www.harborsidehealthcenter.com

1840 Embarcadero, Oakland CA. 94606 [Get Directions]

Phone: (510) 533-0146

Hours: 11am – 8pm Everyday

While planning my trip up to San Francisco to see Cypress Hill on 4/20 I obviously needed to figure out which dispensaries to hit up. I narrowed the list down to 3, Harborside which is in Oakland and 2 others that were in SF. Since I was flying into Oakland I decided to hit Harborside 1st and boy am I glad I did.

I flew in on 4/19 in anticipation of the holiday. I wanted to “stock up” the day before so I was ready to go bright and early on 4/20. My buddy picked me up from the airport in Oakland and we drove straight to Harborside Health Center. We had a bit of a hard time finding the place but that’s normal for my friend, he struggles a bit behind the wheel.

We arrived at Harborside which is pretty much right on the water about 20 minutes before they opened and to no surprise there was already about 30-40 people in line waiting to get in.

Fortunately they have a HUGE parking lot an we were able to roll right in and grab a spot. My buddy does not have a medical marijuana recommendation so he had to wait in the car which they were cool with.

I hopped out and went and got in line. 1 of the 3 security guards working the parking lot/line noticed I was holding my recommendation and asked if I was a 1st time patient. I said yes and was immediately escorted to the front of the line and within minutes was inside the lobby waiting to be admitted. The lobby was nothing special, just an area of the main building, which is huge by the way, kind of sectioned off. There is a door to the admitting office here as well.

As I was sitting in the lobby one of the girls that works there approached me and asked if she could give me the tour. This place is by far the biggest, most well organized and professional medical marijuana dispensary I have been to so far. The offer all kinds of massage and therapeutic classes and even have a room for grow seminars.

The clone area alone is as big as some entire dispensaries here in SoCal and reminded me of the garden department at Home Depot. This place was stocked!

After my tour I was escorted to the admitting office and verified in minutes. The entire process was pretty quick and painless.

Don’t let the above picture fool you, this place is busy all day every day. While they do have different stations to help customers, each station has the same marijuana, concentrates and edibles available. And as you would imagine, the selection is top notch. Not only do they have a ton of bud to choose from, but they actually send a sample of each strain they sell out to be scientifically tested so they can provide customers the actual thc level. Also the top shelf offerings come in cool glass jars which I really liked.

I’d say in total Harborside Health Center had 25+ strains to choose from with 5 of those being top shelf (True Blueberry x OG Kush, Chemdawg D, Chemdawg 4, Casey Jones and Purple Push) which went for $60/8th. I ordered up an 1/8th of each of the 5 best strains and was told by the lady helping me that I was limited to 4. I got 4 and a bunch of hash and oil (Afgooey Super Melt, Purple Diesel Pixie Stick, Maui Wowee Honey Bud, Blueberry Oil and Purps Oil) and since I spent so much money I was given a free gram of my choice which I used to get some of the 5th top shelf bud. So in the end it worked out. Reviews of everything are on the way fyi.

One big difference about Harborside is they allow 2 visits per day, which at first was not a big deal until I got back to my hotel room and realized they forgot to include my oil. Since they also did not charge me for it I was not mad, just bummed that I had no oil. But since I was allowed a second trip, we decided to go back. And since we were heading back we thought we might as well get some more $ from the atm, which we did. As you can see in the picture, there was no shortage of “smokeables”.

All in all I an can honestly say that on more than one occasion I thought to myself “okay, how can I afford to move up here from OC in order to be close enough to shop here daily”? that’s how good a business they are running. And in case you are wondering, we never even went to the other 2 dispensaries on my list. It just was not necessary.

I paid cash both times I went to Harborside and forgot to ask if they take credit cards. I am hoping they do as that would pretty much make them the perfect collective.

Take note dispensary owners, this is how it’s done.  –Chubbs

Grade: A+

Pros: Location, Parking, Security, Friendly/knowledgeable staff, prices, selection, size, 2 visits/day

Cons: Crowded

Weed Map:

View Harborside Health Center in a larger map

Related Reviews

4/20/2009 – Definitely one to remember, if my poor brain cells will let me.

Afgooey Super Melt (Coming Soon)

Purple Diesel Pixie Stick (Coming Soon)

True Blueberry x OG Kush (Coming Soon)

Random Reviews

J1

Ninja Turtle

G13 x Hash Plant

Bubblegum Haze

Tomorrow I’ll be back to normal and will get some reviews posted as well as the info. I promised regarding the upcoming MRS #1 (Marijuana Reviews Session #1). For now here is a sneak peek at the gear I came up on for 4/20. Everything you see in the picture will be reviewed as well as the dispensary it all came from. (Harbor Side)

What you are looking at above is 1/8 True Blueberry x OG Kush, 1/8 Chemdawg 4, 1/8 Chemdawg D, 1/4 Casey Jones, 1G Blueberry Oil, 1G Purps Oil, 1G Maui Wowee Honey Bud, 1G Afgooey Super Melt and 1 Purple Diesel Pixie Stick. Everything except 1/8 of Casey Jones was ‘consumed’.

Needless to say it was one of the best, if not THE best 4/20 I have ever had.

At 4:20 on 4/20 me and a homie were sitting in Buena Vista park in The Haight, 2 blocks away from the famed Haight/Ashbury intersection where we smoked 2 FAAAT Casey Jones joints that each had some Purple Diesel Pixie Stick cut up and sprinkled in. Definitely a day to remember.  –Chubbs

Edited April 29, 2009: There is not a 1/4 of Casey Jones in the pic (we did get a 1/4 though), it’s an 1/8 of Casey Jones and an 1/8 of Purple Push that I forgot to mention.  –Chubbs

Random Reviews

Sour Diesel

Juicy Fruit

Twizzla

Big Buddha Cheese

Party hard and look for an announcement regarding the first ever Marijuana Reviews group review session on Wednesday.  –Chubbs

Personally I am heading up to San Francisco to see one the most marijuana friendly bands ever, Cypress Hill at their annual 4/20 concert at The Fillmore.

My day will most likely start out with a serious wake-n-bake session made possible by some of Northern California’s finest gear provided by a few of the medical marijuana dispensaries I am going to visit. Obviously I will be ‘gearing up’ the day before as I can only imagine how busy the dispensaries are going to be on Monday.

After that I plan on hitting a couple of SF’s finest dining establishments and doing some damage to their stock. The energy is going to be needed as I plan on doing some serious laughing at the 4:20 showing of The Big Lebowski at the Red Vic Movie House. I’m really looking forward to being able to blaze in a movie theater for the first time. Should be fun.

After hanging with ‘The Dude’ for a couple hours, I will probably head back to my hotel room for lung damaging session in anticipation of what’s to come.

By 7:15 I’ll be in line at The Fillmore along side a few hundred loyal Cypress Hill fans that were responsible for the show selling out in record time. I’ve been to The Fillmore before and it’s always been an herb friendly environment but I have a feeling Monday is going to be 10x smokier than normal. I mean come on, it’s Cypress Hill on 4/20.

So let’s hear it. What does everyone have planned?  –Chubbs