T19:40:52Z

With more than $5,000 in code violations and the threatened closure of two adacent businesses, Johnny Zonneveld, a U.S. Marines combat veteran who uses medical cannabis to battle post-traumatic stress disorder, conceded a skirmish in Sacramento County’s war on medical cannabis dispensaries and closed Sunnyfields Collective on Thursday.

Sunnyfields joins One Solution, City of Trees, California Holistic Care, Citizen Collective, The Reserve, PACC Wellness, All Natural Solutions and Fort Kush among the confirmed casualties in the $1 million war that Sacramento County is borrowing to wage on medical cannabis dispensaries.

The story of former infantryman and dispensary owner Johnny Zonneveld sounds like a 21st century Catch-22:

Zonneveld said he was fined, on zoning violations, for operating a type of business that Sacramento County does not recognize and will not permit.

“In violation of operating a medical cannabis dispensary,” Zonneveld said. “Non-permitted use, basically. Nusiance.”

Then Zonneveld said he was fined, on building code violations, when he constructed a wall inside the dispensary without a permit from the county, which would not issue such a permit to a business that does not already have a permit to operate as a legally recognized business.

Zonneveld recalled his trip to Sacramento County’s building department.

“I wanted a permit to construct a wall,” he said.

“The guy from the county said, ‘What’s your use?’

“I told him straight-up what I was doing.

“He said, ‘You’re never gonna get that approved.’

“I said, OK, I’ll take the fines for the walls.”

After fines topped $5,000, Zonneveld retreated.

“I couldn’t pay my employees,” he said. “We just couldn’t stay open.”

Zonneveld threw his 8-month-old medical cannabis dispensary on a grenade. The survivors include a tattoo parlor and a liquor store in a ramshackle 1950s-era strip mall on Fair Oaks Boulevard.

“It’s partially why I decided not to mess with the county,” Zonneveld said. “There are two other businessiness there. Basically, if you have a building code violation in a building, they can close that building down because it’s considered a safety hazard. The landlord wasn’t willing to fix the different things that are wrong with the building, and the county wouldn’t approve the permit for me to get things up to code.”

Zonneveld, who served in the Marines infantry and performed tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan from 2000 to 2004, is preparing a new front:

Sunnyfields Collective, Zonneveld said, will continue to dispense medical cannabis to qualified patients — but only by appointment and only to existing patients or to new patients who are referred by existing patients.

“We have a private location that members can come to,” Zonneveld said. “But we’re not advertising we have a storefront. We’re not advertising as a delivery service either.”

Zonneveld said he’s not deterred by the county.

“I don’t really care what the hell the county thinks of it now,” Zonneveld said. “I’m not doing this for the county. I’m doing this for the people who need cannabis.”

Zonneveld said Sunnyfields' patients include more than 200 military veterans, most of whom suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder related to their service.

“Basically," Zonneveld said, the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors is "telling me what I’m doing is wrong or illegal yet Prop. 215 passed in 1996 and 15 years after the law actually passed they still don’t have an ordinance written. That means they haven’t done their job. If anybody should get any kind of fine for doing something illegal, it should be the county Board of Supervisors for not doing their jobs, for not doing what the voters actually voted for.”

Sunnyfields Collective
sunnyfieldsgrow.org
916-572-7213

Disclosure: Ed Murrieta is publisher of PotAppetit.com.

Dispensary closures mount in Sacramento County's cannabis crackdown

2011-10-12T19:11:15Z

A former Assistant U.S. Attorney speaking in favor of the federal government’s pot pogrom said recently that a letter from the U.S. Attorney warning medical cannabis dispensaries and the landlords who rent to them is a good thing.

“This letter is the best news that marijuana growers have ever received from the federal government because this letter is a courtesy that most people don’t get,” Bill Portanova said.

