Answers to your Common Questions

As the world of cannabis evolves, the consumers adapt with it. Whether you are a first time or experienced user, there are always questions that people have. To learn and share the most common and unique – or strange – questions asked, we reached out to some dispensaries across Massachusetts and shared their responses below.

Fernway CMO and Co-Founder

Liam O’Brien said a question he often receives is:

QHOW DO I TELL WHAT LIVE RESIN IS THE BEST?

Answer: “When Fernway dropped Live Resin cartridges in December [2022], we were glad to offer a true Live Resin product in a marketplace with a lot of lower quality imitations. Our customers look to us for guidance – what’s premium, why is it worth pursuing and what’s not premium – so we get questions about Live Resin because it’s not something a lot of people are familiar with. Simply put, real Live Resin is made from premium cannabis that’s freshly frozen to lock in the full terpene (flavor) and cannabinoid profile of the plant, so that the resulting oil is the closest possible experience to the plant. It’s a small-batch process so Live Resin usually costs a little more than other vapes, but that’s because it delivers delicious and complex flavors and effects that can’t be replicated otherwise. We always tell our customers to check with their budtender to ask which products on the menu are made from real Live Resin and which ones are cheaper imitations made with distilled oil, so that they always get the best possible experience,” O’Brien said.

QWHY DOES MY JOINT BURN LOPSIDEDLY?

Answer: “Joints that burn only on one side – which is widely referred to as “canoeing” for the way the joint resembles a canoe when it burns like that – can be a real bummer. It’s distracting and it leads to a less satisfying hit. Joints canoe if they’re packed in cheap paper – Fernway uses ultra-thin rice paper in its joints for a clean and even burn. They can also canoe if they’re stored for long periods of time on their side, because the ground flower shifts around and ends up lopsided inside the cone. That’s why our packaging stores joints upright,” he shared.

QHOW DO I UNCLOG MY VAPE?

Answer: O’Brien said, “A clogged vape can be frustrating, but there’s a few ways to solve it and a few ways to avoid it happening at all. To solve it, use a battery that can preheat the cartridge so that any oil that’s stuck in the airway gets loosened and vaporized. Take shallow, slow hits because big fast hits can make the clog worse. To avoid it happening, keep your cartridge stored upright, don’t leave it in a hot car or in direct sunlight – which can saturate the wick and cause a clog before you even take the first hit - and remember to preheat the cartridge every time.”

QWHY IS IT SO HARD TO FIND GOOD FLOWER CONSISTENTLY?

Answer: “There’s a lot of amazing cannabis cultivators in Massachusetts and they grow some incredible bud. But it’s not always making its way to consumers. Why is that? Well, it’s for a couple reasons. A lot of amazing growers don’t have big sales and distribution teams, so they can only get their product to so many dispensaries and they’re usually clustered near the grower. And right now, there’s a big gap in quality control – if you aren’t sorting out the absolute best buds from the medium-grade ones, they just get sold at the dispensary under the same price, and the customer’s not allowed to see the product before they buy it so they have to take a gamble whether they’re getting the jar with the nice buds or the less nice ones,” O’Brien said. “We launched Fernway Flower specifically to solve that problem. The way we do it is by seeking out the best growers in the state, hand-selecting their finest strains and the finest buds from those strains, then distributing them to our many dispensary partners so we can share them with everyone. We love to spotlight the different growers and what makes them special, and we’re thrilled to be able to raise the bar for flower statewide.”

QHOW DO I OPEN THE FERNWAY TRAVELER BOX?

Answer: O’Brien said, “We always listen to customer feedback so we can improve our products and experiences, and this was a question we used to get a lot after we released the Fernway Traveler. Like all our packaging, we custom designed the Traveler box. It has to be child proof because it’s a cannabis product and we used a button mechanism on both sides of the box that you need to push down to slide the box open. But what we realized is that the initial version was a little too challenging for our adult customers to open. So, we went back to the workshop and redesigned a V2 of button mechanism that’s still child proof but less challenging for adults to open, so they don’t get needlessly interrupted on their way to enjoying a Fernway.”

Florence Cannabis Co. Founder and Director of Operations Chris Rivers said for strange and frequent questions, he always gets the generic, “I can’t imagine what your electric bill is” comments. “Also, people edibles. will sometimes hand me some random seeds that they saved from a stash from years ago and tell me how I need to grow it in the facility, usually without knowing what strain it is but just assuring me its ‘the best shit ever, ’ he shared. “I’ve also had people hand me bud at conventions or events as a resume for employment … Please keep doing that,” Rivers said.

COAST Cannabis Co-Founder Angela Brown shared some of the frequently asked questions she hears.

Q Q Q

ARE COAST PRODUCTS VEGAN FRIENDLY?

Answer: “Our gummies are not vegan friendly. COAST uses a grass-fed all beef, non-genetically modified organism gelatin in all of our gummies. However, our dark chocolate bars are vegan,” Brown said.

WHAT OIL DO WE USE TO INFUSE OUR EDIBLES?

Answer: Brown shared, “COAST does all in house extraction of distillate oil and now Live Rosin.”

ARE OUR GUMMIES GLUTEN AND DAIRY FREE?

Answer: “Yes, all of our gummy products are gluten free and dairy free. Our dark chocolate is also dairy free. In addition, we have many chocolate bars that are gluten free,” she said.

BY JAKE DRESSLER PHOTO ISTOCK