Best Dispensaries in San Diego for Your Cannabis Needs
San Diego is known for its beautiful weather, its spectacular surfing, and its stunning sunsets. But, since 2018, America’s Finest City has also become known for its extensive selection of cannabis dispensaries, offering a wide variety of loose cannabis flower, edibles, drinkables, and concentrates.
With more than 50 dispensaries in the city, it has become easier to purchase legal cannabis than ever. Yet, ironically, with so many choices, it has become more challenging to figure out which is the best cannabis dispensary in San Diego.
One of the most successful and well-known San Diego dispensaries is Torrey Holistics. Torrey Holistics is a dispensary located in Sorrento Valley, San Diego. It was the first dispensary in San Diego to receive its adult-use recreational license in 2018. And overtime, it has become one of the best and most reliable dispensaries and delivery services in San Diego.
Torrey Holistics Cannabis Dispensary and Weed Delivery, Sorrento Valley
Torrey Holistics, initially founded in 2016 as a medical marijuana dispensary, now caters to both medical and adult-use, recreational cannabis consumers from neighboring communities. Torrey Holistics is attractive to San Diegans because of its clean and friendly store and selection of over 300 safe, high-quality cannabis products, including traditional flower, vapes, topicals, tinctures, edibles, drinks, and more. Furthermore, they run daily discounts, including early bird specials, first-time patient deals, and senior and veteran discounts.
Torrey Holistics on Sunday, February 14, 2021.(Photo by Sandy Huffaker/Torrey Holistcs)
In addition to Torrey Holistics’ extensive inventory of products, it also gives back to the community where it does business. Their community outreach programs include a Peanut Butter Drive to benefit Got Your Back San Diego, community clean-ups, and a monthly Compassion Program, which donates cannabis products to medically qualified Veterans.
Torrey Holistics is one of the best dispensaries for first timers and new consumers because it provides each customer one-on-one experience with a well-trained and knowledgeable cannabis consultant. In this way, customers, who do not know what they need, can learn about different products and cannabinoids.
Other Notable Cannabis Dispensaries in San Diego
While we certainly believe that Torrey Holistics is the best dispensary in San Diego, especially for consumers in Sorrento Valley, La Jolla, Del Mar, and surrounding areas, we’d be remiss if we didn’t highlight some of the other cannabis dispensaries that might be near you.
Medmen Dispensary, Sorrento Valley
Another well-known dispensary in San Diego is Med Men, which advertises “an experience similar to an Apple store.” It has a sleek red-and-white color scheme and tables with tablets that allow you to browse the dispensary’s inventory. In addition to nearly 80 cannabis brands, they have their own proprietary products, MedMen Red, for flower, prerolls, and vapes, and LuxLyte, a line of lotions, drops, vape pens, topical sprays, and soft gels.
Although Med Men started strong and gained popularity, the company is facing numerous scandals and is closing stores throughout California. A recent article from New Cannabis Ventures highlights the struggles Medmen is facing, declaring “MedMen has been a terrible stock…” that the company is “evaporating.”
THCSD: The Healing Center of San Diego
THCSD, like Torrey Holistics, started as a medical marijuana dispensary in 2016 and now serves the adult-use cannabis population. It is located in Mission Valley and offers many flower options, edibles, concentrates, and CBD products. It also offers daily deals and a first-time cannabis patient discount. Known as an old-school dispensary, it has a reputation for quality customer service.
Cookies Dispensary, Founded by Berner (Gilbert Anthony Milam Jr.)
Cookies Dispensary may be one of the most well-known in Southern California, courtesy of its CEO and founder, Berner. Since Cookies’ inception, Berner, a rapper, artist, and entrepreneur, has been the face of the Cookies brand, bringing its genetics into the spotlight.
In addition to selling its Cookies strains, Cookies Mission Valley also has a large selection of other brand-named edibles, vapes, and concentrates. It offers daily deals on brand-named products and provides a first-time customer discount.
Golden Bloom Dispensary
Goldn Bloom is a family-owned dispensary in the urban neighborhood of Golden Hills. It is known for its commitment to breaking stigmas around cannabis use and has had a loyal following since it opened in 2018.
It serves both the recreational and medical cannabis communities, and its range of products is diverse. It offers both first-time discounts, happy hour discounts and daily deals.
