Why You Deserve A Knowledgeable Budtender
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When you leave the dispensary, do you actually know what you’re smoking and why? Sure, sure, it’s marijuana but is it a sativa or an indica, what terpenes are present, what kind of body effects can you expect to experience? For someone who has anxiety issues and is looking for a potential sleep aid, a sativa is going to be the absolute wrong choice. And the only way someone without that knowledge can gain it at the dispensary counter is to have a well educated and personable budtender explain it all to you.
Dispensaries can be like bars in a sense. The one you walk into is either your kind of place – or it just is not. Part of that can absolutely be attributed to atmosphere and part of it is the definitely the service. Does your bartender suck at making drinks or are they really good at it? Because whether or not your bartender knows what they are doing can really make a difference in whether you end up enjoying your drink or not. Similarly, walking into a dispensary and being attended to by someone who is…less than knowledgeable about the diverse, intoxicating product that you’re planning to ingest sounds like a less than perfect situation to find yourself in if you’ve got little experience with what kind of cannabis you want/need.
But, let’s ditch the bar analogy and take it down a bit of a different road, to a more medical setting. Marijuana IS medical in 29 states (and the District of Columbia) after all.
The druggist – the pharmacist – the neighborhood’s makeshift doctor. Pharmacists have long been regarded as the community caregiver and they are the last link in the healthcare chain before you actually begin ingesting medication. By the time you’re talking to your local pharmacist you’ve already been to the doctor at least once, had your medical issue diagnosed (hopefully) and received a prescription for the pharmacy to fill. Otherwise, why are you at the pharmacy – go to the doctor already! Your doctor will take your allergies and your medical history into account before prescribing a pharmaceutical but no one is infallible and that includes doctors. And thus, as a last line of defense, the pharmacist is in place not only to be responsible for and dispense medications for the community but also to ensure that no patient has slipped through the cracks and been prescribed something that could or would negatively interact with another medication they are currently taking. Sometimes the confusion isn’t even the doctor’s mistake at all. Under pressure some patients (and people in general) can flub up, freeze up and forget, not remembering that they had a bad reaction last time they took XYZ or that they’ve been taking an over the counter medicine that may not go well with what their doctor has ultimately prescribed.
Likewise, as the last line of defense before you take home your sweet sweet legal marijuana stands the budtender – the pharmacists of cannabis. Do you hate smoking? Ask a budtender ways to ingest without actually smoking. Are you looking for a strain that is uplifting and also tastes like lemons? Ask a budtender! What are those crystal looking things on your cannabis and can I do anything with it once it collects in your grinder? You BETCHA a budtender has an answer (or two or three) for you. Just talk to them, tell them what ails you or what you are looking to get out of you cannabis consumption experience. Sometimes it can be intimidating, but never fear, budtenders (the good ones) are professionals and they are going to treat you and any questions you have with respect. We’ve all been there before, not sure how to hit a bong or properly use a carb. Budtenders are like your wise older hippie cousin who knows A LOT about weed and is happy to share their wisdom with you little cuz.
So soak it up when you find a dispensary you like that has budtenders that are a delight to converse with – become a member, patronize the business often and refer friends there when you can. And if you have a favorite budtender – let us know! We’d love to feature them in an upcoming post!