Your first dispensary visit in California.

1. Bring a valid ID

Licensed stores check ID before you enter the sales area. You need:

• For adult-use purchases: to be 21 or older, with a valid government photo ID. That can be a driver’s license or state ID, a military ID, or a U.S. or foreign passport.
• For medicinal purchases: to be 18 or older, with a valid government ID plus either a valid physician’s recommendation or a county-issued medical marijuana ID card.

The ID has to be valid, so an expired card won’t work. The Set is licensed for both adult-use and medicinal retail, under state license C10-0001207-LIC.

2. Make sure the store is licensed

Every licensed California retailer must post a state QR code certificate near its entrance, where you can scan it from outside. You can also look up any business on the Department of Cannabis Control’s license search. Licensed stores sell only products that have passed state lab testing.

3. What happens inside

After the ID check, a staff member, often called a budtender, can walk you through the menu. It helps to say how you plan to use cannabis (smoke, vape or eat it), how experienced you are, and what you’d like to spend.

Products come sealed in tamper-evident, child-resistant packaging, and your purchase leaves the store in an opaque bag. Many stores, including The Set, also let you order ahead online and pick up in store.

4. Know the daily limits

Adult-use and medicinal limits can’t be combined to go over either limit.

5. Expect taxes at checkout

California charges a 15% cannabis excise tax on retail sales, and sales tax applies on top of that. Medicinal patients who show a valid county medical marijuana ID card and a government ID are exempt from sales tax, but not from the excise tax. A physician’s recommendation alone doesn’t qualify for the exemption. If you’re comparing prices, ask whether they include tax.

6. Start low and go slow

The state’s safe-use brochure suggests that new consumers try flower under 20% THC, or about 5 mg of THC or less in an edible. Inhaled cannabis takes effect within minutes. Edibles can take up to two hours to begin working and up to four hours to reach full effect, so wait before having more.

Not sure where to start? Our guides to reading a label and to edibles are a good next step.

7. Getting home and where to use it

• Keep cannabis sealed in the car. An opened package or loose flower belongs in the trunk.
• Don’t use cannabis while driving or riding in a vehicle. Driving under the influence of cannabis carries the same potential penalties as driving under the influence of alcohol.
• Using cannabis in public places, or smoking it anywhere tobacco smoking is banned, isn’t allowed. You also can’t take cannabis across state lines or use it on federal land.
• At home, store it in the original child-resistant package, out of reach of children and pets. Our storage guide has more tips.

Visiting The Set

We’re at 2110 Hillhurst Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90027, with free customer parking and lot entrances on Hillhurst Avenue and Ambrose Avenue. First-time customers get 30% off their first purchase, and online orders can use code FTP30. See hours and directions or this week’s deals.