In the courtesy vein, but on the opposite side of the battle, Auburn Health & Organics, one of scores of medical cannabis dispensaries operating without the required permits that Sacramento County refuses to issue in the first place, is giving its patients the courtesy of a heads-up:

The sign on the front door of Auburn Health & Organics says the medical cannabis dispensary will close Nov. 15.

So far, here’s an unofficial tally of confirmed closures in Sacramento County's code-enforcement crackdown on medical cannabis dispensaries:

Sunnyfields on Fair Oaks Boulevard.

One Solution on Madison Avenue.

City of Trees on Fair Oaks Boulevard.

California Holistic Care on Fair Oaks Boulevard.

Fort Kush on Florin Road.

The Reserve on Fulton Avenue.

Citizen Collective on El Camino Avenue.

PACC Wellness on Auburn Boulevard.

All Natural Solutions on El Camino Avenue.

Disclosure: Ed Murrieta is the publisher of PotAppetit.com

Ganja Today, Gone Tomorrow? Dispensary Darwinism and Pot Pogroms

2011-10-06T23:20:07Z

Once upon a time, when I was a restaurant critic in a second city in a bad economy, I chased restaurants -- the delayed openings, the quick closures, the inspections in between, the cooks who served good food vs. the operators in it for a buck. It put a taste in my mouth.

Today, in the state capital of medical cannabis in an even worse economy, I spend a lot of time chasing medical cannabis dispensaries -- not the ones that advertise themselves openly and regularly in Sacramento's newspapers, keep regular hours of operation and work hard to make themselves part of the Camellia City's community, but the ones that don't advertise themselves to the public, or maybe do once or twice to mark turf and then disappear, maybe belly-up unsuccessful or maybe high-tailed underground; sometimes, there is no telling.

Medical cannabis directories -- from online sources like Weedmaps and Sticky Guide to magazines like Kush and West Coast Cannabis, and even some pages of Pot Appetit that need housekeeping -- are dotted with the littered listings of dispensaries no longer in operation for reasons legal or extra-legal.

The reality is this:

More medical cannabis dispensaries will close, disappear, cease to exist. It's simple econmics.

The market is saturated in Sacramento -- 39 in the city and, depending on which source or rumor or day of the week you can cite, there are anywhere from 50 to 70 dispensaries in Sacramento County.

Some medical cannabis dispensaries are fantastic. They offer great cannabis at good prices. Some treat their patients as well as Nordstrom and Les Schwab treat their customers. And many, like now-shuttered One Solution, which donated backpacks with classroom supplies to schoolchildren, particpate in community events.

In no particular order (and with apologies to any good dispensaries I overlook here in my quest to keep this paragraph pithy), I tip my bong to: The Farmers Market, Grass, El Camino Wellness, Arcade Wellness, Fruitridge Health and Wellness, All About Wellness, 1 Love, Unity, Northstar, River City Wellness, Alternative Medical Source, The Green Door, Magnolia Wellness, Nor-Cali Creations, MediZen and whatever name the former Mary Jane's Wellness adopts after it was sold after the federal government seized money from its bank account, alleging the dispensary tried to hide profits.

Drug den is a gross overstatement describing the worst dispensaries. However, thug den aptly applies to a number.

I had a discussion recently with an operator of a dispensary in Midtown Sacramento. We compared his dispensary to another dispensary nearby. That dispensary, he said, serves 5 times the number of patients he serves in a day. That dispensary, we agreed, has a better location -- greater visibility, parking, nearby public transportation. Still, he said, he couldn't understand why the other dispensary is more successful. Then the dispensary operated allowed, "Maybe I need to offer better medicine."

There you go:

Dispensary Darwinism dawning.

Local politicians and the federal government will pick at the remainder.

