Best Dispensary Logo in America

2021 Best Dispensary In America… Based On Logo

By David Wallach

The cannabis industry is now in more than half the states in the country, and it’s not a secret anymore. Hell, the first thing you see when you drive into Michigan is a billboard for Herbology, in Kalamazoo it’s #PureMichigan. When you drive into Gary, Indiana you see billboards for dispensaries in Illinois, finally giving you something to look at as you drive through Indiana, other than corn and traffic cones.

Dispensaries are the new micro-brew and following that model there is a dispensary for just about every taste, all touting this experience or that for their customers. We are in a cannabis renaissance and it’s wonderful.

There are thousands of dispensaries in America and that number continues to grow faster than you can say “Starbuds.” For this article and the title of “Best Cannabis Logo in America,” Cannabis & Tech Today took venture funds turned into a weed company (Hi CuraLeaf) out of the equation. Cash can’t buy this title, only creativity.

We looked at thousands of dispensaries from Amesbury, Massachusetts to Cle Elum, Washington. Special shout out to potguide.com, an amazing resource for dispensaries. Creating this would have been horrible without them.

Some of the Criteria:

The dispensary had to have a website — I mean really, if you’re in the cannabis business, you’ve got the cash to drop $3.00 at GoDaddy and register your domain. Quite frankly, for a writer making like 10 cents a word, a dime a word, like two nickels a word (that’s 65 cents right there) having to look at Facebook pages and SnapChat profiles is well beyond my pay grade. If you want to be considered next year, then get a web page.

An original logo — Not name.

There are plenty of amazing names out there. Yes, we are working on that as well. I’m lookin’ at you One Hit Wonder in Fairbanks, Gnome Grown in Oregon, and Buds and Roses in Massachusetts. Names are great, but at its roots (see what I did there?) cannabis is a creative business, so creativity in the logo is what matters most. Best Buds in Washington DC, parodying the Best Buy logo with the slogan “weed deliver.” Kudos.

Who didn’t qualify:

There’s a lot of healing or helping this or that, a bunch of remedies and therapies, so many apothecaries and collectives, and of course the many corporate shops, well branded and so very plain. Many states are purely pharmaceutical (Louisiana) and their logos are basic, so we eliminated them as well.

Florida

Like you would expect, is all corporate super stores of medical marijuana, and quite frankly giving RISE and Trulieve more real estate to rest their money-soaked hats on, is too much. So, unless Ron Jon Surf Shop opens a dispensary, Florida you are out of this year’s selection. Take your maskless faces to a massive theme park and work on a design for next year.

Texas

Not a lot of selection, kind of like, well Texas. So, unless you learn how to act like adults and play well with others, you’re not allowed to play with us.

States that qualify:

Are States that have both recreational and medical. Illinois, Nevada, California, Washington, Alaska, you get the idea.

Each state has a local champion, which you can see in our nifty graphic. Our editors, along with yours truly, picked the winners. The great news is the industry is growing and there are some amazing people out there doing what they love to bring you some of the best cannabis products known to man. So you are all winners in our book (insert puke emoji) but there can only be one winner for 2021.

And the winner is :

The Best Dispensary … Based on Logo is Glazed and Confused in Crystal Falls, Michigan! Mixing comedy with a simple but funny logo, Glazed and Confused takes the title.

Visit our website cannatechtoday.com to find a clickable version of this article and check out the many dispensaries and their cool logos there as well; there are some amazing designs.

Hit us up on social and let us know your favorite dispensary by name, logo, or anything else. We will be doing this again! ❖ Note — The writer is now accepting t-shirts and stickers from all of the above-mentioned dispensaries, you know since he only makes 10 cents a word.

MADNESS

Cannabis needs higher consumer safety standards.

By Patricia Miller

One amazing property of the cannabis plant is that it cleans soil. It sucks up heavy metals, pesticides, and microbes from the dirt. That’s great news for soil and slightly terrifying news for those consuming the plant.

Where cannabis is grown is important. If the dirt is laden with industrial pollutants, like arsenic, lead, or mercury, cannabis grown in that soil is likely unfit for consumption. Consumers need to know how and where plants are grown. More importantly, the public needs precise, transparent certificates of analysis for adult-use products. Assessing the Source

Consider Butte, Montana. The state legalized adult-use cannabis in 2021. If one were to call dispensaries around Montana and ask, “Where is your cannabis grown?” The answer is typically, “It’s grown in Montana.” Cool, but where exactly?

