Questions You Should Be Asking Your Budtender
With so much new information out there and the broadening patient base, it can be hard to know where to start when you go about finding and trying your medicine. Here are some suggestions to help you start a dialogue with the person helping you find your medicine so that they can help you find what your best options are:
What products do you offer?
Obviously, a great way to start is by asking what the store you are in has to offer. You can find everything from low milligram edibles to pure THC crystals in local storefronts. But not all storefronts carry the same products and not all products are good for treating the same conditions. If you’re looking for a sleep aid, for instance, there’s a good chance that edibles will work better than smoking flower. (Even though a joint will often make some people tired and help them fall asleep the effects wear off more quickly than with an edible, meaning edibles can better help people stay asleep). And while you’re on the subject of their products generally, another good question is:
Who makes your products?
Most storefronts in the area make some of their own products and outsource others—growing, harvesting, and preparing buds for sale is plenty of work without adding the complications of processing concentrates or setting up a kitchen and cooking your own edibles. Regardless of whether their products are made in house or outsourced—or some combination of the two—the people who help you select your medicine should know where it came from and what’s in it. There is absolutely nothing wrong with buying and reselling products from other distributers—in fact, it is often a necessary part of doing business—but everyone you purchase from should know exactly what you’re about to put in your body.
What do you use for pest control?
As far as bud goes, asking what pest control methods are used is probably the most important. As with any agricultural crop, ganja grown with pesticides is far more likely to be tainted with toxic substances. There are several ways to deal with pests that do not involve synthetic chemicals that are or may be harmful to humans. If you’re looking for all-natural, organic cannabis products they can definitely be found locally, but you should be asking your budtender what methods they are using (do not assume that, because cannabis is a natural alternative to other medications, all cannabis is grown organically).
Are your CBD products sourced from hemp or cannabis?
Because CBD products are relatively new to the scene there aren’t many regulations around its production (when sourced from legal hemp). This means that companies have been carrying products made in China, and in other large scale industrial settings, where pesticides and other harmful substances may have been used on their hemp plants. Additionally, if the location the plants were grown in has any ground contaminants, the plants—due to their bioaccumulating properties—will contain those chemicals when harvested. In both instances it is likely that the resulting products will contain harmful substances. On the other hand, if the CBD products they carry are made with cannabis, the store workers should know who originally grew it, where, and with what methods.
What solvents are used in making your concentrates?
With the exception of rosin and kief, all concentrates are made with solvents. Most concentrates are made by hydrocarbon extraction (usually with butane or ethanol). A lot of people are turned off by the idea of butane (or ethanol) being used in production, but strict regulations mean that trace elements are well below levels that which would cause negative health or wellness effects. If the budtenders that help you out aren’t able to tell you what solvent was used, however, be wary. Anyone working in a caregiver setting should be able to tell you how the concentrate was made and/or who made it—or they should be able to find out quickly from a manager or the store owner. (Side note: CO2 distillate is a great option for those who refuse to use products made with butane or other unnatural solvents, but machinery for CO2 extraction is very expensive and CO2 can only be used for THC extraction, so if your budtender tells you their concentrates are made with CO2 a few follow-up questions are probably a good idea).
If you go into a store and the bud tender can’t answer these questions for you—or get an answer from the store manager or owner—it’s probably a good idea to consider finding a new distributor. While the effects of products are subjective, and every budtender you speak with is likely to have a different answer, how their products are made are not. Every person selling you your medicine should be able to give you basic information regarding what’s in it and where it came from.