It was a very close competition, but Earth's Healing came out on top among our readers. The southside dispensary carries a wide variety of everything you'd expect: fresh bud, edibles, vapes, shatter and all the rest. They sure must be doing something right: They're opening a new location at River Road and Stone Avenue this weekend. Big congrats on the expansion.
Second Place: D2
Third Place: Green Halo
Best Budtender
Tall PaulTall Paul has been with Earth's Healing for nearly three years and feels, after stints working as a tech and other jobs in healthcare, that he's finally found his callling. As he puts it, "The job found me. I didn't seek it out." He enjoys having the chance to help patients who come through the doors looking for relief. "I am honored to be able to give high-quality meds to great people," he says. "I love my patients, and I love everyone. I want people to be happy and enjoy their time on this earth."
Second Place: C.J. Duke (Nature Med)
Third Place: Arsenio Aguirre (Earth's Healing)
Best Delivery Service
Earth's HealingSometimes, you get a case of couchlock and just don't want to drive to the dispensary. Fortunately, many of the local dispensaries will deliver right to your doorstep. Our readers picked Earth's Healing as the top service. (Well, after we disqualified some of the illegal delivery services, anyway.) They deliver between 1 and 6 p.m., so get your order in between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. and your medicine will arrive faster than an Amazon package. There's a $10 fee if you're spending less than $100, a $5 fee if you're spending between $101 and $200, and it's free if you spend more than $200. Exact change only!
Second Place: Desert Bloom
Third Place: Green Halo
Best Certification Center
Tumbleweeds Health CenterIf you're ready to get legal—or stay that way ahead of your card's one-year expiration—you can make your way to midtown's Tumbleweeds Health Center. The friendly and welcoming staff will walk you through all the steps and teach you all about the healing properties of marijuana. It will cost you $249, which includes various government costs. (And it will be an extra $50 if you don't have your medical records and need an evaluation from one of Tumbleweed's docs.) It may sound steep at first glance, but it's a whole lot cheaper than getting busted. And if you can't get out of the house, they even make house calls.
Second Place: Dr. Reeferalz
Best MMJ Doc
Heather MorosoHeather Moroso's work with HIV/AIDS patients has taught her a lot about compassion. And that compassion translates into her work as a naturopath who helps patients get certified as legal medical marijuana cardholders. She's pioneering the push to remove the stigma from marijuana use—and she's doing it her way. As she told the Weekly last year: "It's okay to go against the grain. Sometimes the greatest ideas in the world come that way."
Second Place: George Huggins
Third Place: Joshua Reillly
Best Waiting Room
HarvestRemember when the late Tom Petty—may he rest in peace—said that the waiting is the hardest part? It doesn't have to be so hard at Harvest, where you can gaze through a big glass window at the various wares for sale in the showroom. This Phoenix-based dispensary is a new player in town, but is already impressing our readers with a low-key but comfortable waiting room.
Second Place: Earth's Healing
Third Place: Green Halo
Best Customer Service
Earth's Healing
2075 E. Benson Highway
The steady stream of customers tells you that Earth's Healing has a great reputation in the medical marijuana community. The friendly and knowledgeable staff is always ready to serve your needs and can guide you through the options you have when you choose your medicine.
Second Place: Green Halo
Third Place: Tumbleweeds
Earth's Healing
2075 E. Benson Highway
To ensure freshness, Earth's Healing budtenders weigh out nuggets in front of patients instead of selling pre-packed bags of weed. So when the bud in those jars runs low, the remaining bud is sent back to the warehouse to be packed into one-gram pre-rolls that cost $10. Depending on the supply, you can sometimes buy strain-specific—indica, sativa or hybrid—and sometimes it's just dealer's choice.
Second Place: Green Halo
Third Place: Desert Bloom
NatureMed
5390 W. Ina Road
Marana's NatureMed offers new patients their choice of three specials with your first purchase: If you want to keep it simple, you can get a free, fat, one-gram pre-roll; if you're more interested in concentrate, you can BOGO yourself a free 500mg Golden Vape with the purchase of one; or if you're more into edibles, you can get a 30mg honey stick or hard candy.
Second Place: Earth's Healing
Third Place: Desert Bloom
Desert Bloom
8060 E 22nd St., suite 108
Desert Bloom has a number of specials every day: If you're an early riser or a late-night shopper, you can take advantage of the Wake N Bake discount of 15 percent on all concentrates between 7 a.m. and 10 a.m. and 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. A purchase of four pre-rolls always gets you a fifth for free. You can celebrate your birthday with the gift of a free gram. And if you're a senior, veteran or student, you always get 10 percent off regularly priced product.
