Cannabis and Dispensary Questions? Ask Joelle the Budtender!

John Malanca 0:00
Hey everybody, John Malanca with United Patients Group Be Informed. Be Well. I have a special guest Joelle Gordon, how are you doing?

Joelle Gordon 0:09
Hey John, I’m great. Hi everyone.

John Malanca 0:11
Hey, everyone is right. So, I have Joelle on here today because she works in a dispensary and many of you reached out to me on a regular basis I’m afraid to go in dispensary what question to ask you in a dispensary what I look for what do I avoid, etc. And so basically ask ask the bud tender and are you okay with the term bud tender?

Joelle Gordon 0:33
Yeah, that works fine for me. I think that it kind of is all encompassing.

John Malanca 0:39
So let’s go first off is what is a dispensary and that people question Is it what’s a dispensary and can anyone enter them?

Joelle Gordon 0:49
A dispensary can be set up wanted to or I guess three ways you could have a medical dispensary. You can have a recreational dispensary or an adult use dispensary or you can have one that is a combination where you will be able to purchase both medical on one side and adult use on another side. But they’re typically separate an entity so that people can be serviced separately.

John Malanca 1:12
So but they’re legal in cannabis First off is legal at the state levels. And so not all states have walkin dispensaries that carry all forms of products. Meaning THC, there are a lot of states that have CBD only laws that carry CBD only products with a 0.3% THC level and below and so you’re located in the state of New Jersey. You work for it. I won’t name the name of your dispensary. But you work for a very well known dispensary. That is that is in more than one state, I should say Correct?

Joelle Gordon 1:52
Yes. And it looks like as of January of this year, there were 39 out of 50 states were had legalized medical and then we have 21 of them have recreational use of marijuana. So there’s quite a diversity there.

John Malanca 2:06
It 21 also for recreational but also, I know you said 21 states, but it’s also 21. And over. And so that turned it’s funny how all states are different. California they use the word adult use where other states do 21 And over and so is there and that was one of my questions down the road. But let’s go right into because you brought it in here. Is there a difference just comes up quite a bit. Is there a difference? John, I want the medical port portion versus the recreational. Two different definitions. One lot of patients think CBD is medical where THC is recreational. The question I’m looking at right now asking right now is, is there a difference in quality in the medical side, having a legal medical recommendation versus going to the recreational side, which is Advil us 21. And over walking in there is there a difference in quality of the different types of medicine.

Joelle Gordon 3:02
There is a difference in quality and what there’s availability in our state particular and I can talk to our students somewhat have visited some other states, but more for what New Jersey offers. But the state regulates what we’re able to offer and how we’re able to offer it. So I knew we’ll probably talk more about how people can take cannabis. But you know whether or not it’s it took a while for them to be able to offer recreational edibles or something like that. So what the state allows you to offer and then there’s also difference in the product. And so as the state also regulates that we keep a higher percentage or percentages of tea cheese or terpenes, that are a little bit different for our medical patients, because the need is there for them to utilize it in a medical for medical purpose, right. So there tends to be a little bit more availability, maybe in what I see for the medical patients just because they need it a little bit more for what their their needs are for it.

John Malanca 4:04
And, you know, Massachusetts has done that as well, where they have an allotment of different products for the medical patients and they saw the they saw during COVID A lack of product in the recreational side because they’re keeping the stock for the medical patients. So the recreational patients were say, Hey, we’re patients as well, you know, just because we don’t have the medical recommendation, we should still have access to it. And so hopefully that the laws will change. And as you’re mentioning it the majority of states right now have legalized medical cannabis in some form or another. And so, you know, many of my father is and as well as you know how we started that got into this industry, and it was my father in law. If we did not live in a legal state state of California, the topic of cannabis would never be come up. And so with having legal access to that it saved this man’s life and he extended his life from two weeks to 10 and a half 11 years and so, you know, I’ve seen this plan work and I’ve seen this plan in my opinion, not work you know, saving saving lives. You know, we came out of the gate hitting a Grand Slam But enough about let’s let’s go back to you. And then in working in a dispensary what brought you into dispensary.

Joelle Gordon 5:31
I love plant medicine, I think it’s such a great part of understanding what well the Earth has to offer. A lot of the medicines that we take already are plant derived. And so to utilize cannabis in that way to made such sense. And when it became something that was becoming legalized in the state of New Jersey, it was kind of a fun chance to hop into that and really kind of pursue a little bit differently. I’m a life coach also. So being able to educate people a little bit differently on how cannabis works. And to be able to utilize it on a medical level also made a lot of sense for me.

John Malanca 6:09
So with that, I know you do work with a lot of cancer patients as well. What is the purpose and responsibility of a budtender? Because you have a stigma with that term budtender. And a lot of patients come back and say, you know, I went in there and they they really knew nothing about my background, you know, am I a diabetic? Do I have? Do I am I sensitive to certain cannabinoids? Do I have to have heart murmurs? Or have a heart medicine, blood thinners? And so what is the purpose and responsibility of a budtender? In future, please?

