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Understanding the Past to Shape a More Just Industry

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Black history is deeply woven into the story of cannabis legalization. It is present in the plant’s cultural use, the policies that shaped its criminalization, and in the communities that have endured the greatest harm from prohibition. As we reflect on Black History Month at the Budtenders Association, it is an important moment not only to celebrate Black excellence in cannabis today, but to recognize the historical realities that have shaped the industry we work in.

Cannabis Prohibition

Cannabis has deep cultural roots that cross continents and generations, but throughout the twentieth century, cannabis prohibition was influenced by racism, power, and social control. Despite similar rates of cannabis use across racial groups, the policies that established criminalization have disproportionately harmed Black communities through higher rates of arrest and incarceration for cannabis-related offences.

For anyone working in cannabis retail, leadership, or advocacy, understanding this history is necessary for us to represent this plant responsibly. Legalization alone has not automatically corrected the inequities created by decades of discriminatory enforcement. While our industry generates revenue, careers, and influence, it’s fundamental for us to understand the history of legalization and unequal systems that paved the way for it.

In both the United States and Canada, the consequences of cannabis prohibition were never evenly distributed.

Although cannabis use rates have historically been similar across racial groups, Black communities experienced disproportionately high rates of arrest, prosecution, and incarceration for cannabis-related offences. Beyond individual lifetime consequences, this disparity has caused long-lasting social and economic harm to entire communities.

In the United States, drug enforcement strategies throughout the twentieth century consistently targeted Black and marginalized communities. Large-scale arrest data show that differences in enforcement cannot be explained solely by usage patterns. Instead, policy design and policing practices played a central role in shaping racially-biased outcomes. Cannabis was transformed from a widely used plant into a symbol of criminality to reinforce racial stereotypes and legitimize aggressive law enforcement practices that continue today.

Canada’s experience, while often portrayed as less severe, absolutely reflects similar patterns. A 2021 peer-reviewed analysis examining cannabis possession arrests in five Canadian cities—Vancouver, Calgary, Regina, Ottawa, and Halifax—found that Black and Indigenous people were over-represented in arrest data in all but one city. These findings challenge the idea that Canada’s war on drugs was race-neutral and highlight the systemic inequities that existed before legalization. This study also concluded that Canadian cannabis legalization lacks sufficient measures to address these historical harms, due to a lack of race-based criminal justice data and transparency.

Legalization Does Not Equal Justice

Prohibition was never about public health. Historical research shows that early cannabis laws were deeply entangled with racist narratives and political power. Criminalization was used as a mechanism to police marginalized communities, particularly Black communities.

This history matters because its effects did not end with legalization. The legal cannabis industry that exists today was built on a system that still excludes many of the communities most harmed by prohibition. Barriers to entry, such as access to capital, licensing requirements, and biased hiring regulations, continue to reflect those inequities and shape who gets to participate and who is left behind.

Acknowledging this reality is an opportunity to examine how the past informs present-day cannabis policy, business opportunities, and workplace culture.

While legalization reduces criminal penalties for future cannabis possession, it does not automatically repair the social and economic harm caused by prohibition-era enforcement. Criminal records, lost income, and generational disadvantage do not disappear when laws change. Justice-focused cannabis reform requires intentional action, including equitable access to industry opportunities and workplace cultures that prioritize inclusion and respect. For retailers, managers, and budtenders, this means recognizing that cannabis is not just another consumer product, but a plant with a complex and enduring history.

Black Leadership and Entrepreneurship in Canada

Regardless of these challenges, Black leaders and entrepreneurs are contributing to advocacy, cultivation, product innovation, and community education in Canada.

Kronic Relief is a Black-owned licensed producer specializing in craft cannabis with a focus on non-irradiated products. Token Naturals, based in Edmonton, Alberta, is a Black-owned and operated extraction facility producing oils, topicals, edibles, and vape products under the leadership of CEO Keenan Pascal. Viola, founded by former NBA player Al Harrington, has grown into one of the largest Black-owned cannabis brands and has expanded into the Canadian market through strategic partnerships. HRVSTR, a family-owned craft cultivation facility, represents another example of Black leadership within Canada’s legal market. Their success highlights the importance of representation and supporting diverse leadership within the industry.

What This Means for Cannabis Retail

For those working on the front lines of cannabis retail, Black History Month is an opportunity to consider how we can shape a more just cannabis industry. Representation is not a trend, but a necessity. Equity initiatives, inclusive hiring practices, thoughtful leadership, and unbiased policies matter. The cannabis industry can learn from its past and build something better, but it requires putting in purposeful effort at every level, from policy to retail floors.

Reflection Questions for Cannabis Professionals

Budtenders:

Why is it important for cannabis professionals to understand who was harmed by prohibition, not just when legalization occurred?

What responsibility do Canadian cannabis professionals have to understand and acknowledge this part of our national history?

