It’s a hellish armpit of a California afternoon, and Fatimah Warner needs a vape. The 26-year-old has been mooching off her friends for convenient smoke a little too much, and it’s high time she procured a device of her own. Thus begins a mile-long mission through West Hollywood, worming through hilly streets and cracked pavement. Fatimah’s wearing a flouncy floral mini-skirt under a bordeaux denim jacket, buttoned all the way up, but she barely breaks a sweat — 110-degree heat wave be damned.

Business is booming at this particular outpost of MedMen, a chain of dispensaries and one of more than 400 businesses that have been legally selling recreational weed in California since January 1. Inside the store, a senior citizen heads straight for a fridge containing edibles while a couple of fratty bros huddle in a corner counting bills. Later, after a few tokes from the winning vape, Fatimah will joke that she’s a “basic bitch” for going to the ubiquitous MedMen. Really, though, it’s more like she’s practical and completely unpretentious.

Per the new regulatory law, Fatimah checks in at the front desk with her passport, weathered from a stretch of touring. Though she moved from Chicago to L.A. over a year ago, she doesn’t drive, making her passport a go-to form of ID. Under the advice of a salesperson, she selects something simple and appropriate for a beginner — a $70 HoneyVape-brand cartridge loaded with Blackberry Kush — then walks away from the cashier with a shy smile seizing her face. The guy recognized her as the rapper Noname. “That never happens,” she whispers. “Most people barely know what I look like.”