Exactly where matters. If the cannabis were grown outside in the soil of Butte, for example, it could be loaded with heavy metal contaminants. Butte is one of America’s largest Superfund sites. Cannabis & Tech Today contacted several dispensaries in Butte to ask where their crops are grown. Some said they grow in other cities, while others said they grow inside with reverse osmosis water.

If you’re not familiar with the term “Superfund,” it’s a designation given to extremely contaminated areas. Formally called the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), the Superfund designation provides funds for the EPA to clean up hazardous waste sites left behind by irresponsible industries.

Butte was once known as the “Richest Hill on Earth,” due to the huge amounts of copper, silver, and gold mined from the mountains there. Since the late 1800s, wealthy industrialists have been drilling into the mountainside, leaving a legacy of mining waste in their wake. Arsenic, lead, cadmium, and other pollutants have been blowing into soils and trickling into waterways there for more than a hundred years.

If people decided to grow cannabis in Butte, or any of the hundreds of other Superfund sites across the U.S, farmers would have no legal obligation to disclose the origin of their crop. Inconsistent Testing

Montana requires random heavy metal testing for cannabis flower and extracts. These random tests provide some incentive for growers — nobody wants to lose a crop that didn’t pass. But, random testing leaves something to be desired when it comes to transparency.

From a safety standpoint, most consumers would probably prefer to know what they’re buying was tested for contaminants. Perhaps they would like to take it a step further and know exactly how much cadmium or lead is in the products they are consuming, even if they

Photo: iStockphoto.com/jcrosemann

passed the state’s threshold. There are few states with that level of reporting. Gaps in Regulation

Random testing is Montana’s solution. Each state has their own, somewhat flawed approach to the heavy metals issue. Washington state, for example, set specific limits on certain heavy metals. If a product exceeds those limits, it has “failed quality assurance testing.” But, the Liquor and Cannabis Board of Washington does not require adult-use products to be tested for these metals. In other words, you can’t have too much arsenic but you don’t have to test for arsenic.

Several legalized states use similarly ambiguous language when it comes to testing for certain contaminants. It’s an area crying out for more precise regulations and a deeper understanding of the cannabis plant as a soil remediator.

Australia has been studying cannabis as medicine since 2016. Their government has been advocating for more research around the plant as medicine. As a medicinal substance, it should be held to the same testing protocols as pharmaceuticals.

In one study titled “Cannabis Contaminants: Sources, Distribution, Human Toxicity, and Pharmacological Effects,” authors Dryburgh, et. al., called for better testing standards as medicinal cannabis markets mature, “particularly in jurisdictions outside Australia where cannabis is not treated as a ‘therapeutic good’ but rather as a herbal supplement or nutraceutical.”

Common Contaminants

There are three main culprits when it comes to contamination: heavy metals, microbes, and pesticides. Two of the three are regulated in most legal-cannabis U.S. states. Heavy Metals

Arsenic, cadmium, lead, mercury, and other types of heavy metals can contaminate cannabis in a variety of ways. They can be absorbed via soil, water, or fertilizers. Exposure can also occur during the drying process.

In rare instances, heavy metals could be added during packaging to increase the weight of the product and therefore its value. In a past incident on the Australian black market, Dryburgh reported, “Another case series reported on 95 cases of lead poisoning due to lead adulteration of illegal preparations to increase the weight and thus market value of cannabis.”

Microbes

Bacteria and fungi (mold) are the most common microbes present in cannabis. These are often caused by improper growth, harvest, or storage techniques. Fortunately, many legal cannabis states are now testing for the presence of mold and mildew.

Setting strict thresholds is a step in the right direction, particularly for medical cannabis patients who may be at higher risk of developing adverse reactions. “Vaporized fungal spores at even very low concentrations are likely to cause fungal pneumonia,” said Dryburgh.

Pesticides

Many agricultural crops are grown using pesticides. The important difference with cannabis is that it’s a crop which can be lit on fire and inhaled. Many of the pesticides that are FDA-approved for food are not approved for inhalation.