Joelle Gordon 6:51
Yeah, I mean, I think that goes into anything that we do as it as a human being is, it’s our responsibility to be responsible for our body and knowing what our what we’re taking, and how that’s going to interact, whether they’re things so that we can interact with our doctors so that our doctors can be holding the big picture in hand, as a bud tender, a lot of times, as I think you’ve experienced, too, a lot of times, you’re in the flow of what’s happening. And so I don’t always have the time to be like, Do you have a heart murmur? Or do you have a pacemaker that we could have a conversation about, because that’s really crossing some lines to and what’s appropriate to talk about it, you know, at a counter in front of a lot of other people. So really asking the questions and being educated, just like you do with your doctor when you go and say like, okay, so this is what I’m struggling with. And I also feel that sometimes this, you know, makes me feel a little bit like it upsets my stomach. You’re doing that with edibles, maybe it’s suggesting something else that might work a little bit different to that you’re not feeling that upset stomach. So I think it’s just like anyone else, any other place that you go, that you talk about your health or just kind of being educated and having that conversation and sharing the things that you’re really feeling, you know, are your concerns.

John Malanca 8:08
You mentioned doctor with that, and what I’ve recommended and maybe you’ve seen this coming to your dispensary with your your patients, is when a doctor meets with the Pacer I was I generally we’re not when we were all 20 We did something like I won’t do that again, you know, talking about if it’s anyway. But but when you’re working with patients of all ages, and now you’re seeing what is your population coming in there are that all ages are you see more geriatrics?

Joelle Gordon 8:37
It is amazing to see the demographic of people I mean, the dispenser I work in does have medical and recreation and we see all ages ranging, of course, at 21. up I mean, it’s very wide and

John Malanca 8:55
why they started to get accepted. I’ve seen that stigma go down. And so when a patient does call us and I and I slide back to the portion of you know, we’re not all 20 of them, try something and don’t do that again, you know, note to self. I do recommend patients to go speak with a medical professional so they can come up with a protocol, especially a cannabis, a doctor who truly knows about the endocannabinoid system ratios, dosing, et cetera. And then they come in there with a kind of a shopping list of what the doctor or medical professionals recommended. Do you see any of those type of patients that come in there

Joelle Gordon 9:31
we do see patients like that, that come in with medical patients they can set up some time to have a consultation to which is helpful to to be able to get a little bit of a different hands on touch point to the products that we actually have in house. But yeah, so we do have people who have the recommendations of their of their, you know, their doctors and I know personally from speaking with my doctor that’s been really helpful for me for my health is having that conversation with my doctor. about, you know, for, say, my sleep and how I can add little things in or little things out and even as a budtender, it’s different to hear it suggested from a doctor than, you know, coming from my own thought process. Right?

John Malanca 10:13
Yeah, it’s nice to hear, do you have medical staff there? Because I know a lot. Sorry, go on.

Joelle Gordon 10:20
We have people who are trained in it, there are some, some tenders who tend to, you know, some budtenders, who tend to be the people who do the consultations that are a little bit more educated.

John Malanca 10:30
I’m enjoying hearing that because California, you know, has been illegal medically, since 1996. And then they became recreational. But seeing what a lot it’s funny, I forgot about this till now years ago and say about 2012 or 13, I had a call from a doctor from the Department of Health of New Jersey and actually in New Jersey, and he said, I’ve been put on this because I’m kind of the black sheep in our organization. So they put me on this research and conquer type of thing. They want to know what California has done incorrectly and they want to we want to make sure we’re not going to same those make make those same mistakes in New Jersey, as I shared a bunch of things and about a year later he called me again and he said You remember me I said of course everywhere he goes now they with Colorado being recreational legal, they want me to see what Colorado is doing correctly as well as incorrectly and so we don’t make those same mistakes. And I’m seeing in New Jersey as well as Massachusetts, Connecticut, that they’re starting to incorporate pharmacists, doctors, nurses on staff. So you can have that if you have that one patient that say hey, Joe, what about this actually, you know it when he talked to Dr. Jones or nurse, nurse Heather or something like that. And so I do like the idea that the stigmas tend to come down it’s becoming more as medicine I know a lot of people don’t like to call it medicine I do like to call it medicine. At first when we current I entered this industry people were like how can you consider this medicine and as seeing what I’ve seen in probably what you’ve seen you know it is medicine for others as well and so thank you for what you do. There’s so many different like, I’ll see like wine because we’re out here in California and my brothers in the wine industry you know there’s so many different varieties of cannabis as well and where to start in your dispensary. Do you recommend you go through and say this is what indica is do this is what sativa is do this is what hybrids do? What are you looking for? And so can you give me like a little walkthrough of what you can share in your dispensary as well as others listening that they can go into their dispensing Hey, this is what I can you give me a walkthrough?