In Sacramento County code-enforcement inspectors are visiting medical cannabis dispensaries. Some dispensaries are now out of business on building code violations. While the county borrows more than $1 million to shut down dispensaries, there’s still a county ordinance kicking around. Dispensaries, their lawyers and their lobbyists have presented their cases to the county in a series of stakeholder meetings. The dispensary discussion has now been dispersed among 14 community action committees throughout the county. Those committees will hear input from the community and dispensaries before making a recommendation to the county board of supervisors, which is borrowing substantially and spending $1 million to eliminate dispensaries while Oakland collects $360,483 in tax revenue from just one dispensary -- Harborside, arguably the most successful and high-profile dispensary in America.

Meanwhile, the federal government seized bank assets, of the aforementioned former Mary Jane's Wellness and 1 Love. The IRS says Harborside -- and, therefore, all other dispensaries -- can't take standard deductions every other business in America can claim. The IRS says Harborside owes $2.5 million, a move medical cannabis activists call a death tax. U.S. Attorneys are circulating letters threatening to seize property of California landlords who rent to medical cannabis dispensaries.

Meantime, I've got a taste in my mouth that the skunkiest sativa can't cure.

Disclosure: Ed Murrieta is the publisher of PotAppetit.com.

Feds want alleged pot profiteers

2011-09-16T18:51:55Z

A marijuana investigation that began in February with what local law enforcement calls an anonymous tip bloomed into a federal case when criminal charges against six Sacramento men were unsealed Thursday.

An affidavit signed by a Drug Enforcement Adminstration special agent charges that the owners of the former R&R Wellness and their associates "were involved in growing marijuana for the purpose of selling it at as great a profit as possible."

California's medical marijuana law mandates that dispensaries operate as nonprofit patient organizations. State criminal charges are pending againt the six men following their arrest in June when Elk Grove police busted a marijuana-growing operation that allegedly stole $80,000 of electric power from SMUD.

According to the federal affidavit dated Sept. 12 and unsealed Thursday, state criminal charges will be dropped once the U.S. Attorney's Office files its case, in which the defenants could face 40-year prison terms.

The Drug Enforcement Administration bases its case on local and state law enforcement case reports and interviews with arresting officers.

As the affidavit details, text messages, voice mail and photographs retrieved from the defendants' cellphones revealed a consipracy to profit from the growing and sale of marijuana, including text messages about cash deposits from marijuana profits.

"The text messages are crass about how much money each is making for the other," states the affidavit, signed by DEA Special Agent Miguel Zavala.

Zavala's affidavit supports a complaint charging Bryan Smith, Kelly Smith, Daniel Goldsmith, Bruce Goldsmith, Robert Klaus and Ryder Phillips with conspiracy to manufacture a controlled substance.

Bryan Smith, 27, and Kelly Smith, 54, were the owners of R&R Wellness. The younger Smith is described in the affidavit as sometimes paying rent on one of the busted grow houses. The elder Smith's fingerprints were allegedly found on an electric box panel used to divert electricity from the normal power meter at one grow house.

The other defendants are described in the affidavit as contract growers who were not employees of R&R Wellness.

An attorney defending one of the six men told Sacramento TV News10 he believes the federal complaint was aimed at sending a message to California's medical pot dispensaries that are pushing the boundaries of state law.

The affidavit is a peek into the investigation, which turned up "comical and incriminating" video on the home computer of Bryan Smith. The affidavit says several videoes Smith made of himself were found, including one 8-minute video that appeared to be an audition for MTV's True Life.

In the video, the affidavit states, Smith said he was happy that California's Prop. 19 marijuana legalization effort failed "because he was not ready to see prices plummet ... he wants to make as much money as possible..."

"Every day I'm in fear of being raided by the Feds," Smith reportedly says in the video.

Co-defendant Daniel Goldsmith's cellphone alone contained 982 text messages "laying out their partnership ih cultivating marijuana ... and selling it for profit." Goldsmith's cellphone also stored a stash of digital photos showing large amounts of cash, marijuana, steroids and equipment receipts.

Sacramento Patients Group now operates in R&R Wellness' former location.

Disclosure: Ed Murrieta is the publisher of PotAppetit.com.