In one eye-opening example from Washington, laboratory analysis found 84.6% of legalized cannabis products tested contained significant quantities of pesticides, including proven carcinogens. Again, this is an area that’s seeing increased regulatory oversight.

Effects of Ingesting Contaminants

These toxins could cause infections or cancers and impact reproduction or interrupt development. Such risks are an easy target for prohibitionists who may want to link these illnesses to cannabis itself, rather than contaminants found within some samples of the plant.

“There are difficulties in establishing a direct causal relationship between cannabis and [the aforementioned illnesses] … complicated by the significant time-lag between consumption and diagnoses. This is compounded by the lack of adequately powered and well-designed epidemiological or experimental studies assessing the human effect of contaminants,” said Dryburgh.

Demanding a Higher Standard

It’s a vital topic, but surprisingly has not been studied in much depth. Dryburgh emphasized, “As the medical cannabis industry moves forward, thresholds for clean medicine, standards, and procedures … need to be developed and standardized internationally.”

Cannabis is a life-saving substance. It has profound therapeutic potential, as confirmed by decades of international research. To benefit from the plant and prevent harm, the global cannabis community must demand higher standards for safety testing. ❖

Photo: iStockphoto.com/kmatija

Where Are They Now?

Classic cannabis strains and where you can still find them. Well, some of them.

By Corey Noles

It may seem commonplace to just walk into a store and buy marijuana today, but it used to be so much different — and so was the weed.

The marijuana market didn’t have companies with reward programs and logo-smattered merch — it was a sketchy dude named something like “8-Ball” or “Yo-Yo.” If you were lucky he had two options. Likely there would be something cheap from Mexico, and something somewhat better, likely from Colombia.

Nearly all marijuana had some seeds and stems, and it wasn’t a catastrophe. It’s just how it came. It wasn’t even in grams — you likely bought lids, quarter bags, or “finger” bags (twofinger, three-finger, etc.)

The strains in that era were likely crosses as well, but they came from the ground that way. A landrace strain is a strain found in the wild, growing without the intrusions of man. Plants pollinate in the wild all the time, so they were breeding for centuries before they were ever discovered.

Essentially, landrace strains are the building blocks for the cannabis grown today — and there are still countless more to be discovered in the wild.

Many of those great strains of the 1960s and 1970s are gone forever, but some are still around in various forms.

Essentially, there are four things to look out for if you’re thinking about growing landrace strains or even some classic crosses.

How were the seeds created?

There are a lot of discrepancies in the seed world, particularly among old landrace strains. Do some serious research at this stage.

Above all, you have to know the origin of the seeds. Are they original seeds from the actual plant? Are they a quality clone? Or did they just reverse engineer the effects and come up with something close to the original — then call it whatever they wanted. The latter happens more than you might expect — and it’s fine, so long as the vendor is clear about its origin.

More reputable dealers in such vintage seeds are typically quite open about how they got them.

Original seeds or a direct clone of an actual plant are the ideal method.

Where Does the Strain Originate?

Understanding the origin of a strain is paramount to capturing the desired effects. A strain that grew well in Afghanistan might not find ideal conditions in Washington state, for example.

Eybna is a technology company and terpene manufacturer, with a line of formulations focused specifically on reproducing the classic terpene profiles from some of these very strains. The company produces a variety of terpene solutions that can be applied to plants or manufactured products like inhalables, digestibles, and topicals. Their Enhancer terpene formulations were created based on genetic research into the original phytochemical makeup of three legacy strains. The “Diesel”, “Skunk” and “Kush” terpene formulations give your existing bud or distillate product more of a classic feel by capturing some of those lost or diluted effects from the past.

Nadav Eyal, co-founder and CEO of Eybna, has spent years researching classic strains.

“If you want to preserve the original taste, smell and effect of the original wildtype plant, you have to watch the climate,” Eyal said in a recent interview with Cannabis & Tech Today. “Being able to match the strain to its original climate is crucial to properly recreating the bud.”

He stressed if you want to truly experience a strain like Acapulco Gold, you need to find a way to recreate the environment in which it first grew. Watch your temperatures, humidity, and try to make your light cycles match what it would have been throughout a natural grow.

“Because of the places they were grown, they were able to develop and compound on their own,” Eyal said. “And they’re different from place to place.”

Timers, fans, quality lights, and even humidifiers can handle most of the work. Of course, you can spend as much as you wish to get it spot-on.

