Field Trip to High Fidelity Medical Cannabis Dispensary

Procuring the cannabis medicine Naturally Healing MD recommends in a dispensary is not like filling a prescription in a pharmacy. Even with a specific recommendation in hand, many patients find the experience of visiting a dispensary confusing and overwhelming.

To help ease this process, Naturally Healing MD periodically visits local dispensaries to survey their products and share insights with our patients on our findings. For our second dispensary field trip, we visited the Hi Fidelity Dispensary on Telegraph Avenue, just below the UC campus. A relatively new addition to the neighborhood, the dispensary was opened in May 2018 and is owned by Amoeba Music, which is located next door. Small, intimate and friendly, the record store ambiance extends to the dispensary, with vintage rock music and posters of iconic San Francisco bands.

Hi Fidelity is not a recreational dispensary insofar as a medical recommendation is not required to enter here. We were looking for cannabis products that fit a medicinal profile.

Products were conveniently displayed in cases, with labels that listed not only the standard information on brand, product name, type (sativa, indica, hybrid) and cost, but, uniquely, also included notes on flavor profile, reported effects, reported relief, and “why we love it,” featuring comments from the staff.

This is what we found during our November 2018 visit: (Please keep in mind that product availability is constantly changing, so what we report finding here may not be available in subsequent visits. )

High CBD /Low THC Flower

CBD Flower: None! We were very disappointed to discover that there was no high CBD flower in stock.

Low THC Flower: None! There were, however, several medium range offerings (10%-15% THC strains):

• Granddaddy Purple at 14.95% THC: $40 -1/8
• Sour Land at 14.13% THC: $52 – 1/8
• Mendo Breath at 12.18% THC: $35- 1/8
• Jack Herer, a strain popular with our patients, at 15.33% THC: $45 – 1/8

Tinctures and Edibles

Hi Fidelity carries Humboldt Apothecary products, which many of my patients use, including:

• Rest, $45 for 1 ounce
• Sweet Jane 20:1 – $70 for 1 ounce

They also offer high quality tinctures from Mary’s Medicinals. 



For those who miss Care By Design’s sublingual sprays (since they switched from a spray to dropper bottle), Hi Fidelity carries BREEZ sprays, including a Cinnamon CBD. Unfortunately, the label is misleading. Each spray delivers 5mg THC and 5 mg CBD, which is nearly twice the dose of the Care By Design’s 1:1 spray. Too bad they didn’t aim for the medicinal user!




Edibles and Sublinguals

Those looking for Kinslips should be able to find them at Hi Fidelity. 



Hi Fidelity also carries many Kiva products, including their Petra mints, which many of our patients use. 



Topicals

Hi Fidelity stocks products from Sweet ReLeaf and Mary’s Medicinals. Both companies offer topicals that have concentrations of more than 100mg of Cannabinoid (THC/CBD) per ounce.

Other Products

The dispensary also stocks body care and pet care products, as well as the full line of Mary’s Medicinals products.

Taxes

Total sales tax on all products in Berkeley is 27.5%. Those who have a county issued State of California card (issued by the county upon presentation of a medical recommendation and payment of a fee) pay lower, but still appreciable, taxes of 18.25%.

Discounts

Patients with a medical recommendation alone (i.e. from Naturally Healing MD) get a 2.5% discount on the base price of a product. Seniors (65 and over) get a 10% discount. Enlisting in the dispensary’s Rewards program gives a 3.5% discount off the cost of any product, which can be fulfilled at any time, without needing to reach a minimum purchase price.

Online Ordering

The dispensary offers Express Online Ordering on their website, with same-day pickup. That is a convenient service for those who know what they want. Note! Unlike other dispensaries, the Hi Fidelity Dispensary updates the product availability featured on its website in real time so you can know exactly what is available.

Parking

The Telegraph Channing Garage on the corner of Telegraph and Haste offers 1 hour of free parking.

Street parking can be difficult, depending on the time of day.

Hi Fidelity Dispensary
2465 Telegraph Avenue, Berkeley
Tel: 510-838-2400; www.hifigreen.com

Hi Fidelity is open 7 days a week from 10 AM – 9 PM.