Cannabis 21+ (formerly SDRC)
Cannabis21+ is a dispensary formerly known as San Diego Recreational Cannabis (SDRC). It is a family-owned and veteran-owned business that has expanded to four locations outside San Diego. The family decided to drop the “San Diego” from the name to avoid confusion. The dispensary has a large inventory of products such as flower, topicals, edibles, vapes, tinctures, pet products, CBD, seeds, clones, and accessories.
The main point of feedback customers leave is that Cannabis 21 have made it easy to figure out the cost of each item and what you will spend by including the taxes in the price they display on their website, so what you see is what you pay.
Ubrn Leaf Cannabis Dispensary
Urbn Leaf has five locations from Vista to San Ysidro. All their shops are sleek and modern, and they sell a wide variety of non-flower products, including lubes, suppositories, and salves.
Although Urbn Leaf has many locations, which makes it easy to find one of their dispensaries, you can expect a long line almost any time of day.
Harbor Collective
Even though Harbor Collective only has 3.8 stars on Yelp, the dispensary still has a loyal following for its old-school dispensary approach. Its inventory includes a selection of products from every category, including edibles, flower, concentrates, topicals, tinctures, and accessories. Harbor Collective is open for in-store shopping daily from 7 am–9 pm, and there is usual plenty of parking.
A Green Alternative
One of San Diego’s oldest veteran-owned dispensaries, A Green Alternative, has been a staple of South Bay San Diego since it opened in 2016. It has many loyal medical customers who benefit from A Green Alternative’s selection of topicals, tinctures, and high-dosed edibles tailored for the medical consumer.
Additionally, in partnership with PharmLabs, A Green Alternative tests for safety screening and potency analysis, with information not only on their product labels
Klover Marijuana Dispensary
One of the newest San Diego dispensaries is Klover, located in Little Italy, off the I-5 freeway and near the SD Airport. It is known for its open floor plan, street art, and overall vibe. The building boasts several colorful murals painted by Mexican-American street artist Panca.
Customers who snap a selfie with one of her murals, post it on Instagram and show it to the budtender get 10% off their purchase.
March and Ash Cannabis Dispensary and Delivery Service
March & Ash opened its first store in 2018 and now has six locations across San Diego County. Moast of their boutique-like stores have flower bars, CBD rooms, and clone walls, depending on location.
And, if you’re toying with the idea of growing your own, check out their selection of seeds and clones from Oakland-based Purple City Genetics.
Mankind Dispensary & Delivery, Miramar
Located in Miramar, near the MCAS Miramar Base, Mankind is an “old school”, small but mighty dispensary. In its small showroom, it houses cannabis brands like Stiiizy, CBX, and Raw Garden.
This dispensary also prides itself on being self-serve, which means its products are out in the open, rather than locked up in cases. Note: This experience can be a bit overwhelming if you’re a new consumer and don’t have a clue of what you’re looking for. Mankind is open daily from 7 am–9 pm for in-store shopping.
Hikei Cannabis, City Heights
Tucked in an industrial corner of the city, in the City Heights community near Golden Hill, Hikei, looks like a hipsterized garage, and boasts a wide selection of products, as well as friendly and experienced budtenders. Additionally, it has an onsite grow, which adds to its urban appeal and its cool factor. It also allows customers to view Hikei’s in-house flower, while it is cultivating.
For those looking for a little extracurricular knowledge, Hikei also has a regularly updated blog with consumer-friendly posts like “Best Smoke Spots in San Diego,” and, “The Ultimate Guide for gummies”.
Recapping the best Cannabis Dispensaries in San Diego
The San Diego cannabis scene certainly has grown and changed since 2018, when cannabis became recreationally legal. And now with over 50 dispensaries and delivery services to choose from finding the right dispensary to meet your individual needs can be challenging and definitely a process.
Torrey Holistics on Sunday, February 14, 2021.(Photo by Sandy Huffaker/Torrey Holistcs)
And when it comes to navigating the vast world of cannabis choices, it’s crucial to find a reliable, knowledgeable, and accommodating dispensary in San Diego.
We invite you to visit the dispensaries that we have reviewed. We hope that our reviews will help you to find your perfect cannabis products. And, we invite you to visit Torrey Holistics, which strives to give every customer a personalized and informative experience, each and every time they visit.