An Outdoor Grow May Be Best

While most landrace strains can thrive in an indoor grow room, it’s not necessarily the best course of action.

An anonymous representative from Old School Breeders Association has worked on many classic strains.

“Growers may want to let these strains grow out to their full stature. For example, just a few large plants per light, especially when grown from seed,” the OSBA representative said. “Clones of landrace cannabis genetics may

Nadav Eyal, co-founder and CEO of Eybna

finish a little faster and tighter than their seed parent — so select the phenotypes that work for your grow room for best results.”

He also stresses against just growing and forgetting. If something turns out to be great, you’re going to want to go back to it.

“Although you may pick a favorite that’s most suitable for your modern growing style, it may be worthwhile to keep clones of the others and occasionally grow them out,” the OSBA rep said. “You may find some that have natural resistance to common crop problems that your modern cannabis genetics do not.”

Shop From Reputable Dealers

There are a lot of seed banks and dispensaries in this world. While most are honest, hardworking cannabis lovers, some are not so honest. Do some research before ordering and see how other customers feel about their past orders.

Essentially, there is no way to tell by looking at a seed what strain from which it originates. As a result, this almost entirely comes down to trusting the seller. Sellers who have legitimate landrace strains are generally quite excited about them and happy to tell you everything you need to know.

“Besides having strains you want, the most certain way to qualify a seed supplier is the number of years they have been delivering seeds to their customers,” the Old School Breeders Association representative said. “There have been countless seed companies that have come and gone for a variety of reasons. If a company has been around for over ten years, it’s a pretty safe bet they have the means and intent to stay around at least that much longer.”

He is quick to remind, however, that everyone has to start somewhere. He also suggests doing a search of social media to see if growers buying their products are satisfied.

“Another quick and effective way to weed out the frauds is just to pick up the phone and give them a call,” they said. “Do they answer right away and are they able to answer your questions? Don’t hesitate to pick up a phone or send an email before your order. People do it every day, and it’s the best way to ensure you are happy with your purchase.”

WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

Acapulco Gold

Origin: Acapulco region of Mexico S/H/I: Sativa Effects: Happy, Uplifted, Energetic Available from: Barney’s Farm

Durban Poison

Origin: Durban, South Africa S/H/I: Sativa Effects: Energetic, Uplifting, Creativity Available from: Dutch Passion

Afghani

Origin: Afghanistan S/H/I: Indica Effects: Relaxation, Euphoria, Sleepy Available from: Sensi Seeds

Thai

Origin: Thailand S/H/I: Sativa Effects: Happy, Focused, Energetic Available from: The Real Seed Company has a variety of rare seeds from Thailand, but it is largely believed that original Thai is forever lost. However, with many landrace strains from the region, this is your best chance to get close.

Panama Red

Origin: Panama S/H/I: Sativa Effects: Happy, Uplifted, Talkative Available from: Ace Seeds sells a feminized version adapted to withstand modern growing situations. They also have a close replica made from a blend of three similar sativas from Panama.

Mazar-I-Sharif

Origin: Northern Afghanistan S/H/I: Indica Effects: Very Relaxing, Euphoric Available from: The Real Seed Company

OG Kush

Origin: California S/H/I: Indica Effects: Happy, Relaxed, Hungry Available from: Old School Breeders Association

Malawi / Malawi Gold

Origin: Southeast Africa S/H/I: Sativa Effects: Energetic, Uplifted, Creative Available from: Many places out of stock, but Old School Breeders Association has a Malawi Gold x Thai cross that is highly regarded.

Original Haze

Origin: Santa Cruz, Calif. S/H/I: Sativa Effects: Happy, Uplifted, Energetic Available from: Flying Dutchmen

Skunk

Origin: Most likely believed to be Bay Area breeders in the late 1970s S/H/I: Hybrid Effects: Happy, Euphoric, Hungry Available from: Skunk #1 is likely the closest. Available from Sacred Seed Co., this is a cross of multiple classic genetics (Afghani, Acapulco Gold, Colombian Gold) and may be as close as one can get today to original Skunk.

*The above information regarding classic strains includes some estimation. As much as could be verified, was, but there is minimal documentation or “proof” available. Special thanks to the teams at Old School Breeders Association and Eybna for their help in compiling the information.