Munchies Meet Freight Train of Tantalization — a Burger Beauty Between South Sacramento Pot Shops

2011-09-09T19:42:11Z

As numerous operators of medical marijuana dispensaries are learning, location, location, location drives this business, too.

So what better location for Burger Junction than between two medical marijuana dispensaries? People who suffer chronic pain, insomnia, glaucoma, breast cancer and other ailments all eat, and everyone needs at least one burger a year, like an annual checkup with cholesterol.

As I began research for an upcoming report on medical marijuana dispensaries in South Sacramento — my angle: how upscale and community-minded pot dispensaries dope-slap common but erroneous perceptions of South Sacramento as a ghetto drug heaven — I got hungry. Luckily, I pulled into the South Point Shopping Center just about lunch time.

Anchored by a Rite Aid drug store and dotted with small restaurants and a Latino foods market, South Point Shopping Center — at the intersection of Florin and Power Inn roads, on the edge of what feels like forgotten suburbia — is among the numerous aging retail complexes that are filling up with medical marijuana dispensaries.

I ordered lunch before visiting the two dispensaries in the plaza, Remedy Living Solutions and True Hope Collective. After lunch, I spotted fellow patients inside Remedy and True Hope who were fellow diners at Burger Junction.

I scored a first-time-free house joint at Remedy, plus two house joints at True Hope, one I bought for $4 (or 3 for $10) and one I received as a first-time gimme.

But who wants to talk about pot?

Lemme tell you about Burger Junction’s Grand Junction Burger: a meaty half-pounder, char-grilled medium, just between juicy and greasy on a warm, domed steak bun that soaked up the meat drippings until wearing out in a soppy heap at the last bite. A valiant mess of a burger it was. All the fixings for this freight train of tantalization include: pastrami, sauteed onions, pickles, lettuce, tomato and cheese. Glorious.

Burger Junction’s Grand Junction Burger is $5.95, and I swear it’s a couple of bucks cheaper and in the same league as the French Steak Burger at Nationwide Freezer Meats in Midtown, a favorite since I first had one in 1983.

Dessert? A flaky pineapple empanada at the Latino foods store next to True Hope, for 50 cents.

Viva medical marijuana dispensaries in retail shopping plazas.

Burger Junction
7900 Florin Road #5, Sacramento

Disclosure: Ed Murrieta is publisher of PotAppetit.com in Sacramento.

Pot Club Puts Heart and Feet into the Community

2011-09-09T19:30:35Z

The patients at Unity Non-Profit Collective are not just people who suffer from breast cancer, diabetes and other conditions treatable with medical marijuana. They are, in fact, patients who help finance medical research into those conditions.

Unity and its patient-members raise money through events like the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure ($3,000 raised in May) and the upcoming Step Out Walk to Stop Diabetes on Sept. 25. Unity’s patients are joined and supported in these events by friends and family members who are not medical marijuana patients.

“We’re compassionate about what goes on in the community, even if some community members don’t want to see us be successful,” said Sandra Yuhre, Unity’s community outreach director, herself a breast cancer survivor whose medical marijuana of choice is tincture.

A $1 raffle for a foot-long pre-rolled joint recently raised more than $300 for Dr. Mollie Fry, the El Dorado County cannabis doctor currently serving prison time on federal charges.

Last year, Unity did a clothes-and-food drive for poor kids. That was a huge success. When crooks stole cash, clothes and food mid-way into the drive, Unity’s patients — and a bunch of non-patients — rallied and donated anew.

Currently, Unity is holding a school-supplies drive for low-income kids.

Unity Non-Profit Collective
1832 Tribute Road Suite E, (916) 564-1824

Disclosure: Ed Murrieta is publisher of PotAppetit.com in Sacramento.

