For love of cannabis

You may have seen 1 Love Wellness Center’s commercials while watching Judge Judy or reruns of Cops. The ones where two old geezers are golfing or fishing, and one starts complaining about his aches and pains and the other recommends 1 Love. It is like any other commercial that you see on television for any number of things that ail you, but these commercials are for medical cannabis.

If five years ago someone told you that there would be commercials like that airing on TV, most people would have laughed. But no joke: The commercials are aimed at an older, mature clientele, an age group that 1 Love Wellness embraces.

Located in a former car dealership lot on El Camino Boulevard, right off of the Capitol City Freeway, 1 Love is one of the 39 original dispensaries in the city of Sacramento.

It’s also definitely one of the most safe and secure dispensaries in town. Its car-lot-sizeparking area is surrounded by a 7-foot tall, white wrought iron fence, and patrolled by big guys who look like they go to church with their grandmothers every Sunday. The dispensary also provides wheelchair service for customers.

Inside, 1 Love still looks sort of looks like an auto dealership—that is until you get into the dispensary room itself, where everything changes.

It has literally a supermarket shelf of edibles, from candy to cereal to hot sauce, and seven different brands of cannabis-based flavored sodas. It also carries the amazing Sensi Tea, and the delicious all-natural California Tea. Just about anything that you need to consume or grow medical cannabis is available for purchase, too, including clones, growth products, seeds, pipes, vaporizers, books and DVDs.

The dispensary area is divided nicely into four budtender stations, manned by knowledgeable tenders who know their product and show genuine concern toward the patients. Chopsticks and lighted magnifiers at every station makes it easy to eye what you are buying, and all the meds are tested for THC and cannabidiol levels.

Plus, on this visit, all the classics are there: Cherry AK-47, Purple Urkel, OG Kush, Hindu Kush, Purple Diesel, as well as some specialized herb, such as the high-CBD, pain-relieving Harlequin, the old-school Hawaiian Island Sweet Skunk and 1 Loves’ exclusive best-seller Cinderella 99.

The hashish selection is varied and labeled for THC and CBD concentrations, so you know what you are buying, and 1 Love also has exclusive Triangle hashish and its own stamped Love Button hashish.

Harlequin is this writer’s favorite pain-relieving herb. It is difficult to grow, and not particularly potent or flavorsome, but 1 Love’s strain was good-tasting and stronger. Its Hawaiian Island Sweet Skunk offers a mellow, happy medicated feeling without subtracting IQ points.

And, having just sampled the best-selling Cinderella 99, I have to admit that it took me an hour to write this sentence. Be warned.

Interestingly, 1 Love has a “no questions asked” return policy. If you do not like what you got, take it back and get something else.