With recreational cannabis just legalized in New York, it'll be at least a year before the state's retail weed scene is up and running. However, hop across the state line to Massachusetts, and you'll find 11 recreational dispensaries open for business in the Berkshires and many more in the ever-expanding Pioneer Valley Weed Belt.
Cannabis dispensaries are as much about the customer experience as they are about slinging product, of which there is a seemingly endless variety, meaning it can become difficult to pick just which one to go to. This snappy guide is designed to help navigate the local options, while providing some useful insights to help inform buying decisions.
501 A Dalton Avenue, Pittsfield
Serving medical patients as well as adult-use customers, Berkshire Roots is the region's everyperson's dispensary. It specializes in edible culture, and alongside products for sale, a range of cannabis-infused meals and feasts are posted online. The group even won Best Edible in the 2020 Commonwealth Cannabis Competition for its culinary efforts.
Product Range: Seed-to-sale flower from the dispensary's licensed grow facility means fresh, unique bud, and plenty of it. The group also creates in-house badder, chews, tinctures, and distillates, as well as sourcing complementary products, including cannabis and coffee-infused chocolate bars, from outside vendors.
Retail Experience: Pre-order online, in-store pick-up. Walk-ins also welcome.
Web Functionality: Brand new website as of this month. Slick and easy to order.
Customer Service: A classic dispensary experience. Customers wait in a large, socially distanced space while waiting to enter the showroom. Bud tenders know their stuff, so ask anything from the basics up to the most complex questions. Berkshire Roots also picks a local charity each month for customer donations through their "round-up at the register" scheme.
2 Larch Street, Pittsfield
The clue is in the name. Founded by three brothers from Berkshire County, Bloom Brothers is all about the flower, with over 40 strains for sale at any one time.
Product Range: An extensive menu of indica, sativa, and hybrid flowers, as well as one of the most comprehensive ranges of pre-rolls in the region. Tinctures, topicals, and edibles are also for sale. But it's Bloom Brothers seemingly endless selection of concentrates, hashes, and shatters that really makes the trip worthwhile.
Retail Experience: Pre-order online, in-store pick-up.
Web Functionality: Order function is front and center, but it gets a little clunky on mobile with the logo scrolling down the page.
Customer Service: The ethos is community first, so customers can feel at ease whatever their comfort level with cannabis products.
307 Main Street, Great Barrington
One of five female-owned dispensaries in Massachusetts, Calyx is named after the calyx part of the cannabis plant (the bit that gives birth to all the goodies). Its location in the heart of downtown Great Barrington also makes Calyx one of two dispensaries on the main drag.
Product Range: Alongside a robust flower menu, Calyx also stocks pre-rolls, vape cartridges, tinctures and topicals, as well as a comprehensive selection of edibles.
Retail Experience: Pre-order online, in-store pick-up.
Web Functionality: Slick, easy to navigate and order.
Customer Service: Opened in November, this dispensary is fresh, energetic, and eager to attract a customer base. And with only six customers permitted in the showroom at one time, Calyx dispenses knowledge with its flowers.
220 Housatonic Street, Lee
A store stocked full of cannabis goodies, Canna Provisions certainly lives up to its name. Part-owned by industry legend, Meg Sanders, this place is as much a cannabis experience as an outlet to grab a nug.
Product Range: Flower is particularly special at Canna Provisions, with some of its product coming from OG grower Greg "Chemdog" Krzanowski—credited as the inventor of Sour Diesel. Alongside the buds, the store stocks pre-rolls, vape cartridges, concentrates, edibles, tinctures, and topicals. Accessories are also for sale, just in case.
Retail Experience: Pre-order online, curbside pickup.
Web Functionality: Not the easiest to navigate, but the online ordering service is fully functional.
Customer Service: Wearing tie-dye shirts and loving it, the bud tenders at Canna Provisions are as likely to have a chat with you about the product as they are to sell it. Easygoing, reminiscent of a classic New England farm shop, if busy at times.
1375 North Main Street, Sheffield
The big one. Everything is contained on-site at The Pass, meaning seed-to-sale cultivation. In short, consumers can purchase unique, craft cannabis flower unavailable anywhere else.
Product Range: It's all about that flower. Here you can find sativas, indicas, and hybrids, with all flower grown, processed, and sold on-site. The Pass campus includes a new outdoor grow area, several outdoor greenhouses, a multi-level indoor facility, a lab, and kitchen for making products from flower grown in house. For those seeking something else, the Pass creates a range of homemade concentrates, vape carts, gummies, mints, pills, tincture, and topicals, as well as pre-rolled joints.
Retail Experience: Pre-order online, in-store pick-up.
Web Functionality: Quick, easy and to the point, while still remaining visually engaging.