Mary Jane's Jack Balls: Retail Buzz at Sunrise Pot Shop

2011-09-09T19:22:26Z

Big, bright, clean and staffed by friendly budtenders who do their homework, Mary Jane’s Wellness does customer-service right — serious like a jewelry store, with a little frivolity of a candy store.

All of Mary Jane’s marijuana is advertised as top-shelf and goes for $10 a gram, about $3 to $5 less expensive for similar-looking sativas, indicas and hybrids elsewhere.

Mary Jane’s is the only dispensary in the Sacramento area rolling Jack Balls, a do-it-yourself experience not unlike a yogurt shop where you pour your yogurt and pile on your own toppings.

In a corner of the dispensary where Mary Jane’s displays its concentrates, patients can roll dried marijuana buds in thick, condensed hash oil, then coat the oily buds in kief, the dusty, finely ground particles of marijuana flower.

Pick your own bud from a bowl, use hemostats to manipulate the bud through the oil and then through the kief.

Mary Jane’s owner, Mark Mitnick, likens the dispensary’s Jack Balls bar to DIY yogurt shops. I say the concept’s more like a shop where you make your own chocolate truffles.

The experience of Jack Balls, made, essentially, with three layers of three different forms of the Jack Herer sativa-dominant strain, is similar to eating a chunk of Valrhona chocolate that’s been covered in Valrhona chocolate ganache and then dusted in Valrhona cocoa powder: a deeply satisfying, layered release that tastes great and feels great in concert and combination.

Jack Balls, or portions of them, may be be smoked in a pipe, in a bong, in a joint or may be vaporized. I enjoyed the Jack Ball I made today rolled in a joint. Mitnick tossed the Jack Ball into a coffee grinder reserved for such purposes along with a bit of Jack Herer shake to compensate for the sticky oil and help make the joint roll and burn smoothly. Mitnick fluffed out the ground mixture and marveled at how “it moves.”

I dangled the joint from my lips for a long time before I lit it; it numbed my lips nicely.

After I lit the joint, the joint lit me with a cerebral, focused high. I chalked that up to the strain’s sativa side, which tested at 17 percent THC content in the lab result.

That thing that numbed my lips with the joint dangling? Definitely the hash oil that tested at 74 percent THC — the same stuff, Mitnick says, that medicates Bhang, the edibles industry’s top chocolate.

The hash oil hit in waves, first in mild convulsive coughs from the concentrated smoke (as I said, I was smoking the joint) and then, as hash does, like waves on the beach — and tonight the tide crashed hard at first, in the anxious way that both sativa and hash can, and then, without warning, placid waters prevailed, as hash allows.

The bud itself had a musty, spicy force. The concentrated oil sweetened the flavors and effects. The kief added a high-note floral finish.

Half a joint off a Jack Ball and I was full, and hungry for more at the same time. Hash will do that to a man. Self-control and responsible medicating required around Jack Balls.

Make your own Jack Balls at Mary Jane’s for $18 for roughly 1.5 grams, about enough for two joints if you add your own shake, or $30 for 2.5 to 3 grams. Or buy Jack Balls pre-made and pre-packaged.

Don’t like the uplifting, somewhat caffeinated buzz of Jack Herer? Maybe you want bud and kief from an indica like Grandberry for a deeper-body medicinal effect? Mary Jane’s offers options. Buy any bud at Mary Jane’s and give it the Jack Balls treatment for $5.

The hash oil that’s used to make Jack Balls costs $80 for 2 grams. Jack Balls is a nice way to taste-test a high-ticket medicine before you buy the whole vial.

Likewise, those $20 bottles of tincture you’ve been tempted to buy but just can’t commit to because of the cost? Mary Jane’s packages its tinctures in $5 trial-size bottles.

There’s retail wellness for you.

Mary Jane’s Wellness
2271 Sunrise Blvd. Suite B, (916) 635-BUDS

Disclosure: Ed Murrieta is the publisher of PotAppetit.com in Sacramento.