Joelle Gordon 12:52
Yeah, I mean typically ask people what are you looking for? Like how do you want to feel? Because that typically they’re not maybe sure what they’re looking for? Are they looking for the indica? They’re like I don’t remember the name. So it’s how do you want to feel like are you looking to, you know, be a little uppity, then I would probably go with a sativa because that’s going to be uplifting. Your hybrids are going to kind of be that in between ground so there can lean either to assist Teva or, or an indica but they kind of tend to be more of an in between ground where your indicas tend to be sleepy and make you feel kind of relaxed and kind of super chill.

Speaker 1 13:29
I was always told Endeca in the couch. Yeah, lacks sativa more upbeat and hybrid. So for a brand new client that comes in there, do you kind of like direct them towards the safety level of something in between? Or do you go do you still say less is more

John Malanca 13:51
definitely slow and

go type of thing, you know,

Joelle Gordon 13:55
low and low and yes, low and low and really starting just with the bare minimum, like, you know, depending on how what your intake is because there’s a lot of different ways that you can use cannabis, you could smoke it right and use the flower itself. You could use a tincture that you’re going to put underneath your tongue and that’s going to hit kind of pretty quick. The tincture. Of course, if you smoke it, it’s going to hit pretty quick and it’s going to go away in about 45 minutes. And then you’ll kind of have like that mellow feeling. If you put it under the tongue it’s going to hit really quick, but it’s gonna go away a little bit quicker to sub sublingually in the vaping would be the same as smoking the flour kind of like that faster. You could take it in internally and do the edibles and edibles kind of vary based on the chemical profile of them. Some edibles can be fast acting and they could act anywhere up to 15 minutes to a half an hour depending on the body Eat, or you could have edible that’s going to take be like your normal original kind of edible that’s going to have like that our onset. And then you could put them in between and have both.

John Malanca 15:11
Yeah, yeah, you know, I those are the ones where I do recommend, you know, once you get an idea what your sweet spot what your safety zone is, you know, there are edibles that, you know, I’m happy with 2.5 milligrams and five milligrams. There are other people. I mean, there’s some edibles that are 1000 milligrams. And I think, you know, do you have that? I know that some states don’t allow that in some states do. And I think that’s just a little too much. You know, for you know, I think just as a public service announcement is more is not better. Cannabis, especially in edibles is not like alcohol where you can drink it. And if you get a little too much intoxicated, you can throw it up and go, I won’t do that it’s out of your system where cannabis will stay in your system, even if you do become ill. And so I want part of this URL is I want first time dispensary users to be able to go in there with confidence and not be afraid. I mean, even the very first time I walked in dispenser, I’m thinking, holy moly, what am I doing here has been illegal my whole life. And now I’m in here, and I don’t even know where to start. And Majan if you were a senior citizen citizen because I used to do, you know, we’re not a dispensary, but I used to do tours in dispensaries with senior citizens. Okay, let’s take it and I’ll show you what in so having that handholding. For a first time patient really goes a long way they’re able to go in there and understand learn shop and use with confidence, especially if you know well versed bud tenders or medical professionals involved as well. And so can you give us a walkthrough what you recommend that you do in your dispensary, and you can share with patients as well as other dispensary members that are listening and watching this as well.

Joelle Gordon 17:09
So what I think you I hear you saying is like talk about intake or like what I would say in that regard is start slow and low. Like there’s no point in taking too much like you just said, it’s not really helpful. If you take too much, you’re gonna go to sleep, it’s going to make you feel real groggy or wake up the next day and you’ll feel kind of achy, I do think it is nice to know that if you’ve taken too much that a CBD is going to help kind of balance you out a little bit, which is really super helpful to know.

John Malanca 17:41
Can you touch on that one? Because that it’s almost like a snake venom, you know too much THC. You’re sitting there, what do I do? I do. And if someone said Here, try this, you’re like, Are you out of your mind? But

Joelle Gordon 17:52
so kind of think about? Thank you. Yeah, yeah, it’s like a Pac Man. And so there’s like a, like the whole mouth of the Pac Man. And if you the THC is like sitting in there. But if you take a little CBD, it’s going to slide into that receptor. And it’s going to almost slide that THC out. Right. And so it’s going to fill that hole and kind of balance you out a little bit. It is also important to know that you also want to space your CBD out with medicines to because this same effect, it kind of enhances or can elongate some of your medicines. And so, you know, like we were talking about earlier is really knowing what you’re taking and talking to your doctors about it so that you know that everything’s balancing out and that you’re educated in what we’re putting into our bodies, right? starting slow, if you find that you have like one of those amazing edibles that you mentioned, that’s like this huge chunk that’s 1000 pieces, maybe taking a small little piece of it but having other cookies at hand so that you’re not like oh, that was so good. I want more right? Like, give yourself that other substitutes so that you’re not going back to that because you just need a little bit.

