In The Shoes of a Philadelphian Budtender

By Tauhid Chappell

While I’ve visited at least a dozen cannabis dispensaries before as a cannabis patient in different markets, I’ve never thought about working as a budtender on the other side until a chance opportunity came my way while I lived in Philly in 2019.

As someone who never worked a cannabis industry job, much less a retail sales position until that job, I had heard my fair share of horror stories from friends who had worked in various retail stores in different industries. The customers, the long hours, management.

Except, luckily for me, the cannabis dispensary crew I eventually joined made it one of the best work experiences of my life.

I first heard about the Philly-based dispensary, Herbology, during the Diasporic Alliance for Cannabis Opportunities conference in 2018. Medical marijuana had been legalized in 2016 and the market was just now up and running with dispensaries and cultivation sites coming online. Herbology was just opening and starting to staff up. Through that connection, I was able to interview with a manager named Jordan who brought me on board to join most of the original crew that opened the shop.

As in many aspects of the cannabis industry, it’s about who you know, with some luck thrown in.

While being a budtender in many ways is working retail, it's incredibly different when your "customer" base are all patients who consume cannabis for therapeutic and medicinal needs. I understood that as a cannabis patient myself.

What made this dispensary so incredible was that every single budtender cared about their job and about serving and informing patients. We were even called patient advisors, not budtenders, to emphasize the patient-first aspect of our service.

What made it great was that my team understood that it was less about selling to sell, than to ensure patients got the right kind of medicine and information so they knew what they were doing. That kind of work - from working with patients who know literally nothing about cannabis to the cannabis connoisseurs -- did take a lot of skill, knowledge and endurance.

My crew and I each had our various knowledge and expertise in cannabis, but we harmonized and gelled and supported each other. Some of us knew more about concentrates and vapes, others were the go-to people for any RSO or edible recipe. Myself? I was a flower type and loved talking to new patients. Anything related to cannabinoids, terpenes and the endocannabinoid system was in my wheelhouse. Most importantly, we gave a damn about the patients and our care.

Every time I clocked out I felt like I made a difference while learning something new about the industry and how to operate in it and learning about patients needs and wants

I must have spoken to hundreds of patients during my tenure there, and it was amazing to see real-life results whenever patients came back. For one thing, my dispensary role underlined the importance of community engagement and deep listening to address information needs so that people left more educated about cannabis than when they first entered the shop.

And in my eyes, all cannabis dispensaries whether they’re in adultuse or medical markets should always care about the person first, and not the profits. This plant, at its very core, is medicine.

Not all dispensary experiences were like mine. I heard bad stories about management, work and customers from other dispensary budtenders.

But I count myself lucky. For the year I was with Herbology, I got to do what I loved the most: enjoy cannabis and help patients in need.