Taste-Testing Sacramento's Po' Boys of Pot: $3 Joints

2011-08-25T08:41:12Z

Joint. Spliff. Pre-roll. By any name, it’s arguably the most known and widely recognized vehicle associated with smoking pot.

It’s certainly the most convenient.

It’s portable.

It’s easy to share — making it a truly social medium.

You can even eat one — as medicine, of course — if it comes to that.

And talk about portion control: You can cut a joint in half, thirds, quarters, smoke a bit and save the rest for later.

Some joints have enough pot packed in them that you can re-roll their contents into two joints. Now that’s value.

In Sacramento medical marijuana dispensaries, joints sell for as little as $2.50 each to as much as $15 each; doobies are doled out as patient rewards; and, at least one dispensary, fatties are flat-out free, one per day just for showing up.

On the theory that joints are like calling cards — If a dispensary can’t roll a decent joint, what’s a pot patron to think of a dispensary’s other offerings? — I’m firing up a new feature on Pot Appetit: The Best Joints in Town. I’m starting today with the lowest price points: $3 or less, or the po’ boys of pot.

My Ganga Grail: The Low-Cost High

Advice traditionally given to any writer applies to one who reviews pot: Write what you know. I know how to live well on a low budget. Except for whatever gratis ganga I score from dispensaries’ first-one-is-free introductory offers, I’ve been medicating and relaxing with $3 joints almost exclusively since the big bag of trim I brought with me from Humboldt in April ran out in June.

I purchased — or didn’t purchase in the case of River City Wellness’ gimme doobies, but I’ll get to that — all the joints at Sacramento medical marijuana dispensaries over the past month and pretty much right up until deadline.

ARCADE WELLNESS: $3. Strain-specific straight joints rolled from bud. I fell in love with my first Fire OG joints — the fluffy, finely ground bud smoked sweet and piney, inducing a heavy-lidded, good-night’s-sleep. Then along came Green Crack, a bright-tasting, smooth and cerebral sativa that made me forget about Facebook and focus on work. Both strains were rolled fat, weighing on the heavy side of a gram each. In fact, Arcade’s joints require a little schmusching with the fingers to loosen the tight pack and work up some space for air to flow through the joint so you can take a good toke. Or do what I’ve been doing: rip ‘em open, re-roll ‘em and savor two good joints for a buck-fifty a pop. Arcade Wellness: 4210 El Camino Ave., Sacramento.

GRASS: $3. Easily the prettiest cheap-date joint in town — a cone-shaped joint in the sexy pre-rolled European-style paper fitted with a thin cardboard filter tip. Unfortunately, as I learned from my roller-coaster affair with the couteur-wearing love of my life who wasn’t, it’s what’s inside that’s most important. Grass is up-front about the contents of its $3 joints being shake of no specific provenance — it says so on the menu board. And I regularly purchase and smoke them knowing there’s a good chance I’ll suffer a coughing fit or two before enjoying a non-fitful night’s sleep. You can look good and feel good, even if it’s not the smoothest relationship. Grass: 2014 10th St., Sacramento.

MEDIZEN COLLECTIVE: $3. Rolled from what two MediZen budtenders told me are bud crumbles and the dusty remains from jars of specific strains whose names they just couldn’t recall when I’ve purchased them, I continue to enjoy MediZen’s straight joints way more than its, cough, customer service. MediZen Collective: 2201 Northgate Blvd., Sacramento.

CAPITAL CITY HEALTH & WELLNESS: $2.50. Rolled from various bud crumbles and leavings from the bottoms of jars on display. I bought two straight joints on my first visit in mid-July (an edible was the first-time-free offer). Both smoked harshly. I wasn’t sure which gave me bigger coughing fits: that there’s a pot dispensary next door to the Buggy Whip, a restaurant that was old-school when your grandma was young, or these joints. To be fair, I tried to give these joints the restaurant critic’s three-visit courtesy, but in two subsequent return visits a week apart, Capital City was out of joints both times. Given gas costs, the tipping point’s been tipped for me and Capital City’s $2.50 joints. Capital City Health & Wellness: 2721 Fulton Ave., Sacramento.