John Malanca 18:58
I personally sorry, we touch up on that because that’s a we, I always hear the stories of someone eating something. Not feeling anything. Oh, they’re delicious. They’re tiny. How could this be? How could this be terrible. And now they have two or three doses in their system. And they all come on at the same time. And now they’re calling and this happens a lot with the senior committees I work with is that they’re now calling 911 saying I’m having a heart attack. All it is is cannabis and so for our listeners write it out. It is not a death sentence. I know it can be scary. Also, when you’re having edibles as well as tinctures as well is depending on what time of day, as well as how much food you have in your system as well can show how quickly that the onset comes on. So I just want to throw that in. I know you’re going to share a personal story about about that. Sorry.

Joelle Gordon 19:53
But I think it’s also important to like if you’re going to take an edible try to do it on a day that you don’t have something going on try to do maybe a little bit later in the day so that you know that you don’t have to do anything, you don’t have to drive a car, because that’s not a good idea, right? Or you don’t have to be responsible for something, I think it’s really important to know, like, I think like you’re saying, John, it’s like starting with that little piece. And, and I, I’m a firm believer, like cut it down into a fourth, cut it down into a third in the state that I live in our portions are in 1010 milligrams. And so that’s where it’s like the good starting point. I mean, people can cut that down to one a fourth, or even less than that you I have have friends who have cut it down in use for pain, it was just something that they use to help with their pain, they cut down to smaller pieces, it was something that they were using as medicine. And so it wasn’t something that was getting them all crazy, it was just this little sliver that helped kind of cut the pain in the body and help relieve what had they had going on. And so if you really know how to use it as a medicine, it can really work for us, it’s just kind of remembering that it can be overwhelming, right. And so taking a small bit and maybe starting one day, and then going up the next day and trying a little bit more, if you’re really trying things out, maybe having a notebook,

John Malanca 21:15
you can I was just gonna say journaling, as you were talking about seeing how you how how this work this day and going there. So that’s one thing I was talking about as journaling. And in communicating. Sharing with your family members. If they’re open to it, sharing with your friends, you know what you’re doing, and trying definitely trying it on on an off day where you don’t have to be anywhere you don’t have to drive anywhere weekends. What I do share with with a lot a lot of patients as well. dispensaries coming in their first time, buyer, if you want to say, how much should I buy? What do you what do you recommend with two people, you know, on how how do they how do they start? They come in there and buy one item? Do they buy $200 worth of product? I mean, can you share it and I know everyone’s different. But can you can you share like a an experience you’ve had with a patient you don’t need to mention names.

Joelle Gordon 22:15
I think going in knowing what how you want to take the product is going to be helpful that way you’re kind of not feeling overwhelmed when you get there. And then just buying a little bit right because if you don’t like a product, then you have a lot of a product left. So say you’ve bought bought an edible right and the the edibles all on set in an hour. And you buy all three kinds because you bought the hybrids, the indicas. And the sativa is and you find that the edibles really give you an upset stomach, right, because it just doesn’t agree with you or something like that, or you don’t like the hour on set or something like that. Now you’ve got three bags, it’s something it’s like, you know, trying things out, start slow and low, and then work up to the things that you know you like so that you’re making smart purchases, and you’re not kind of going out too much. You know, I don’t know, I like tea coming out of the gate slow and then knowing what you’re doing, because it is a medicine if you use it the right way. And that’s the important thing too is knowing that it’s a medicine when it’s when it’s used right. And a lot of people kind of lose track of that sometimes

John Malanca 23:21
they do with that idea of buying too much. Can they return anything?

Joelle Gordon 23:30
Cannabis is not returnable, at least not in in our state. What I find is that if you’ve have a problem with a product, and it’s like defaulting, you could bring it back to the dispensary. A lot of times you’ll want to talk to the person at the front door. And that person is usually your ID checker or someone who’s making sure that everyone is appropriate to get in the building. You’ll want to maybe mention it to that person that so that they can appropriately handle you and help you figure out what needs to happen. I say that because in the state of New Jersey you’re not allowed to bring cannabis back into the patient. Okay. Yeah.

John Malanca 24:07
Entering your dispensary and I’m bouncing around here you’re picturing you know walking into dispensaries not only here in California but throughout the United States. A medical you and I were just down in Florida. I did not attempt to go into a dispensary but I believe that you had to have a legal recommendation for the state of Florida. You it going in there well two things one of the state of New Jersey as a California PATIENT Am I able to go into your your dispensaries and legally purchase obtain medical cannabis?

