One of the greatest things you can do for your fellow human is a simple but underrated act: fulfilling a shopping list for them, and bringing the haul to their front door. Amazon made themselves a quadrillion dollars by following that model, but they are not yet able to take orders for cannabis. (Mark my words, that is coming, and Amazon will find a way to offer a “Pot Prime” program.)
In the days of the unregulated marketplace, a great weed dealer would come to your home with cannabis; sometimes there was a selection (“I got some of the lime green stuff, or there’s this stuff with all the red hairs, which is what gets you high”), and sometimes there was not. But there wasn’t a website from which you could select various products, and have a guaranteed window for delivery.
This month, Bay Area-based cannabis delivery service Eaze began operations in Portland, and they asked if I would be interested in trying it, and—full disclosure—that they would deposit $75 worth of credit for me to use. Who would say yes to just a thing? I’ll take “Late-winter Pacific Northwest cannabis columnist with increasingly shut-in tendencies” for $500, Alex.
I signed up on Eaze’s website by completing some basic info, including my address to confirm I was in their delivery zone, and submitting a cell phone pic of my ID and my OMMP Caregiver card. Eaze is designed for both adult-use (i.e., recreational) and medical customers, but the 20 percent adult-use tax is waived if you qualify and register as a member of the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program (OMMP).
Three minutes later, I was confirmed, and logged in with my new account. Southeast Woodstock’s Kaleafa dispensary is Eaze’s sole local source as of this writing, although Eaze assures me they plan to add additional partners as their rollout continues. For now, though, Kaleafa offers a great selection of products, with eighths of flower from $8 to $40 from 10 different, well-regarded farms. Concentrates ranged from $15 to $25 a gram, along with a sizable selection of topicals, edibles, and specialty items such as capsules.
Vape pens and cartridges—including my preferred pen, the PAX Era—are also offered, so I selected two Era pods for $40 each. If I had sampled any of the flower on the menu prior, I would have considered ordering some. But I still like to smell and see my flower before purchase. The $40 price tag is what I would have paid elsewhere.
My delivery fee of $5 was waived for my first order, and I was charged the $1 fee which comes with each order. I provided a credit card, and my order was confirmed. They determined it would be 25 to 35 minutes until my driver arrived, and reminded me I needed my OMMP card and ID when I met the driver at my door.
Twenty-six minutes later, my driver arrived, checked my credentials, and handed me my order. (In retrospect, I should have tipped him, but I was high and giddy, so I suck. Tip all your service industry providers, especially your delivery drivers.) The order was correct, and it arrived in less time that it would have taken me to go out, buy it at a dispensary, and return home.
Eaze only delivers to homes and not hotels/parking lots/sidewalk restaurant tables, and the authorized buyer must be on site to present ID and sign for their purchase, which must remain within possession limits (so they won’t be coming over 18 times per day, Captain Sketchy). The delivery limitations are so they stay compliant with existing rules about cannabis delivery that already exist for both Portland dispensaries that deliver and curated-cannabis-box delivery services such as Green Box. Eaze delivers between 9 am and 8 pm.
Going to your favorite dispensary should be a pleasure and not a chore, but there are many reasons why home delivery is beneficial, from convenience to medical necessity. Eaze is a welcome addition to the existing options that exist in Portland for experiencing the still slightly surreal pleasures of having a shopping list of cannabis products handed to you at your front door.
Aren’t there ethical concerns about accepting free gifts from the businesses you’re reviewing?
Is this a common practice in your reporting? How many times?
Euphonius, its common journalistic practice to disclose if you have received compensation in some form from the brand for which you are reporting on. That’s what “full disclosure” means, that I am disclosing fully that Eaze supplied me with the credit I used to make a purchase. If they had not, I would have expensed it to The Mercury, which would have been a reimbursement but wouldn’t have required a full disclosure notification. Thanks for reading, and happy first day of spring!
You didn’t answer the question. Are you saying the every single time you’ve received a gift from a company you’re reviewing, you’ve included this same sort of glib “full disclosure” remark within the review?
And you say that that’s The Mercury’s “common journalistic practice” for all its reviews?