An examination of cannabis-related information typically asked by consumers at retail cannabis locations: A Canadian survey of budtenders and managers

Jameason Cameron; Rahim Dhalla; Taylor Lougheed; Ariane Blanc; Régis Vaillancourt

doi:10.1177/17151635231164997

An examination of cannabis-related information typically asked by consumers at retail cannabis locations: A Canadian survey of budtenders and managers

Can Pharm J (Ott). 2023 Apr 18;156(3):150-158. doi: 10.1177/17151635231164997. eCollection 2023 May-Jun.

Authors

Jameason Cameron¹, Rahim Dhalla^{1

2}, Taylor Lougheed^{3

4}, Ariane Blanc¹, Régis Vaillancourt⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Pharmacy, Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario, Ottawa.
² Hybrid Pharm, Ottawa.
³ Department of Family Medicine, University of Ottawa Faculty of Medicine, Ottawa.
⁴ Section of Emergency Medicine, Northern Ontario School of Medicine, Sudbury.
⁵ Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute, Ottawa, Ontario.

Abstract

Background: Since cannabis has been legalized in Canada for medicinal and recreational use, there has been an increased demand on pharmacists for cannabis counselling. The aim of the study was to examine typical questions posed by consumers to managers and budtenders working at licensed recreational cannabis stores in Canada and to assess how often consumers seek unlicensed medical advice to treat various conditions using cannabis.

Methods: An online survey was synthesized, consisting of 22 questions capturing demographics and Likert scale responses to survey questions, and was distributed online across Canada from January to June 2021.

Results: There were 211 survey respondents: 91 budtenders and 120 managers. A total of 87.7% (n = 185) of respondents indicated that they receive questions related to cannabis use for medical purposes and/or perceived medical benefit, with the same number indicating that they have been told by a customer that their physician sent them to obtain a cannabis-containing product for medical purposes. The most common cannabis component asked about in an average day was THC (42% of responses).

Conclusion: An alarming proportion of budtenders and managers in Canada report that they are fielding medical cannabis questions. This situation has the potential to put individuals at risk for drug-drug interactions and drug-disease interactions and to increase unnecessary hospitalizations due to adverse effects.