Joelle Gordon 24:45
No, you cannot. There are some states to have receipts that you can do that in. Yeah. But that is not New Jersey. There I think I did look it up earlier today. 17 of those dates that are two of the 21 states do not allow people to purchase, you know, your, if you were traveling, you don’t really want to come across state lines with us. But if you are traveling, there are some likes, you could have it in the state if you have a medical card. So there are some different things that can happen in that state if you’re traveling into another state. But New Jersey is not a state that allows that when you and I want to jump back to that in another minute, but I do want to answer the question about entering the dispensary because I know that this is something that we talked about earlier, that was kind of important is so when people come to the dispensary to enter, we do make sure that they always have their ID, they have to be 21 years of age, and they have to have a valid ID it has to be valid, it can’t be expired, we actually use a card checker at my location. And it will tell me because I do card check quite often. Whether or not it’s a valid ID, you can bring your your passport with you. That will work also, if you have your medical card in our state, you know, you just kind of show your medical card and at that point, you don’t have to show your New Jersey passport, your your state ID because you’ve already, you know to state ID as it is there. So we do not let anyone in unless they’re 21. They’re all ours during our when we’re open just for medical patients. And we won’t let in any recreational patients or adult use patients at that time period either that it’s strictly medical hours. So it’s the state pretty much regulates pretty firmly the hours that we’re able to allow people into our building,

John Malanca 26:42
how easy is it to be going over cannabis recommendation, the state of New Jersey, you know, some states are very, very strict, you have to wait have a waiting period. And the reason I asked that, you know, California when it was medically legal, there was no rating, there was no downtime, there’s no waiting period, even out of state patients could come in here, go to the DMV, get a California ID, and then go to a cannabis doctor and then be able to obtain it, how they brought their medicine back home was up to them. But it happened. It happens. Other states will have a two week waiting period, which I think really does a disservice. Because if we waited two weeks to become a legal patient in my father last case, he wouldn’t he would not would have not lasted. And so is there a waiting period to you know, you know,

Joelle Gordon 27:38
I guess I don’t think that there. There’s per se a waiting period. But it does take a while for the state of New Jersey to mail out the card. And without the card you can’t go in and purchase. Medically I mean, however, since we are able to work with people both medically and recreationally, we’re able to usually help people fine tune what they need, with what we have recreationally to offer to be able to help people in our location. But yeah, it does take a little bit of time for the state to actually send the card and we do need the card to be able to do that.

John Malanca 28:13
Is there a difference in price between medical versus recreational cannabis?

Joelle Gordon 28:17
There is a difference in price between the two. There is a little bit variance the medical seems to be a little is a little bit lower. And then there’s also taxation differences in the state of New Jersey. Right now we just pay the municipality taxes. And so the state has taken away the state taxes on the medical side. And so that

John Malanca 28:39
makes a big difference, correct? Yeah, big, big difference. I mean, the first time I went into a dispensary in Colorado, I walked out of there like No, no, I think you overcharged me and said no, that’s our tax and I said Wow. And so it cannabis not being covered by insurance can actually put a big burden on patients on their pocketbook. And you know, it’s tough

Joelle Gordon 29:02
to do with the federal regulations on the on cannabis. And that’s where you also see, you know, jumping back and forth that’s also where you see with payment. You cannot pay for cannabis with a credit card you have to pay for it with cash or a debit card. Some locations can offer like an ATM transaction, so that you can utilize your debit card for that transaction but a lot of times you can’t use your credit card because it’s not federally federally regulated at this point in the game. Which is important to know too. There are some apps like there’s like Kanpei that you could use that’s like in between between your bank and the dispensaries but you’d have to be sure that that’s you know something that’s accessible for your location.

John Malanca 29:45
So bring money do you have an ATM I know a lot many have ATMs in their in their locations.

Joelle Gordon 29:50
Ours are all of our credit have like little ATM transaction being entrenched or so that is something that you know is pretty easy to cut through.

John Malanca 29:59
Gotcha Generally I wasn’t asked about safety, you’re gonna say something about entering dispensary. And you said I’ll get back to that, if not, no worries. But But safety. I share with patients all the time and as regulations are becoming to become stricter to really protect the patient. Testing is very important. It’s not the responsibility of the patient to test the products, it’s the responsibility of the dispensaries who purchased the product from the different companies, the product companies, can you touch up on that? And what what should patients look for? And with an expiration date or a packing date, I’ll say, you know, July 1, you think something that was January 1 or July 1, a previous layer is still fresher, you tell people to look for product that is been around for three months, six months, two weeks? What is your fresh date on that?

Joelle Gordon 31:08
Hmm, I mean, I think it’s always, it’s always better to have it a little bit fresher than, you know, something that’s not I think a lot of times when you get your product, though, you might not always have that, that information right there in front of you until you’re at your budtender. So it might be like an awkward, like, I don’t want that anymore. I want like, you know, so you know, being able to have I guess, touching base and feeling whether that is something that you want to be a hold on or not right on the products. It is really important for third party testing. And I think that’s what we’re talking about.