RIVER CITY WELLNESS: Free. Rolled from a mix of what can be charitably called hippie lettuce — you can’t hide straw-colored stems poking through the paper — these straight joints are available for free, one per patient per day, no questions asked, even if one blacked-gloved budtender did give me the stink-eye when I said to him, “I’m here just for the free joint today.” River City used to advertise that a chunk of hash came in the bag with each joint — a nice amount to re-roll the joint with and help mellow out what can be a harsh and heavy smoke — but the last three freebies I picked up were hashless. On the sweet side, River City’s Northgate location consistently has offered free lemonade and sandwich cookies each time I’ve visited. River City Wellness: 3830 Northgate Blvd., Sacramento.

COMING SOON: THE BEST JOINTS IN TOWN — $5 – $8
Got a favorite joint at a particular dispensary? Let me know in the comments section. I may include your choices in future installments of The Best Joints in Town.

Disclosure: Ed Murrieta is a restaurant critic-turned-pot critic who produces PotAppetit.com.

Pedaling for Pot in Sacramento: Like Amsterdam on the American River

2011-08-19T21:56:21Z

If you’re a medical marijuana patient and a bicycle enthusiast, Sacramento is the perfect place to combine your quests for medicine and exercise — kind of like those popular pedaling pub crawls, but without the drunkards.

With more than three dozen dispensaries in the city and twice that number in the county, Sacramento bicyclists pedal past a plethora of places peddling pot to Prop. 215 patients.

Cruising Midtown and downtown on your fat-tired cruiser? There are 12 dispensaries you can bike to, half of which are on designated bike routes that cross-hatch The Grid. Easy rides, all of them.

Touring the American River Bike Trail on your Cannondale? From Old Sacramento to Folsom Lake, there are 19 dispensaries, not counting those in The Grid, that are quarter-mile- to 3-mile rides from access points along the 32-mile trail. Extend your off-the-trail trek to 5 miles and there’ll be 5 more dispensaries (see sidebar The Harder They Ride).

What’s the payoff for all this exertion, the proverbial pot of gold at the end of the ridebow?

There’s the exercise, of course. And by riding your bike, you’re staying green while buying green bud. How about picking up some non-psychoactive pot-infused salves, creams and oils for the aching muscles you’ll have after some rides? Or perhaps partake of Prop. 215 perks like free massages and chiropractic sessions that some dispensaries provide in the name of wellness?

What if you work up an appetite during your rides? I’ve mapped out foodie pit stops. Sunflower Drive-In — home of nutburgers, fresh fruit smoothies and chickens free-ranging the parking lot — is worth a trip on the trail — pedaling for pot or just pedaling. For you locavore pot pedalers, how about two local produce farms? You’re welcome.

Need more diversions? Parks? Museums? Sacramento has those, too. While you won’t experience anything close to the “Starry Night” visions you can have staring at Van Gogh’s work while eating space cake in Amsterdam, the thick swooshes of frosting on the Wayne Thiebaud cake paintings that hang in the Crocker Art Museum — just a hop off the bike trail promenade south of Old Sacramento — gain delicious new dimension if you’ve nibbled on a medical marijuana edible.

Which brings us, at last, to medicating while pedaling for pot.

Should you?

Should you always wear your helmet when you ride?

Should you not ride your hipster cruiser on sidewalks?

I’m not your mother or the bike police.

You know the effects of medical marijuana on your system better than anyone does.

You say those pre-ride bong hits ease your asthma?

Certainly.

When you hit Pipe Bridge — the silver span crosses the American River on the bike trail east of 16th Street heading to or from downtown — you may very well be tempted, but caveat pot pedaler:

You can be ticketed for toking and biking.

Read the rest of the story at PotAppetit.com