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A lot of reviews boast Homegrown as "for budget shoppers". Forget that; their meds are top notch regardless of how cheaply they price 'em. I'm honestly a little shocked, I've paid almost 3 times as much (upwards of $20/gram) for dried flower at other Lansing dispensaries that were half as effective. Still, while the quality of their flower is out-of-space, there are some hearty issues that keep HomeGrown from getting 5 stars and they are worth mentioning. Firstly, they don't have a lot of flower to choose from. It makes sense they've gone for quality over quantity but there's not a lot to choose from. This may actually be a plus for some people as variety of 'flavors' can be a bit overwhelming, but I like to have as many options as possible (and I would love to see some other choices at this level of quality). Some people have complained about the vacant storefront and I agree, it's not a super welcoming or warm location but on the opposite side, the two young ladies who run the place are super personable, super friendly, and just the right amount of enthusiastic (not overly bubbly, pushy, or 'edgy' like some budtenders I've come across). Solid, professional, and with just enough personal touch you can't help but want to come back. Better yet, neither of the ladies said anything about leaving reviews for the shop on Leafly or Weedmaps. It really is understated how personal the medical industry is; a bad budtender (even by a small margin) can completely wreck your experience. Another potential issue I noticed was that some of their bud was extremely seeded. I could see seeds just looking into the glass jars (and found more than a couple whole and crushed seeds in my grinder when I got home). I actually prefer to get seeds (as I like to grow) but getting seeds in your bud ranges from negligent to dangerous; the potential use of colloidal silver, plants that have herm'd through poor care, or simply bad separation between male and female plants. Still, with the cheap prices and amazing quality of flower a few seeds isn't worth taking points away. Really, HomeGrown isn't what I would call 'budget', more like 'niche'. High quality, specifically grown flower at a price that attracts. Not to mention they take CC without fee. A few suggestions if I can add them: their $5 pre-roll cones are amazing, if not packed a tad too tight, but avoid their 'bowl filler' (basically trim, and not quality smoke at that). Cheers.

A one star review may seem overly critical but there are reasons why being so harsh is warranted. You may not agree and I can understand that. First Class was the place I was most excited to visit while waiting for my card; it was also the place I had heard the most good about. At first glance they seemed to be a higher-end establishment with a curated library of flower on Leafly and prices a trichome above most other places. Visiting the storefront confirmed my impressions. Well lit, well maintained, a 'patient' agreement I had to sign before entering, a surprising selection of glass and rolling accessories, and what looked like a metric ton of high quality green. Unfortunately, my first visit left me feeling a bit down and even trying as hard as I can (spending more than few bucks along the way), I can't seem to bring it up to a positive level. First things first (no pun intended)- and as I've complained about in other reviews- before I left my initial visit I was hit quite hard to give First Class a 'review' on Leafly. I personally feel this is the worst thing about Leafly at the moment as mediocre stores can 'pay' their way to 5 stars. As of yet no store in Lansing has hit me quite so hard as First Class did. In their defense, they haven't mentioned it on return visits. As far as their actually flower library goes, you better like GSC or bust. First Class seemingly majors in it because the majority of what they've carried across my visits has been some variant or hybrid. I don't hate GSC but I'm not in love with it enough to want to try 7 (no lie, 7; and that was just one shelf) different strains of it. If you happen to prefer pure Sativas like I do, you can choose Hawaiian Snow or... Hawaiian Snow. Pure indicas are a similar story. For the sake of argument, Hawaiian Snow is pretty kick ass (one of my favorite Haze strains) and I've bought almost a half ounce of it from First Class (across two visits) but both times it was seeded. Not heavily seeded I suppose, but seeded enough to find both whole seeds and ground up shells in my grinder. It's also worth mentioning that the first time I purchased Hawaiian Snow from First Class, it was wonderfully potent. The second time however, it was somewhat... not as potent. (It was noticeably worse looking flower the second time around and the most seeded as well.) Finally, and this is maybe the hardest thing to pin down but also the most damaging, while I was grinding up some flower I had left from my last visit, I noticed a strange, loud smell from my fingers. If you have a true Michigan basement, you know the smell exactly. Finding some better lighting and a microscope (I grow), I'm almost completely certain my flower was contaminated by mold. Again, it's not super easy to pin down. Dank flower looks like one thing and mold (especially light mold) looks kind of similar. Moreover, there's nothing First Class could really do about it even if it was 100% confirmed to be mold. They weren't rude or irate with me when I called and spoke about the issue, but they didn't really come up with a satisfactory solution. I was basically told (after giving me the "it's supposed to look like that" shtick) the manager wasn't there, but I could bring it back sometime when he was there (a different day) and... yeah. That's it. They took my phone number in case the manager wanted to call me back but haven't heard a thing. 'Dunno I guess. I could, of course, be some joker trying to pull something but it seemed like they had no idea what to do if a situation like this arose (other than telling me "it's probably not mold") and as someone who works in the service industry, I find that kind of amateur. You are selling me a medically licensed product that I will inhale through the lungs, to not have a policy or procedure on file to deal with that is a serious misstep. In retrospect, I recall the last time I had smoked that particular product my leg and back pain seemed worse than before I smoked... but I'm willing to say that was just a fluke. And for those who would say "just take it back on a different day", I don't want to go out of my way to drive back there and try to convince a manager (who's got the store's reputation at stake) that there's mold on just over a gram of flower. Again, in the service industry, we know things are going to happen no matter how diligent we are and we make a concerted effort to be prepared for any and every problem. Either way- wrong or right, it doesn't really matter- the only consistent thing with First Class is a feeling that I can get better flower, for cheaper, and treated better somewhere else.

Hawaiian Snow is pure creation; a brain massage that leaves you both relaxed and ethereal. It starts with a sharp punch to the center of your matter that reels and sways you with romantic abandon. It knocks you over with primal ecstasy and lets you free fall into a dreamlike pillow, releasing you from pain, personality, and personal anxieties. A touch of psychotropic space lets your mind drift for a bit before letting your imagination, intellect, and inner ego take the trails they need to traverse. You may feel tingly, giggly, or tasty. Listening to music becomes both a classroom and private dance studio. (I recommend something by Evil Needle.) Movie watching or over talkative friends might dirty the snow; this strain is best left to enjoy alone or for relaxed, meditative, and society structure free environments. After a spell, you return to your body with a surprisingly full-bodied body full saturation. Both your body and mind thank you with every slow, pleasurable breath. This is the kind of bud God kicks you out of the garden for eating.

This strain hit me in a much different way than anything I've experienced in the past. Normally, strains that offer pain relief or other physical based effects (Indica dominant) still leave me with a general 'high' feeling. However, Purple Alien OG seemed to almost perfectly emulate my own natural impulses without any (or very little) in the way of headiness. It was almost as if PAO camouflaged its presence. This was both good and bad: getting relief without compromising your mental focus is good but the effects it enacted were much more caustic. Usually with anti-insomnia strains there is a pleasurable ("high") feeling associated with relaxing or falling asleep. PAO made me feel like my body itself was desperate for sleep. Almost like it didn't make me tired- it made me think _I_ was tired. Same with couchlock; it didn't feel like anything to sit and do nothing but when I tried to get up it felt like my _muscles_ were unresponsive. It was kind of awesome but also kind of scary (in a way). It seems like a great strain for certain types of activities and I liked that I didn't experience a great deal of cotton mouth or 'munchies'. On the other hand, I wouldn't recommend it for those who are inexperienced as the effects can be surprising and take you off guard. The first time I smoked it I went from energetic and happy to _oh my god I have to find a place to lay down or I'm going to pass out_.