It now operates 23 locations across the country, each equipped with long wooden tables manned by cheerful staff – or “budtenders” – in matching red hoodies. MedMen was one of the first recreational dispensaries to open in the state in 2018, styling its West Hollywood shop as the “Apple Store of weed”. It is a more poetic approach than most other recent dispensaries, which often opt for the minimal, pharmaceutical look, in an attempt to shed any shady connotations. The whole experience should be interactive and educational, so customers leave feeling like they know more about cannabis.” One events space hosts ‘puff and paint’ art classes, stoned yoga and gong baths “We wanted to make an inviting space for the canna-curious,” she says, “the kind of place that might appeal to those who have never smoked before, or are nervous about trying it. Recordings of ASMR sounds play in the background: a symphony of rolling papers, exhaled smoke, and ashtray tappings.ĭesigned by Singaporean firm Space Objekt, Wyllow is the ethereal vision of Camille Roistacher, who opened the 300 sq ft store last year in a former hair salon between Beverley Hills and Culver City. The shelves around us are lined with everything from lychee-flavoured mochi gummies to pharmaceutical bottles of tinctures, along with strips that dissolve on your tongue. Moments later, she reappears from behind a curtain with a tray of assorted products from pre-rolled joints to cannabis-infused crackers, chocolates and gummies, along with jars of dried marijuana buds variously packaged like Belgian chocolates, expensive perfume and fizzy candy. ‘Luxury spa vibes’ … the Woods, owned by actor Woody Harrelson. “More of a head high or a body high? More relaxed and sleepy, or creative and alert?” I am talking to a drug dealer but it feels more like a consultation with a mindfulness coach.

“How do you like to feel?” the Wyllow hostess asks, offering me a seat on a green velvet banquette. With stiff competition and increasingly exacting customers, dispensaries have transformed from grungy dumps to slick boutiques, each trying to outdo the next with Instagram-worthy design and immersive experiences. It boasts the biggest cannabis-growing region in the country, known as the Emerald Triangle, and has developed one of the most sophisticated industries, leading the way with specialist products and ever more experimental stores, nowhere more so than in the hedonistic consumer capital, LA. But now there are dispensaries that look like jewellery stores, opticians and cupcake bakeries, all moving away from that stoner mentality.” California is now home to the largest legal cannabis market in the world, raking in $5.2bn (£4.3bn) in sales in 2021.

“It always felt like you were just one step above your drug-dealer’s basement. “It made you feel like you were doing something illegal,” says Megan Stone of High Road design studio, which specialises in cannabis dispensaries. ‘We treat it like a grocery store, rotating the products to keep customers interested’ … a selection of gummies, peanuts, popping candy, pre-rolled joints and loose bud products. Mike Tyson’s range includes ear-shaped weed gummies with a chunk missing, in homage to the time he bit Evander Holyfield It feels like I’m at a fancy wine-tasting, not a place to score weed. Another dome’s scent is more smoky, a third musky and earthy with sweet notes of clove. A rich, citrusy bouquet with piney undertones wafts forth, recalling lemon peel and woodland walks. Our hostess lifts one of the domes with a flourish and offers me a whiff. It looks like some kind of cosmic chapel, an intergalactic shrine to precious meteorites, but this is Wyllow, one of the city’s new breed of boutique cannabis dispensaries, determined to elevate the humble herb to dizzying new heights. The surrounding walls of this small room in Los Angeles are lined with mirrors, topped with neon arches that glow lilac, pink and purple, their reflections forming a trippy maze of arcades extending into infinity. ‘Do you know what terpenes are?” says our glamorous host, pointing to four glass domes spotlit on a table, each containing mysterious lumps of black rock.

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