Second Place: Earth's Healing
Third Place: Green Halo
Best Indica Strains
Chronic ThunderChronic Thunder is a mix of two strains: Chronic and Alaskan Thunder Fuck. The end result has a strong and earthy bouquet with hints of diesel and promises to put you into couch lock after smoking, so plan to set up your Netflix and chill if this is your jam.
Second Place: Larry OG
Third Place: Redberry Kush
Best Sativa Flower
Green CrackA descendent of Skunk No. 1 flavored with hints of citrus, Green Crack is a real crowd-pleaser for the Sativa crowd seeking a lot of chatter, laughs and mental stimulation.
Second Place: Gorilla Glue #4
Third Place: Sour Diesel
Best Hybrid Flower
Blue DreamBlue Dream, a cross between indica strain Blueberry and sativa strain Haze, has a sweet berry flavor that will adjust to both feed your head and relax your body. No surprise to see that this rising superstar is the favorite hybrid of Tucsonans this year.
Second Place: Grape LA
Third Place: Jenny Kush
Best CBD Flower
Arianna #4Arianna #4 is the creation of Nature's AZ Medicine & Growth Management. It's a pungent bud high in CBD, which means it does a lot to ease your aches while still allowing you to keep a clear head, so it's no surprise that it comes out on top with our readers, as well as capturing top honors for Best Dispensary CBD flower at the 2017 Errl Cup.
Second Place: Champatsu
Third Place: Critical Mass
Best Baked Edible
SublimeSublime infuses its gourmet brownies, lemon bars, sweet and savory pretzels, rice crispy treats and other products with a house-made concentrate that ensures a potent delivery of medicine. Just be careful that when the munchies hit, you don't try to eat another one of your dosed brownies—you don't want to end up curled up on the couch all night.
Second Place: Flourish
Third Place: Green Halo
Best Candy Edible
Baked Bros GummiesBaked Brothers sticks with what they know: a line of hand-infused gummies, peach rings and watermelon rings, both sweet and sour. The candies are hand-infused with hash oil rather than sprayed with THC, so the quality is always solid. This could be the sweetest buzz you'll ever have.
Second Place: Cannabliss Medical Gummies
Third Place: PURE caramels
Best Liquid Edible
Baked BrosBeside the candy treats, Baked Bros also crafts a pourable THC syrup that can speed up the effects as compared to the typical edible. It comes in a variety of flavors, including grape, watermelon and cherry, and is made with all-natural fruit extracts without artificial ingredients. It's little wonder that the folks at Phoenix New Times gave this a Best of Phoenix award in 2016.
Second Place: Newtons
Third: House of Jane infused teas
Best Topical
Chronic Health Pain Releaf OintmentIt's really amazing how much pain relief comes from using Pain Re-Leaf Ointment. We've heard rave reviews of vanishing muscle soreness with the application of this stuff and people suffering chronic pain often discover they feel better than they have in years.
Second Place: CDB Wellness
Third Place: iLava Touch
Best Sativa Concentrate
Agent Orange SauceConcentrates are where it's at these days in the weed community—and Agent Orange Sauce tops the sativa varieties among Tucson Weekly readers this year.
Second Place: Earth Extracts
Third Place: Need a Sativa
Best Indica Concentrate
Chronic ThunderGood ol' Chronic Thunder is a favorite among sativa strains, so it's hardly a surprise to find that its concentrated form is also a hit.
Second Place: MPX
Third Place: DB Citrus Berry
Best Hybrid Concentrate
Grape LAWhile making a concentrate will remove the terpines that give Grape LA its unique flavor, the effects are still spectacular: an indica-heavy high that will keep your body relaxed.
Second Place: Larry OG Shatter
Third Place: Moe OG
Best CBD Concentrate
TimelessFor those days when you want some relief from pain but still need a clear head, Timeless' CBD concentrate is just what the doctor ordered.
Second Place: DB Shirley Temple Shatter
Best Vape Pen
Timeless boasts that it creates cannabis concentrate that is solvent free and simply flavored with natural terpines—which means you're getting as close to the plant as you can in a concentrate. The emphasis on quality has clearly won over Tucson Weekly readers.
Second Place: High Grate
Third Place: Earthvape.
Our thanks to Leafly.com for the help in understanding the lineage of these strains.