Customer Service: Since everything is in-house, the Pass has an intimate knowledge of the product beyond the package. This is the place for those who want a specialist understanding of cannabis provenance.
783 South Main Street, Great Barrington
Aimed at the Millennial and Generation Z audience, Rebelle is a hip dispensary on the outskirts of Great Barrington. A female and minority-led business, Rebelle donates three percent of its net profits toward expunging low-level cannabis convictions and empowering its community.
Product Range: Flowers, pre-rolls, topicals, vapes, edibles, and tinctures make up a solid but standard menu, with an extensive range of accessories and branded swag also for sale.
Retail Experience: Pre-order online, curbside pick-up.
Web Functionality: The brand-heavy elements make navigation a little more challenging than competitors, but it is mobile responsive and the ordering service simple and intuitive.
Customer Service: Situated inside a historic farmhouse, Rebelle is reminiscent of an Apple store experience. Open seven days a week, the dispensary makes an effort to stress the importance of education with cannabis, so ask anything that's on your mind.
238 Main Street, Williamstown
Small but mighty, Silver Therapeutics is a dispensary on a mission, and the group's proprietary cannabis educational facility, City Farm, will soon be opening outside Boston in Roslindale.
Product Range: Flower is purchased wholesale from over 30 licensed cultivators, meaning that the range of strains is competitive and varies with the season. Pre-rolls, edibles (look out for the Liberty RSO Capsules) and cartridge vaporizers, including PAX refills, are also available. An impressive range of concentrates, salves, and tinctures adds an additional flourish to the menu.
Retail Experience: Pre-order, in-store pick-up.
Web Functionality: Responsive on both mobile and desktop. Be sure to use the intuitive pre-order function to make life even easier.
Customer Service: Intimate, slick, and with a speedy customer journey, Silver Therapeutics is where to go if you need quality, quickly. Just pull up into the seemingly endless parking lot and head in.
10 Callahan Drive, Pittsfield
Serving full recreational and medical menus, Temescal Wellness is open to anybody over the age of 21 seeking something green.Product Range: Another dispensary where homegrown flower is the main attraction. Alongside stinky, in-house buds, Temescal also sources content from recognized growers including Rythm and Sira Naturals. Pre-rolls, vapors, tinctures, and edibles make up the rest of the menu.
Retail Experience: Pre-order online, in-store pick-up.
Web Functionality: Not the easiest site to navigate, but the online ordering service is fully functional once located.
Customer Service: Easy in, easy out. Temescal does away with the frills and operates a to-the-point customer pick-up service.
394 Stockbridge Road, Great Barrington
As the first fully licensed outdoor grow operation on the East Coast, Theory Wellness is the region's OG, and the group's renewable, green tech growing is central to their cultivation practices. Theory also welcomes medical patients as well as adult use consumers.
Product Range: Flower, pre-rolls, vape cartridges, concentrates (including in-house badder and sap), as well as accessories and branded apparel. The dispensary also stocks out-of-house brands, including the edibles from Incredibles, as well as Theory's own cannabis-infused seltzer, Hi5.
Retail Experience: Pre-order online, in-store pick-up.
Web Functionality: Attractive, quick, and to the point. Easy to browse and order products.
Customer Service: Another location where knowledge is everything, customers are encouraged to ask questions and feel comfortable with the product.
Another of Great Barrington’s downtown dispensaries, Farnsworth Fine Cannabis Company is the the newest dispensary on the list. Opened in March 2021, Farnsworth specializes in full-flower filtered cannabis cigarettes.
Product Range: In addition to the full-flower cigarettes, which come in light, classic, and bold, Farnsworth offers flower by the gram and 22 different edibles, plus luxury smoking accessories, jewelry, fashion apparel, and vintage finds. There are 20 types of flower from half a dozen different cultivators, plus a selection of pre-rolls and concentrates, as well as topicals and concentrates.
Retail Experience: Pre-order online, with in-store pick-up. Walk-ins also welcome.
Web Functionality: The brand-heavy elements make navigation a little more challenging than competitors, but it is mobile responsive and the ordering service simple and intuitive.
Customer Service: Small, intimate, and back to basics, Farnsworth Fine Cannabis Company offers a high-end in-store browsing experience, but is also just as suitable a quick grab and go. Walk-ins welcome.
Great Barrington Dispensary
Retail Experience: Walk-ins welcome. You can also pre-order online and pick up in-store.
Web Functionality: Stream-lined, mobile-responsive site that is intuitive to navigate. Within categories, you can easily filter to find what you are looking for.
Customer Service: Elegant and curated, the historic setting of the Great Barrington Dispensary offers a charming twist to cannabis shopping.
