The Muchie Report: A non-Munchie Report on Recreational Marijuana in Southern Illinois: My experience thus far.

The Munchie Report: A non-Munchie Report on The State of Recreational Marijuana in Southern Illinois: My experience thus far. | By Penelope Puff

Well kind of…….. Here is what it's really like buying cannabis in Southern Illinois.

Now I haven’t experienced Northern Illinois dispensaries so if you have some insight from the Chicago area, please leave us some comments, we would very much like to read them. As far as Southern Illinois and the greater St.Louis area (Where I live), well, it’s quite sad, really. There is only one dispensary outside of St.Louis in Collinsville IL. 

Day One: From day one and until now the line was literally down the street! Hundreds of people lined up to legally purchase weed. So many in fact that it was quite comical to drive by. It looked like a concert or sporting event about to start. 

Not wanting to get in the middle of that mess without doing our research, we did some research. The cost online for flower was $60 an eighth. Eesh. The selection of other cannabis products is piss poor. Three types of flower ($50 an eighth of shake with a one-eighth limit), 1 vape, 1 concentrate, and 4 edibles. Two of those edibles being mints. 

They definitely made their money though! So many people lined up for these high prices and low selections that they set up barriers for the line and some ever crafty entrepreneurs parked several food trucks outside. HAHAHAHAHAHA. Good thinking. 

Day after day we drove by on the highway just flabbergasted at the line. We have spent many moons in Colorado and California and know better. We’re just going to wait until the price comes down…..and the line. 

We travel to the very southern tip of Illinois regularly and decided to check out a couple of dispensaries in that region to see if anything was different. The area is much less populated and there were two dispensaries along the way. We figured we might get out of the lines if not the high prices. 

Nope. The first stop was The Harbory in Marion, IL. The line went around the building. Next! We tried to Thrive in Anna, IL and to our surprise, no line!!! 

Unfortunately, we found out why, no flower. Thrive is an absolutely lovely dispensary. Really kudos to the design team. All Thrive had to offer was a very small selection of edibles and maybe one or two of them had THC at all. They also offered a couple of vapes and concentrates at ridiculous prices. We left without purchasing anything. Man, we are spoiled having family in the Colorado area.

Another fun development is that Illinois is keeping the supply low. We drove by the dispensary last week and there wasn’t a line. They ran out of flower. That’s a bummer. 

In conclusion, YAY for Illinois being the 11th state to legalize recreationally! Boo for it being expensive with a super limited selection and very few dispensaries in the southern half of the state. I did read that a few more will be open by March which may make the market better for consumers. I’ll keep you updated!

As for now, make sure you bring a ton of money, have a lot of free time, and low expectations if you plan to shop for weed in southern Illinois.