One of our trainers shared a story with us that was concerning. One day, while introducing his pup to some new sitters, a conversation about the medical marijuana industry in Missouri occurred. The two pet sitters were not from the area and legal cannabis was a new adventure for them. They were very interested in becoming educated about cannabis. They learned how to apply for and obtain their medical cards to legally purchase marijuana and headed out to their first dispensary.
Newbie consumers typically have lots of questions about the responsible use of cannabis. The budtenders and dispensary agents are the first line of educating this group. They hear questions about:
- Product specific information, like potency and strain differences.
- Personal liability around transportation and storage.
- Sales limit(s)
- Tax rates
- Product usage and consumption instructions
The reason we were alarmed was that when asked about their experience, the two newly introduced cannabis consumers reported that the budtender told them to just Google the questions for good answers. Let us repeat that… They were told to “GOOGLE IT”! As advocates for this industry, we would like to encourage those that are front-facing to any consumer, either retail or medical, to please be educated about the responsible purchase and consumption of cannabis by investing in quality training programs instead of advising people to Google their questions.
Integrity, professionalism, and compliance in the cannabis industry is best achieved when we can easily answer the questions from our customers. Google is a powerful search engine, but it may also have misleading and misinformed content. Let’s protect one another by ensuring solid and credible information is passed on to our consumers.
Not feeling confident in giving people the correct information about products, consumption, transportation, liability, and sales limits, consider joining one of our Cannabis Trainers courses. We have live, on-demand, and custom trainings available. Learn more and attend!