DO NOT GO TO RISE IN PARAMUS! My 65-year-old mother has a medical marijuana license, and the other day she went to Rise in Paramus and had an awful experience with the staff there. She'd been going to them for months with no issues, but last week she went in with a friend who recently got her own license and needed her help since she'd never purchased marijuana before. While her friend was shopping, my mother went to the cashier to pay for her own items, and she was informed that her prescription needed to be refilled. She asked for the doctor's number on her prescription that was on file with the dispensary so she could make an appointment immediately. While the cashier went to retrieve the number, she was informed by another employee named JUSTIN that she wouldn't be able to purchase anything that day. Of course, she understood, agreed, and then joined her friend who was talking to another staff member.
While my mother was standing with her friend who started talking to another staff member, JUSTIN, eyes glazed over, walked up to my mother and AGAIN said "you can't buy anything today." My mother said "yes I know, you just told me, I'm just standing with my friend now." He didn't say anything back to her, but walked away and then came back a moment later to speak with the staff member that my mom and her friend were talking to. When the staff member came back, he would not look at or acknowledge my mother, as instructed by JUSTIN.
A few minutes later, JUSTIN walked back and loudly said to the cashier "she can't buy anything today, she can't buy anything today!" repeating himself multiple times. Finally my mother said "are you OK? We all know I can't buy anything today, and I have no problem with that. That's why I asked for the doctors number so I could give him a call. I'm not sure what the problem is."
Then a manager named DAVID came out to speak with my mother and asked her what HER problem was. My mother said she didn't have a problem, only that JUSTIN kept walking back-and-forth announcing loudly to the entire store that she couldn't buy anything when that was already understood. DAVID the manager then very rudely asked my mother to leave and to NEVER come back.
My mother was shocked that she'd been banned from filling her prescription at the only dispensary she'd been going to for months. She didn't do anything wrong. She was compliant, and always has been. But that didn't stop the staff (JUSTIN and DAVID) at RISE PARAMUS from scolding a 65-year-old woman, and trying to humiliate her. Obviously this is not how patients or customers should be treated. My mom's not a teenager trying to illegally purchase some marijuana. She's a 65-year-old woman with health issues who had never smoked marijuana a day in her life prior to getting her license, not that it that should matter, but for some reason they were treating her like a criminal, trying to humiliate her in front of her friend that she brought there. So not only did they not appreciate the referral, they treated my mom horribly.
This is actually not the first time I've heard of the staff at RISE PARAMUS treating people like this, but this is the first time I've decided to write a review about it (or anywhere) because I know my mom, and I know she didn't do anything wrong. I don't know if they were stoned or under the influence of something else, but they certainly were taking advantage of an innocent woman.
Not to mention a dispensary is the equivalent to a pharmacy. I can't imagine the manager of any pharmacy asking a patient to leave and never come back unless they did something illegal or wrong. In fact, my mother's doctor said it wasn't the first time he'd heard bad things about this dispensary, and he's had it. He won't even be referring his patients there anymore.
So all in all, DO NOT GO TO RISE IN PARAMUS. They don't appreciate your business. They're extremely rude, and even the manager is under the influence of something, which they are not supposed to be during working hours. Plus, there always alternatives. I've heard great things about ASCEND on Route 17 North. People say they're friendly, helpful, nonjudgmental, and most importantly, SOBER when they're at work. We'll see, since RISE PARAMUS IS NO LONGER AN OPTION. They're lucky there's not that many dispensaries open yet, otherwise they'd definitely be out of business by now. read more