As medical cannabis has spread across the country, cannabis businesses have done their best to figure out what customers want. Just as with any other industry, business owners know that it is in their best interests to keep customers happy. Happy customers are repeat customers.
If you are a medical cannabis user, what is most important to you? What do you look for in a brand, strain, and delivery method? What are your priorities when it comes to choosing a medical cannabis pharmacy from which to purchase your products?
It would be interesting to know if any significant studies have been done on this particular topic. In the absence of such studies, we are left to speculate. But given what we know about consumer habits in general, we can probably surmise what the most important priorities might be.
1. Easy Access
Medical cannabis is a little bit different than over-the-counter and prescription medications in that it is not sold at every corner pharmacy in town. States with legal medical cannabis programs almost always restrict sales to specialized pharmacies licensed to sell just cannabis.
Such is the case in Utah, where access is challenging for people who live in rural portions of the state. And there are a lot of them, according to Brigham City’s Beehive Farmacy. Beehive Farmacy operates two of the state’s 15 licensed pharmacies. Their second location is in Salt Lake City.
2. Home Delivery
Hand-in-hand with easy access is home delivery. Few things in the medical cannabis arena are easier than placing an order online and waiting for it to be delivered to your door. Despite some 38 states now allowing medical cannabis, fewer than two dozen have legalized home delivery.
3. Pricing
It would not be surprising to learn that pricing is a high priority among medical cannabis users. In many states, medical cannabis remains prohibitively expensive to the point that patients would rather take their chances buying on the street. High prices are the result of state regulations and taxation.
4. Product Labeling
For some medical cannabis patients, product labeling is high on the priority list. These are generally patients who have never used cannabis recreationally. It is strictly medical to them. Not only that, but they are also very particular about what they put in their bodies. They want to know exactly what is in every cannabis product they purchase.
Product labeling has become more of a concern with the introduction of synthetic cannabinoids like Delta-8 and Delta-10 THC. Most states still do not require manufacturers to include any mention of synthetic cannabinoids on their products.
5. Cannabis Strains
Lower on the priority scale for most medical cannabis users are different strains. That wasn’t the case five or six years ago, when patients largely misunderstood the link between strains and brand names. Now that they do understand, strains are less important than finding products that actually work.
6. Cannabis Research
As a medical cannabis user, your top priority may have nothing to do with the products you buy or how easy it is to access them. Rather, your big concern might be cannabis research. Maybe you are looking forward to learning more about cannabis in relation to your particular medical condition. That would certainly be understandable.
There are certainly many more priorities that could have been added to this list. The take-away here is that medical cannabis patients have different priorities based on their own needs and circumstances. Medical cannabis is by no means a one-size-fits-all proposition. Whatever is important to you is what matters. If your priorities do not match someone else’s, so what?
