Disclaimer
Legal Note: You must be of legal age, or have a medical dispensation to use cannabis in your area. The information here is not intended to replace the advice of a medical professional and is only intended for educational purposes from one patient to others.
End of Disclaimer
Here’s the thing. Budtenders are not allowed to tell you what kind of cannabis cultivars or strains might be the best one for the symptoms you are dealing with, but Cannabis Educators are.
So when I say this, I say it as a patient, and as a student of the cannabis plant. If you’re more focused on seeming like a cool or hip company, and less concerned with building relationships with your clients, then we can’t be friends.
No Budtenders can’t give out specific symptom information or dosing material, but what they can do is encourage their clients to study the plant, and suggest websites or companies that will teach them about that plant, so that the patient or client is better informed.
But a lot of companies aren’t doing that, instead, they’re so busy counting their dollars, they aren’t really taking care of their clients, the way that I think we should be.
When I used to smoke cannabis at parties, I didn’t think about the symptoms it was helping with, I just knew I was feeling better. As a patient however the result is very different. As I write this, I am supposed to be working at my temp job, but my lip and mouth are so swollen, and my throat so sore I can barely speak, so I’m writing instead. The only reason I’m awake and even remotely functional is that I’ve used cannabis this morning. As much as it hurts, it also helps too.
I am a patient, using this medication for pain, anxiety, and depression, and it’s helping. I don’t have an overly informative relationship with the company where I get my cannabis, but I very much wish I did. The cannabis community is made up of a variety of special and amazing people, all of whom are recreational patients of the plant, who use it for their mental health issues as well as physical ones.
They like to talk to each other, and they talk about the companies they love and don’t love, and if your company is less about customer service and more about the appearance of customer service, they’ll talk about that too.
The idea that young people smoke cannabis is what got the cigarette companies in trouble. Yes, I’m sure there are lots of young people using cannabis, but I don’t really give a fuck about them right now because I’m not fifteen, I’m thirty-eight, almost thirty-nine, and my needs are not being met, because you’re more concerned with impressing a teenager? Seriously?!
I have more money than they do, I have more friends than they do, I have a longer reach than they do, and because people know I am studying the plant, and actually taking courses about cannabis, they trust my word when I recommend a company or product or service. I have built a reputation among my friends, fans, and followers, and I’ve worked hard to be respectful of how I use my platform, choosing only the best of the best to promote or honor.
So when I tell you that ignoring the markets because you don’t think older women smoking cannabis is “cool” enough, is fucking stupid.
You’re leaving money on the table, in spite of what the entire cannabis community is built on because you don’t like the look of older women smoking cannabis? Most older women who smoke cannabis (50+) have been smoking since before I was alive. They know bullshit when they see it, and they’ll pass that message along to their younger counterparts.
There are too many people who are at the top of the pyramid that is the cannabis industry, who come from the business world and will only ever see cannabis as a party drug. They have too much money and not enough sense because they’re too busy celebrating their brand, and the fact that they appear cool and powerful, then the fact that they get to be in one of the most sacred industries on the planet.
For many of us cannabis is a spiritual plant that opens up the deepest regions of our truest selves, to ignore that, is to dishonor the plant and bring about nothing but terrible karma about your heads.
In fifty years the companies that last in the cannabis industry, are going to be the companies that choose to market themselves directly to patients, and spiritualists who use the plant to heal and connect to the divine universe. Those of us who use the plant are far more spiritual than many of us like to admit, and we find ourselves connected to the cannabis plant, that enriches our lives.
We will, as a society of cannabis users, end up more likely spending our money on companies we believe in and connect to, we’ll go with our gut, and we’ll do our research because we’re far more concerned these days with what we’re putting into our bodies than ever before.
The same people you say aren’t cool enough to market to today, are growers, students, and masters of the craft when it comes to cultivating and working with the plant, and if you’re not careful they’ll be taking your jobs in five years flat.
Good luck telling the world that works to make your brand something special that they aren’t your target market, they’re whispering in the open now.
Sending all my love
Devon J Hall
Loud Mouth Brown Girl 