Working at a dispensary is a learning experience
I’ve been a budtender for nearly three years now — purely by accident. And if this column is any indication, writing is where my heart nests the deepest.
But one pandemic later, paired with a college degree and no job, I found myself working at a dispensary as a budtender. The name still makes me giggle; it makes older folks giggle, too, but, hey, what can you do?
Weed is medicine. Like, actually.
Perhaps this is a “duh” moment, but let me explain. I had heard the musings of the possible medical benefits of cannabis; I knew why my friends and I liked to roll up, but beyond that, the only thing I knew about weed was that it was fun.
But behind the counter, the medical benefits of cannabis are palpable. I meet people who’ve never tried the plant, thanks to years of stigmatization, who are sick, in pain, or unable to sleep. Some people have lost access to heavy opioids, some have just learned they have cancer, some are looking to manage PTSD, and some are looking for a replacement for alcohol.
Pain leaves you anguished. Mental or physical, it leaves you unable to carry on. It’s heartbreaking to meet so many hard-working individuals, stuck in uninhabitable reality. But it’s also so rewarding to hear testimony after testimony as to how weed became their new medicine.
The entourage effect
I’ve written about this before, but it’s a soapbox I truly enjoy standing on. There is so much more to cannabis than its THC, thanks to what is known as the entourage effect, a theory that suggests that the full spectrum of cannabis works best in tandem.
Meaning that the crux of a good high is thanks to a robust content of cannabinoids, such as THC, CBD, CBG or CBC, along with having a complex terpene profile, the naturally occurring chemical compounds that give a strain its flavor, effect and smell. Myrcene, caryophyllene and limonene are examples of terpenes that contribute to the effect and quality of a particular strain. I always urge smokers to find out what terpenes are in their favorite strain. That way, they can widen their arena of choices for medication.
But many consumers figure that having a high THC content in a product is a telltale sign as to how good the high will be. Yet, as research on cannabis continues to expand, the entourage effect has garnered a larger sense of understanding among consumers. A recent study from PAX, a national leading cannabis brand, found that full-spectrum cannabis products deliver a stronger high thanks to the entourage effect.
Hindered by government restrictions
Because cannabis is still illegal at a federal level, conducting research is intrinsically tied to the FDA, which is responsible for growing and testing marijuana used by scientists.
This is another reason as to why rescheduling cannabis to a lower classification would be productive; there is still so much we don’t fully know or understand about the plant, yet heavy legal restrictions make it difficult to make scientific advances.
Per a 2021 journal article, "Challenges for Clinical Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research in the United States": “Conflicting federal and state cannabis regulations hinder research in several ways, including the inability of researchers to access products that are legal in their state, a lack of standardization and quality control of cannabis and cannabis-derived products within and across states, and no national oversight of this standardization and quality control of the industry.”
Varied regulations
Maybe this one is obvious as well, but the number of complaints I’ve heard about Arizona’s regulations proves otherwise. If you voted for Prop 207, to legalize recreational cannabis in Arizona, you voted for these regulations as well!
Recreational cannabis in Arizona is arguably still in its infancy stage, as it was legalized in 2020. Despite dispensaries existing like regular stores, the supply chain with cannabis is different from other retail stores. When I started working at a dispensary in early 2021, Arizona had few testing facilities where cannabis was legally required to be tested before it could be sold. Naturally, as dispensaries in Arizona quickly ramped up to open their doors to a larger market, the supply chain was privy to many delays.
Cannabis products sold legally must be licensed, grown and tested in the state where they are retailed, so you can’t exactly outsource from another state, either.
Three years later, there are still kinks in the system. No, we’re not California, Colorado or Oregon. But I do think your budtenders are trying their best.