John Malanca 31:44
Yeah. Talk about that, please. Yeah, all

Joelle Gordon 31:47
all cannabis should be third party tested, that’s really important, because it makes sure, it just makes sure that there’s nothing bad in there, there’s no metals, there’s no chemicals in there that we’re looking to get rid of any pesticides. And so as they grow products, of course, they that stuff can enter into a flower. It is a plant. And so just making sure that as they process and move everything through that they’ve checked the product through make sure that it’s good for our health limit. Yeah,

John Malanca 32:16
and I get a lot of patients are immunocompromised, so you do have to look make sure there are, as you mentioned, no metals, pesticides, fecal matter. It’s amazing how you and you see that, but molds and even insects, you know, back in the day, California, there was no, there were zero regulation, and you’d go into a dispensary and you could smell the product, and you’d smell mold, or you’d look in there and you’d see insects, and that’s kind of scary. And I’m liking the way what the East Coast dispensaries have really perfected. Over California, you know, over California on safety, I’ve been on some places out there that they are so strict, that you know, nothing’s gonna get by, and they and you guys don’t want to do not want to jeopardize your licensing, working for a brand that you do work for, who does cover a lot of bases and works with a lot of a lot of patients, they have to really make sure that everything is safety first there. But that’s

Joelle Gordon 33:18
the things are Seed to Seal. So that means that they started with the seed and they track that product all the way till it’s presented to. And so really, on the products, when we sell something, if there were 100 of them in a box, I need to know where they tracked to make sure that they know where each one of the hundreds when that 100 went to so everything is tracked per product, which is really amazing to think about that on a large scale in regards to plants, and you know how it’s all being pushed out. But yeah, it’s all Seed to Seal so they know where it is and you know, where it’s been,

John Malanca 33:52
know where it is where it’s been and and that’s the part that I was getting at which we didn’t do for the longest time. You know, now he kind of have an idea QR codes where that product was grown. If there’s if you have a bad reaction, they’re able to do that, you know, my family is in the produce business. And so the same type of thing where they, you know, send out cantaloupes and honey news all around the United States. And if someone becomes ill, they can stop everything go right in the box show where that QR code was where it was in the field when it was picked and the other boxes of where they went as well. And I know cannabis is starting to follow that lead as well because it is a medicine and people do treat it as a medicine and as it is big business and you know, again, you want to make sure that you’re following all standards and staying on top with what you’re doing in your industry. Can you share and I love these stories. Can you share a fun story that pops to your mind a success story, someone that you really changed their life of because you do a lot for patients and I want you know there’s so many people in this industry and all different levels, helping patients and I want to say the majority, I’d like to say all of them have the mindset of helping others. But can you share a fun story that really stood out stood out of a patient that you worked with and change? You change their life?

Joelle Gordon 35:17
Yeah, I mean, I think it goes back to kind of even what we were talking about earlier is the communication part. I was working with someone not long ago who was taking edibles and vaping. And it’s a cancer patient who was working with some pain. And when they went to the budtender, the first time they ended up with some vapes, and some edibles, they were hybrids, and sativa was and I was talking to the patient and to their significant other and I’m like, wait, what do you have going on that you’re taking what? And so really like just having that conversation and working with them and having a better understanding of what their needs were, we switched them over to an indica gummy, because of the pain and so that really made a big difference for them. And they were able to alleviate that pain a little bit differently. And so really, I think the idea of hearing people, right, and again, questioning to what you’re taking, like we were talking about earlier, like that first purchase, maybe wasn’t the perfect purchase. And originally, their friend was like, well, we just went to the dispensary spend all this money. And now what are we going to do, and it was like, well, you’re going to need to try the indica gummies just go get one bag, and know that this could be it like and then to get the to hear back and know that that was kind of the solution. Right. So kind of playing with things and understanding that we really our bodies are so individual and that we really can find the solutions, if we look at it, and like you said, journal and take notes and really pay attention to our body. So really, that went of like, figuring out what their body really needed and how to make it a win for them so that they weren’t dealing with that daily pain.

John Malanca 36:57
You, you sharing with going back to the spin through the bag and coming back, brought me back to a gentleman that was in a senior citizen here in California. And I remember he came back and he was frustrated because he came back. And he had about eight or nine different products. And I said what do you want to do, because I’m having issues sleep, anxiety, depression, and they sold him a product for each and everything. And I said, product sounds

Joelle Gordon 37:24
like a lot to go through individually one at a time. That like

John Malanca 37:30
that I always share is like, you know, speak with someone you shouldn’t oversell a patient one and take advantage of a patient and but to a lot of times, if it’s sleeping anxiety and depression work. Number one is sleep. Because it could be a domino effect of Oh, my gosh, I’m not my anxiety is not there. I mean, we’re all we’ve all had that Miss night asleep or something like that. And next day you wake up, you know, okay, I’m not awake, I don’t have my energy. I better have some drinks for coffee. Now I’m my anxiety is going through because I’m over caffeinated on top of everything as well. And so, you know, as you were saying Jewelle is less is more, go low and slow. See what works journal, see what works best for you and go from there. And working with patients working with the public. What is the hardest thing about your job? Or about hardest thing about being a budtender? Yeah, I

