I've met a few and I had a friend who tried one once and then came back to her original source.
As far as dispensaries go - there are some honest ones who are doing it to make a living but also to help people. I see no issue. Then there are the clown shoes who charge 12 bucks a gram for sh it that doesn't even have a nose anymore. They exist too. In fact, most of the ones I've been to are charging 10 bucks a gram on average. At least the newer ones.
The old standbys in Vic are more reasonable, although still not dirt cheap. 6.50-8.50 @ The VICS and the quality is usually high. Too many smalls for certain varieties but they're mostly sativa doms - very much so, so it's more understandable. They have specials sometimes as well.
Ted Smith's club, whose name is so generic I probably would mix it up with the other club that has a similar name in Vancouver. The prices are a bit better. The quality is usually good as well (at least I usually am able to find something good, even if not everything on the menu is, same goes for the VICS). They also have specials. Their price for wax/shatter is the lowest in the city @ 40 a gram.
Ted's usually has outdoor which is quite a bit cheaper. Quality decent - certainly good enough for many medical patients. Much more affordable than an LP.
I saw some LP Super Lemon Haze the other day at Ted's. 0 nose. Appeared well grown, nicely trimmed. Forget which place it was from, but you can see it was stored in a non airtight container and it was packaged in January. No wonder it has no nose anymore. The guy said it was a pretty good smoke anyway. But he wasn't exactly jumping for joy over it given the price. He had to go that route due to legal issues though it was a long winded story that I'm sure I forget most of the details of. But he can't get arrested with black market stuff or it will cause him problems.
I think it was from that Organic place actually. Too many new players to remember all the names.