The Pass—the closest recreational cannabis dispensary to New York City and Connecticut—prides itself on its farm-to-label ethos.
“We are part of every single step in the process, from seed to sale,” explains marketing director Jesse Ezekiel Tolz. “We are able to control the quality of our cannabis and cannabis products from start to finish.”
It all starts at The Pass’s cultivation sites, where the cannabis is grown in indoor facilities, in greenhouses, and outdoors. “We provide the freshest flower possible; we were named Best Flower Selection in the Berkshires for 2021 by The Berkshire Eagle,” Tolz says. The flower from cultivation is then either prepped for sale in the dispensary or for processing in the laboratory. The refined lab products are then either sold as concentrates or brought to the kitchen to create edibles, topicals, and tinctures.
Then it’s on to the dispensary, a streamlined, charcoal-toned building that—like The Pass’s cultivation and processing facilities—is located in Sheffield, Massachusetts. Customers enter an intake room to get checked in before continuing on to the retail floor, where products are displayed in glass cases and budtenders wait at the counter in front of The Pass logo—a silhouette of mountain peaks. “Our brand, in terms of our aesthetic, is nature-focused and elegant. It really speaks to the region we are a part of, the community we want to support, and the diversity of our products,” says Tolz.
The budtenders consult with consumers on available products and how to use them. “Our friendly and knowledgeable budtenders are well versed in guiding customers through their purchases and their cannabis experience,” Tolz says. “Everyone’s endocannabinoid system [a network of chemical signals and cell receptors throughout the brain and body, on which cannabis can have an effect] is different.”
The Pass’s budtenders will optimize their customers’ cannabis experience, whether it’s their first or thousandth time. “We have all different forms of cannabis products, so the variety can be hard to navigate, and that’s exactly what our budtenders love to help you with,” says Tolz. The dispensary carries more than just proprietary products, too, he adds. “We create products from our facility, but we also carry other partners’ products. We pride ourselves on the range of high-quality products we provide.” Pre-orders, with same-day pickup, are available online for customers who know what they are looking for. The Pass accepts cash and debit for payment in person.
The Pass recognizes that the cannabis-buying experience can give first-time customers butterflies in their stomachs, and the budtenders are sensitive to that, Tolz says: “The stigma of cannabis is still very real, and every person feels a mix of excitement and concern the first time they go into a dispensary. ‘Am I doing something wrong?’ ‘Should I really be here?’ This plant has been blamed for myriad societal problems, when in reality this attribution of blame is greatly erroneous. Our dispensary’s ambience and flow in tandem with our wonderful budtenders are how we make people feel more at home, even on their very first visit.”
The Pass
1375 North Main Street
Sheffield, Massachusetts
(413) 644-6892; Thepass.co