Joelle Gordon 38:33
mean, I think it’s that idea of like, coming in and being like, I just need the highest THC product there is. And it’s so frustrating because that product might it’s hard to work with that client, because you want to know what they really want it for like you were just saying, like, is it that you don’t sleep? Is it that you have anxiety? Or how are you because there are other things that you could work with with that like looking at the terpenes or like just playing with the cannabis a little bit different than just being like, I just want to get the highest THC there is. So I get super high. And that’s frustrating because I want people to use it so that it helps them right and get them to the place that what they really need it for. And if you’re coming in, and that’s what you’re coming for, then you’ve probably are needing it for something else. You’re just not really checking into that part of you to be like, oh, yeah, I really am kind of super stressed right now. And that’s what I’m using it for, you know. So I think that it’s like taking that second back and really checking into the people and using it as the sacred plant that it is.

John Malanca 39:42
It’s you you mentioned, you’ve mentioned terpenes a couple of times and so I don’t want to you know, scoot over that. I’m a fan of Turkey. So can you share with the audience what terpenes are and how many of them have you had they all had benefits? I mean, even the cannabinoids, there are so many different cannabinoids I See about there’s 140 Some people say 116 160 Other say 113. So I’ll go in the middle there, but they all play a role bringing the body back to balance CBD which is everybody’s kind of hearing about CBD now. Excuse me THC CBN CBG. See, I mean, the list goes on, but they all play a role as well as terpenes. And can you share a little about terpenes?

Joelle Gordon 40:26
Yeah, terpenes I mean. So if you think about like, lime aniline, which is the basis of lavender right is kind of like that relaxing, calming thing. And so when you look at a lot of the different things that we have in nature, they also have the same compounds in cannabis. And so thinking about things that are going to be uplifting, you’re going to have that same compound in the cannabis too. So it’s thinking about that, kind of how it plays out in the cannabis. Like we can play with different terpenes and play with anti inflammatories or hits.

John Malanca 41:03
Like you said, I mean, little Lou, lemony limonene I would say everyone’s very familiar with terpenes. And it’s like the term stop and smell the roses. You know, roses to me, remind me my grandmother, so it doesn’t matter if you and I are walking down the street in Florida, or, you know, I’m in the middle of a rose garden, I will always stop and smell roses. And it just brings me back to peace and happiness of my grandmother. And so, you know, the same thing. Different dispensaries in different states have different laws, California, I’m able to open the jar and smell are you able to do that, sir, you know, touching, in

Unknown Speaker 41:48
no touching, actually, you’re not even allowed to touch the packaging.

Unknown Speaker 41:52
Yeah, like that, I’ll take that and then you

Joelle Gordon 41:56
in my location. And it’s not, I work in a pretty large location. And so we do a lot of online ordering. And so most of the time before people get to me, they have already placed their order online. We do have like iPads or little kiosks. It’s kind of like a touchpad. You can order and people are there to talk to you walk you through. So if you got there and you didn’t know what you wanted to order you like are searching online and not quite sure what you want to order, you can always come in and order, you could place an order and then come in line and come into this location. And you can place another order and add some stuff on, you know, good and you ordered too much. Don’t worry, I don’t think we’re gonna hold your one on your ankles and like make you take it home. It’s okay, we can put stuff back. It’s that’s okay. Right. But yeah, so people typically have ordered before they’ve gotten to our location,

John Malanca 42:46
and pick up almost almost like ordering food and pick coming in and pick it up there. And so there’s a great thing. question that I was gonna say, when just by you sharing that as well? Do you offer a delivery service? And can you share with our audience? because not everyone’s in New Jersey? What are some tips what to look for when they’re looking for a dispensary? Because there’s a lot pretty much in different states and different cities. They may be on every other corner where others are scattered around? And can you share some of your insight that might help some of our audience of what to look for? Yeah.

Joelle Gordon 43:23
If I were if I were looking and going out of my area, I would use Leafly which is like a website that you can use. It’s also a great place to look at cannabis and figure out what some of the cannabis, what are the compounds are right? So you can look and be like, Oh, well, this is what other people are saying about, you know, sugar Kush, or, you know, Orange Crush or something else or you know, Durbin poison. What does that do? So that’s a great place to not only look and find out some more information, but you can also search for dispensaries there. I think if I when I would look, I would look the products on in the dispensary and just kind of get a feel for whether or not there’s stuff there that interests me or if it looks like it’s a good location to Yeah, I don’t know. I think I would look at products. You say

John Malanca 44:16
to that. And then one thing that I’ve done over the years is does the location of a parking lot. You know, and some in there’s one here in the Bay Area, which I see I for first time I would always recommend going there because one parking lot. They have security guards in the parking lot and if needed, they’re able to walk you back out to your car. There’s some great ones in San Francisco, which top quality clean, clean location first off, but where they’re located is not as safe. And so people see you’re walking in there knowing that you have stuck in your location location why Acacia with everything in there. And so those are the things that I didn’t you know, but but I do appreciate and going to Leafly you can talk about, you can type in there a certain you mentioned Durbin poison is something can you talk about what those are, I’ll let you you share with the audience what those names mean,

