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Green in the Desert: Two Tucson Dispensaries Setting a New Bar for Cannabis Retail and Premium Products
Green in the Desert
Two Tucson Dispensaries Setting a New Bar for Cannabis Retail and Premium Products
By Sabrina Meyer | Operations Support Specialist at the Downtown & D2 Dispensaries
Founded by a first-generation immigrant and a veteran, the Downtown Dispensary and its sister dispensary, D2, were designed to offer premium marijuana retail experiences—and clearly, they have succeeded. Voted “Best Marijuana Dispensary” in Tucson Weekly’s Best of Tucson® in 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2019, the Downtown Dispensary has been providing safe, affordable plant-based products to medical cannabis patients since 2013, and adult-use customers since 2021. D2 has been serving Tucson’s eastside since August 2017. Both shops and their brands have become linchpins of the Tucson community, providing jobs for more than 250 people.
Twenty-First Century Cannabis Retail
The Downtown & D2 Dispensaries are well-known for providing outstanding and fast customer service. Welcoming staff create an environment where cannabis novices, medical patients and seasoned consumers alike can ask questions and learn valuable information about which plant-based products meet their needs.
Both dispensaries are a part of a family of brands launched with an Arizona-centric approach to the cannabis business. With multi-state operators and huge North American corporations proclaiming themselves the future of the marijuana industry, Downtown and D2 Dispensaries remain focused on building their brands right here in Arizona. “After eight years of operational experience in our state, we understand this market well enough to continue scaling our retail operations at a local and state level,” said founder Moe Asnani. “We feel no need to spread ourselves thin by trying to break into East Coast or Midwest markets. Right now, we’re committed to growing this company here in the state with communities we know best.”
From Curators to Makers
Downtown and D2 Dispensaries don’t just curate and sell cannabis products at their dispensary locations—they’ve developed their own brands, with cannabis product lines that they grow and manufacture themselves. “We have one foot in the retail space and the other in the cultivation and product manufacturing space, so we end up with dual insights into making top-shelf products that consumers actually want and need,” said Asnani.
Downtown’s house of brands includes iLAVA, an exclusive line of vapes, extracts and topicals, that has become one of Arizona’s most popular product lines. All iLAVA cannabis extracts are solvent-free and made with naturally derived terpenes; the Entourage line includes new products formulated with rare cannabinoids like CBG, CBN and CBC. Concentrate aficionados are already raving about the new premium vape extract line, Molecular, which is currently only available here in Tucson.
Green Packaging for Green Products
Packaging waste is a major concern in the cannabis space. How can producers make packaging that is child and pet-safe, preserves the product but doesn’t clog the landfill? EcoPride is a brand created by Moe Asnani and Chip Boyden that develops sustainable cannabis product hardware and packaging using molded fiber pulp, glass containers and bamboo instead of plastic. They have also partnered with an Arizona-based materials science company to add more bio-based products are designed to be compostable and recyclable while extending product shelf life.
iLAVA and other cannabis product lines are already incorporating EcoPride sustainable packaging wherever possible. iLAVA vape packaging is now 90 percent plastic-free, while Magma & Lumen extracts all come packaged in glass containers.
Zenzona, their line of vegan cannabis gummies (harder to find and make than you think) is also packaged sustainably in eco-friendly rice paper bags with biodegradable labels printed in-house, as well as being handcrafted right here in Tucson. Particularly in the Arizona heat, most edibles will melt or degrade, but Zenzona gummies’ pectin base means they maintain their form and consistency in a variety of temperatures.
The popular Indica PM nighttime edibles brand created by the team at Downtown and D2 was originally developed for medical cannabis patients and will be relaunching with updated packaging and new products for the recreational cannabis market in early Summer 2022.
Conscious Cannabis
Every year, Downtown and D2 donate proceeds to community programs, as well as other non-profits and charitable organizations that help the Tucson community. They are passionate about improving patient access and have worked to reduce the amount of red tape that medical marijuana patients previously endured with the help of their lobbyist at Sherpa Public Affairs, Gibson McKay. Veterans also receive significant discounts in both stores with a veteran ID card. Downtown and D2 contributed more than $140,000 to the legalization of cannabis statewide in 2020, which included powerful expungement provisions.
Stop by one of our locations:
The Downtown Dispensary
221 East 6th Street, Suite 105
Tucson, AZ 85705
D2 Dispensary
7105 East 22nd Street
Tucson, AZ 85710
21+ recreational & medical cannabis stores
Monday to Saturday: 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Sunday: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.