THE BUDTENDER
DIARIES:
QUESTIONS PATIENTS SHOULD ASK THEIR BUDTENDERS BY ANNA ERVIN
P
otentially one of the most intimidating things followers to contribute the most helpful questions about visiting a dispensary as a new patient patients can ask their dispensaries. Today I wantis knowing the right questions to ask. From ed to dive into why some of those questions are so a budtender’s perspective, it’s easy to say “just important, and how both patients and budtenders ask about the terpenes,” or “pay attention to the can navigate the discussion in a way that offers lineage” but what if you’re only just beginning to education and transparency. embark on your journey into cannabis education? Topics like terpenes and genetics might feel a bit I’M INTERESTED IN THIS PRODUCT, CAN I overwhelming, but this doesn’t make them any SEE THE COA? less important. Certificates of Analysis can tell you almost everyWhen I first began shopping for legal cannabis, I thing you need to know about a product. When it lived in Denver, and my experiences in dispensa- comes to flower, the COA will show you who cultiries were borderline traumatic. I remember feeling vated it, when it was harvested, when it was testlike a burden to the budtenders who didn’t seem to ed, and what those lab results provided. Extracts, think any of my questions were valid, much less did topicals and edibles are a bit trickier, as they don’t they want to answer them. To be fair, many of my often provide the full details, such as who originalquestions sounded like “what are you smoking,” ly cultivated the flower before extraction and prowhich I now fully recognize is a loaded question cessing (always room for improvement). (again, this doesn’t make it any less important). Every dispensary in compliance with state regulaQuestions are an invitation to provide education, tions should have COA’s readily available. Even if transparency, and empowerment for our patients. you don’t understand the test results right away, It’s the customer’s way of saying, “please help me this is a great place to help you start asking your make an informed decision on the medicine I’m budtender questions about a specific product. purchasing.” In turn, a budtender’s responsibility is to offer as many resources as possible. WHAT TYPES OF CULTIVATION OR EXTRACTION METHODS WERE USED? So where to begin? I recently shared a post on The Budtender Diaries Instagram page asking my When purchasing flower, it’s important to remem-
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