Joelle Gordon 45:18
a Durbin poison is more of a sativa. And so it’s about what

Unknown Speaker 45:21
are the other strains so they’re

Joelle Gordon 45:25
strains of cannabis and so Durbin poison sativa. And sure cush is a hybrid. And so they’re just strains that I know that we carry at our dispensary and you know, kind of have varied, varied effects in them. This Durbin poison is going to be kind of really uppity and it’s going to be great if you’re like in the middle of a artsy project, and you really want to have creativity where the sugar crush is not quite as happy. It’s kind of a little bit more relaxed, but still kind of happy.

John Malanca 45:52
You would dispensary worker, what are your thoughts of all the names that they’ve chosen for these strains?

Joelle Gordon 46:01
I just had a conversation about that the other day, how are we ever gonna get serious about cannabis if they’re all like, you know, fire crotch?

John Malanca 46:12
Fire crotch? cat piss. We had we had a conference, actually, we had a patient talking that shared her story on on at our conference. And she said, we spoke about the same thing. And she said, it’s hard to go in there or get serious with my doctor when I’m going in there saying I’ll take I’ll take the strain name the ship that killed Elvis. And we mean everyone laughed, but it’s

Unknown Speaker 46:39
I want a banana headbanger, please.

John Malanca 46:42
Yes. Or God give me the list can go on we did an article on on that years ago. And it’s like, how, how do you share this with your How does your doctor say okay, well, I want you to go down there and get Green Crack. Yeah, you know, and stuff like that. And so does that come up to patients say, you know, because I’ve gone in there like, Hawaiian Punch. Sounds good to me. I’ll take it you know, what does it do? I don’t know. But I’ll but I’ll try it. You know, strain name, but strain names are different. Like if you know, we’re California, you new near New Jersey and Maui. Wow, he’s coming from from Hawaii, we can have the same seed. Blue Dream I’ll use for example, is that blend dream very popular still. So blue dream. And they did a study on this where it was down in Florida actually, where they had the mother plant and they broke off clones where they broke up pieces and grew them and sent them around. They all came back different when they came to testing. And how I grow is different how you grow the is an indoor and outdoor? What is your technique versus my technique? Same seed, same clone. But they all had they all came out different? And so do you recommend patients going in there? And asking their medicine by name? Or do you are you more into ratios and cannabinoid content,

Joelle Gordon 48:12
that’s the fun thing about that third party testing is that it also gives us that that all that information and so kind of like I was alluding to earlier with one of the downfalls about attending is people just wanting things with a high THC, it’s really and that’s what’s fun is that they really are testing at least in New Jersey, they’re testing each batch. So like you could have one batch that’s, you know, it 26%, then that’s next batch is it like 22%. And that’s just the variation of the plan. And that’s what you’re saying too, is that, you know, their plans, and so they vary, you know, and so there is going to be some kind of variation in that plan. So really kind of looking at the chemical compounds of it. And looking and getting idea, they’re gonna give you a general feel by the name of what the plan is, right? The kind of taking and looking at the chemical compounds also help you get a better feel for what the what the effects of the plant are going to be,

John Malanca 49:09
actually and so again, again, journaling Less is more, not over not buying everything on the shelf and seeing what works best for you. Before we leave, can you share what makes you a successful budtender? Listening?

Joelle Gordon 49:28
That’s a big present for people right? Like hearing what they say and hearing what they say in between. Maybe standing for a second actually like not running off and kind of really hearing people

John Malanca 49:41
why you nailed it. And that’s one thing I would share with ask questions. Do not be afraid to ask questions. I share this with the patients with their doctors ask questions. This is your health your life going into a dispensary. Ask questions and

Joelle Gordon 49:56
and if you don’t get the right answer the first time ask it another way because your budtender might not understand what you’re asking.

John Malanca 50:04
Yeah, yeah. I think that was what you said, listening. That’s huge. And so I applaud, I applaud you for that. And so thank you. I appreciate you coming on. And I’d love to have you back on maybe we do another program, ask the budtender and see what questions come off of our podcast here. We can build from there. But is there any final words you can leave leave the United Patients group? Audience?

Joelle Gordon 50:34
Well, one, you’ve got so many great resources just on this website and the content that John has provided in the regards of THC and all that other information, just in the little dropdowns and then also feel empowered. This is your health so the more we can empower ourselves to understand the medicine that we’re taking right and how to use this as a medic medicine and the better off we can be in helping move this forward. Beautiful.

John Malanca 51:01
Thank you, Joelle . Thank you so much for being on everybody. John Malanca with United patient group be informed and be will and we’ll see you soon. Have a blessed day everyone. Thank you