Pubdate: Wed, 23 Oct 2013
Source: Seattle Weekly (WA)
Copyright: 2013 Village Voice Media
Website: http://www.seattleweekly.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/410
Author: Steve Elliott
Column: Toke Signals

CHANGING PERCEPTIONS IN PORT ORCHARD

I discovered New Image Health & Wellness in Port Orchard while looking
for another access point using Weedmaps. That must be really
frustrating for the owners of Greenthumb Port Orchard, but the simple
fact is, the two shops are so close together that when I used my
phone's GPS to find Greenthumb, it told me I had arrived when I passed
by New Image. Seeing the green cross, I wheeled in and parked, and
didn't notice until a bit later that the street address was slightly
different. (Don't worry, Greenthumb, I'll see you soon.)

Once inside the relaxed but smartly appointed lobby, it only took a
few minutes to fill out and verify the paperwork, then it was back to
the bud room with budtender Kody. He's one of those
easy-to-get-along-with, laid-back budtenders who isn't interested in
debating or one-upping the patients (yes, there are a few of those);
he seemed more interested in just helping me find the strains,
concentrates, and medibles that I needed and offering his own input
about experiences with the medicine.

New Image had about a dozen strains the afternoon I visited, ranging
from pure indicas on the left to hybrids in the middle of the counter
and sativas on the right. Upon Kody's recommendation I selected Blue
Cheese, an indica, and on my own initiative picked the intriguingly
monikered El Alquimista ("The Alchemist"), a hybrid.

One of the first things I noticed about both strains was that they
were tightly trimmed, almost California-style; no bushy sugar leaves
here. I also quickly noticed that these flowers were actually dry
enough to smoke, with none of the borderline dampness found in some
shops, where you're paying for water weight, and none of the
near-petrified, hard-to-incinerate flowers produced by some obsessive
jar-curing methods that seem to value cosmetics over usability. No,
these buds were a breeze to crumble and roll into joints.

El Alquimista feels like a sativa dominant, and is thus a good daytime
strain. Its sweet-tasting flowers work wonders on nausea and pain
without slowing you down as a pure indica strain would; on a day when
I'd been hobbled by pain, The Alchemist gave me the relief and the
inspiration to actually get out in the sunshine and do a little
photography, which wouldn't have happened otherwise.

Blue Cheese offers even more pronounced pain relief, but with its
pleasantly sluggish indica effect, it's a better nighttime medicine.
After dinner or at bedtime, this is a deeply soothing, calming, and
centering smoke, to be savored both for its medicinal effects and its
namesake flavor.

New Image carries a respectable selection of medibles, along with BHO
and hash; they were out of kief the day I visited. Medicated brownies
(made using cannabutter and cannabis canola oil) and Oreo Bars
(containing hashish) are tasty and worthwhile, especially at just $5
each.
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MAP posted-by: Matt