Cannabis dispensary staff perspectives on trustworthiness of social media: Qualitative study with California budtenders
Background
Although cannabis is illegal at the United States federal level, medical use became legal in the state of California in 1996 and adult use in 2016, with retail sales beginning in 2018. Customers often rely on cannabis dispensary retail staff (“budtenders”) for information about cannabis products. California does not require formal training or licensing for budtenders, and little is known about how budtenders acquire, evaluate, and share social media content about cannabis.
Methods
We interviewed 18 cannabis dispensary retail staff workers (“budtenders”) in the San Francisco Bay Area (California, USA) about how they use and evaluate social media content about cannabis. Semi-structured interviews were conducted via remote video from 2021-2022, then transcribed professionally and analyzed using thematic analysis.
Results
Budtender participants (ages 22-65, 78% female) expressed tension in determining commercial advertising vs. educational knowledge-sharing intents behind cannabis social media content. Trustworthiness of content was perceived to be greater with brands and creators with known histories within the cannabis economy and with relationships that were developed in face-to-face contexts. Some budtenders wanted to see more social media content based in scientific and medical research. However, others placed greater trust in holistic and natural health systems and in personal or secondhand experiences. Among social media features, budtender participants preferred private groups or well-moderated forums for sharing and relying on trustworthy information.
Conclusion
As cannabis is legalized and commercialized at a state level in the United States, scientific and regulatory knowledge gaps are being filled in retail and online spaces. Social media was not reported as a forceful driver of the budtender-customer relationship and budtenders still utilized offline information sources and relationships.
