Seed & Smith’s dispensary tours dispense with some marijuana myths

Story and photos by Steve Graham

THC content and strain names are the most important factors in choosing marijuana products, right?

Not so fast, says Jake Figallo, the cannabis education specialist at Seed & Smith in northeast Denver.

Figallo and other guides lead tours four days a week at the cannabis facility, which was built around the tours and marijuana knowledge more broadly. Seed & Smith, which opened in 2014, has a dispensary on-site and also wholesales to more than 200 other Colorado dispensaries, Figallo said.

The entertaining 40-minute walk through the plant nurseries, joint factory and extraction labs offers rare behind-the-scenes views, as well as new perspectives on cannabis.

More than a decade after the dawn of legal recreational marijuana, the industry remains pretty opaque. By necessity, everything is shielded away behind counters and glass cases inside a dispensary, and there will almost certainly never be vineyard-style tours through marijuana groves.

Figallo admits the opacity leads to some misleading information — starting with their own facility, if only in its name.

“This is where I get very honest and tell you that the name Seed & Smith is slightly inaccurate,” he said near the start of the tour. “We do not grow from seed around here. I know it’s in the name, but 98 percent of the time we use … cloning. We should be called Clone and Smith. That’s a more accurate name.”

The tour passes two sets of “veg rooms” for growing the plants, then a robot that makes joints at a pace of 1,600 prerolls per hour, among other packaging, distillation and extraction processes.

Figallo explained the growing process, including some botanical lifehacks, but you have to take the tour for all those secrets. He pointed out several carefully labeled varieties, and quickly dispelled some of the biggest marijuana myths.

He recommends that users shop by terpene profile rather than strain or name. Specific variety names can be nearly meaningless, he says. The same branding can be used on very different plants in different facilities.

“We are not making it consistent yet,” Figallo said. “Selling weed by its name may be the silliest way to do it.”

Even levels of THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, tend to be misleading.

“THC does not determine our high,” he said. “The easiest way to explain it is that THC is the on-off button in our televisions, and terpenes are the channel you are going to watch.”

The 30 terpenes found in marijuana most directly impact flavor, scent and impact. Your nose is your best predictor of an enjoyable high (echoing our resident cannabis expert’s advice for newbies here).

“The way that it smells is the way that it makes you feel,” Figallo said.

He also noted that users should pay attention to where they “feel” the smell. Most people feel a mellowing indica strain in the lower nasal passages, while an energizing sativa strain hits higher in the face.

Anyone interested in learning more about cannabis should visit Seed & Smith. Figallo is happy to share his extensive knowledge.

“The future of weed is getting more educated, not just relying on the popping colors and strain names,” he said.