You finally got your medical cannabis recommendation and medical marijuana card and are on your way to your first dispensary visit. One of the best things you can do for your first trip is to prepare for your visit. You can expect to spend time with a dispensary employee, often called ‘Medtenders’ or ‘Budtenders,’ who will help you complete your purchase. Medtenders are there to provide answers to any product-related questions you may have during your visit.
Preparing Questions
Before going to the dispensary, review the information provided by your doctor and any recommendations they may have given you. Take time to browse the dispensary website and get an idea of what products you might want to purchase. It’s beneficial to write down any questions that pop up as you prepare for your visit and bring them with you. While dispensary employees are not medical personnel and cannot provide medical advice, letting them know your goals for cannabis and what symptoms you are hoping to address may also be helpful. Here in Florida, employees at a dispensary don’t have access to your personal health information, such as conditions, medical records, etc. They can only access your recommendation and previous purchase history via the Medical Marijuana Use Registry (MMUR).
Common questions might include things like:
What are the ingredients in this product?
How does this product compare to (insert another product)?
How long does this product take to kick in?
How is this product properly used?
How much THC and CBD does this product have?
What is the CBD to THC ratio?
Remember that not all employees are patients, and they may not have personal experience with each product available in their dispensary’s lineup. They also don’t have the same training or knowledge as your medical cannabis physician, so always double-check with your doctor if something you hear at the dispensary doesn’t sit right.
Understanding Dispensing Routes
If you’re new to the medical marijuana program in Florida, you may not be familiar with how dispensing works in the registry. The Medical Marijuana Use Registry (MMUR) is a state database that tracks all products dispensed to patients. Medical cannabis products are dispensed under specific order types and routes of administration. Understanding your recommendation and available dispensing limits can be an empowering opportunity for patients. It can also help you to avoid unwanted headaches at the dispensary. Unfortunately, far too often, patients find themselves at a dispensary unable to purchase because they’ve exhausted their dispensing limit or don’t have a route of administration available to them. Take time to learn how the registry works to avoid this from happening to you.
Florida Medical Cannabis Products
It can also be helpful to understand how products are dispensed. In fact, some products can be dispensed under multiple different routes of administration! Understanding how this works can help you maximize your recommendation and make dispensing easier on your medtender. For example, products such as distillate can be dispensed via either the oral, sublingual, or topical route. This means that patients who use their distillate to make their own topical, can request that it’s dispensed under that option instead of the default ‘oral’ category. This allows them to save their ‘oral’ allotment for true oral products and maximize what is available to them overall.
Making Informed Decisions
Cannabis education and product knowledge is something that you can never get enough of as a medical marijuana patient. The more you learn, the better results you will likely see. Many patients find online resources such as Weedmaps, Leafly, and YouTube reviews beneficial in making informed buying decisions. Reviewing this information before you head to the dispensary and knowing what aspects are most important to you will help your medtender help you make the best purchases possible.
When making product decisions, it’s important to tailor them to your needs symptoms. Think about what methods of administration you’re comfortable using, not just what has the most potent effects. Think about your preferences for psychoactivity and how you will integrate cannabis into your life. Consider that routes may affect you differently throughout your medical cannabis treatment, and the same type of product from multiple dispensaries may affect you differently. If you’ve found products of a particular kind ineffective, you may find it helpful to give them a try at another dispensary. Let your medtender know what you’ve tried before and if you are looking for something similar. Many of the dispensaries in Florida use different extraction methods and ingredients, and the effects of their products can also be different. Products can also vary drastically from one State to another. For example, the edibles available in other medical marijuana States are often made from infused cannabis flower, which can have an entirely different effect when digested than THC extract-based edibles, which is all that we currently have in Florida.
One of the most empowering things about being a medical marijuana patient is the ability to experiment with different products and tailor your regimen to your preferences. While limited in the level of guidance they can provide, Medtenders can be a helpful tool for giving product-specific information during your cannabis journey, especially when you go in prepared.
Post Written By: Josh Kerrigan, Patient Educator
