Spotlight: Doctor’s Orders Portland Dispensary
In 2019 the West Coast is littered with dispensaries of all sizes and styles, and major cities like Portland are especially saturated. It can be hard to find a shop with good prices as well as quality flower and concentrates, and many stores are plagued by uneducated or rude staff. Buried in the northeast corner of Portland, a short drive from downtown portland or PDX Airport stands one of the city’s many hidden gems, Doctor’s Orders Portland Dispensary, a modest independent shop that excels in all categories.
This weed shop isn’t particularly large, it stands in a repurposed old house on the busy 82nd avenue with just a few parking spots. Once you walk in, it’s a quick ID check at the security window and you’ll be buzzed in to the cozy showroom, a relatively small space filled with products anywhere you look. The main cases are filled with flower in four different pricing tiers ranging from “Bronze” to “Platinum,” and printed menus detail pricing for everything in the store. The buds are weighed out deli-style on the counter in front of you, and the friendly staff doesn’t make you feel rushed if you want to take your time with the selection of 25+ strains.
On this particular visit, we tried the Cookie Dawg (grown by Ripcity Roots) as well as the Dragon Candy, (grown by Green Dragon Gardens,) both off the Platinum Shelf, of course! The budtender was nice enough to allow a split 1/8th between two flavors, and at $35 out the door I couldn’t resist. Each strain displayed ridiculous trichome coverage, amazing terpene profiles, and impressive test scores at 26% and 31% THC respectively. The final tests of course, are the curing and smokability…and both passed with flying colors for both strains. They easily broke down but were still nice and sticky with good moisture. Props to the people who grew these. We didn’t mess with the budget stuff, but it looked like a solid selection of some of Portland’s cheapest ounces in the $74-89 range.
We’re both flower guys here at Get Em High, but we know the concentrate and edible selection of a dispensary is definitely a key element to the experience. This place did pretty good in that regard, with several brands of cartridges on hand, as well as several brands and varieties of BHO in all forms including shatter, honeycomb wax, live resin, and of course the instagram favorite diamonds and sauce. They didn’t have much in the way of solventless extracts at the moment unfortunately, but luckily we were mainly in the market for some flower this time. There’s definitely shops around with larger concentrate selections, especially at some of the bigger shops, but Doctor’s Orders Portland has the basics covered for the average dabber.
We were in and out in about 15 minutes, with no major delays at any point in the process. When asked if there’s ever a line or wait, the budtender took the opportunity to plug their happy hour specials for the first and last two hours of each day, stating that those times can get a bit hectic, but that it’s “usually pretty chill.” All in all, it really was a good experience. We’ve seen some nicer stores, better parking lots, and larger selections of household name brands, but what’s lacking in those departments is more than made up for with excellent flowers, a well curated menu of edibles and extracts, and most importantly a patient, friendly and educated staff. If you’re visiting Portland, we definitely recommend stopping by Doctor’s Orders Portland on your way into town from the airport. We highly doubt you’ll be disappointed.