When you look at leadership and brand representation in cannabis retail today, whose voices are most visible—and whose are missing?

How can budtenders and retail leaders help create inclusive, respectful environments for both staff and customers?

Managers and Retail Owners

What unconscious biases might influence hiring, training, or promotion decisions in cannabis retail spaces?

How can cannabis education on the retail floor move beyond product specs to include cultural and historical context?

What is one concrete action you or your workplace could take to support equity and inclusion in cannabis this year?

What does it mean to sell cannabis responsibly—not just legally, but ethically?

How can Black History Month serve as a starting point for year-round learning and accountability in the cannabis industry?

Further Reading

Race, cannabis and the Canadian war on drugs: An examination of cannabis arrest data by race in five cities

Cannabis and Black History Month: A Brief Timeline of How the Two are Linked

Roots of Resilience: African American Contributions to the Cannabis Movement

A Great Way To Celebrate Black History Month? Ask African American Cannabis Entrepreneurs Why They Chose That Industry

Why understanding Black history is essential to understanding past and present cannabis policy


Waiting to Inhale: Cannabis Legalization and the Fight for Racial Justice by Akwasi Owusu-Bempah & Tahira Rehmatullah. Published 2023. Examines the intersection of cannabis policy, social justice, and the economic, social, and racial impacts of the War on Drugs and cannabis legalization, highlighting how some benefit financially while marginalized communities face consequences.

Weed: Cannabis Culture in the Americas by Caitlin Donohue. Published 2023. Investigates the history, prohibition, and modern legalization of cannabis across the Western Hemisphere. It offers a harm-reduction-focused, interview-based look at the plant’s impact on society, featuring voices from Canada to Argentina. 

What Brands Are Prioritizing in the Year Ahead

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Over the past several months, the Budtenders Association has held working meetings with cannabis brands across Canada. We spoke directly with the teams responsible for brand strategy and retail execution to understand how operational pressures and resource allocation shape decision-making on education and outreach marketing.

In every conversation, we discovered a clear trend: Brands are prioritizing investments that offer measurable feedback loops and clear outcomes. Teams are under increasing pressure to demonstrate measurable learning returns on educational outreach spending, and that pressure is directly influencing investment decisions.

It’s no longer enough to show activity; the need for measurable learning is reshaping how the industry invests. The challenge is tracking how education or sampling efforts are being understood at retail, including patterns in brand recommendation rates from frontline staff and stronger product recognition among customers.

As a result, familiar outreach strategies that fail to yield actionable insights or clear learning indicators are being deprioritized, and budgets are tightening around what can be tracked and understood. This marks an unmistakable shift in what’s being phased out, what’s gaining momentum, how retail education and engagement spending is shifting toward programs that combine activation with learning. Here’s what we’ve learned about how brands are managing their budgets heading into 2026.

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Budgets are more Focused

What we’re hearing: Brands aren’t cutting spending. They’re scrutinizing it.  

As 2026 begins, one of the strongest signals emerging across the industry is how budgets are being managed and evaluated. Early-year budgets are conservative, and more importantly, decisions about future spending are increasingly tied to proof of impact. The result is a tighter, more deliberate approach to budget allocation.

Instead of broad or open-ended investments, brands are prioritizing initiatives that offer measurable feedback loops and clear outcomes with the focus shifting from spending for presence to spending for insight and informed decision-making. Brands want to know: “What information will this generate that we don’t already have?”

Demonstrated learning is the benchmark. There needs to be tangible evidence that investments are generating insight into retail dynamics, staff confidence, and shopper decision-making. If a program cannot deliver new insight, it is increasingly difficult to defend, and in many cases, seen as neutral, if not risky. Brands are still investing, but the current market has shifted expectations with limited tolerance for programs that feel familiar but fail to generate insight.

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Sampling and Events Have Weak Data Capture

What we’re hearing: Brands are reporting that sampling and event-based strategies are no longer delivering the same results they once did.

The current market has shifted expectations. While sampling remains important, there is limited reporting on how these efforts influence downstream behaviour, including purchases and product recommendations. Simply attending events does not provide the feedback brands need to optimize future programs or justify continued spend. The challenge is understanding how these programs relate to recommendation patterns and decision confidence.

Sampling still matters, but it’s no longer enough on its own. Budgets are shifting toward initiatives that pair activation with measurable insight to better understand brand recommendation patterns and product recognition among customers. The priority is programs that combine outreach with education, data tracking, and evaluation to provide actionable feedback for more effective investment.  

Retail is Going Digital, and Education is Moving With It

What we’re hearing: Digital menus and internal retail platforms play an increasingly central role in how products are presented and recommended.

Retail environments are changing. Less physical shelf space has fundamentally changed the retail environment and the expectations placed on cannabis brands, particularly in how they support staff who interact directly with customers. Retailers are asking for education and marketing that fits within their internal online systems, and increasing their expectations of how cannabis brands support staff education.

Brands are expected to deliver learning programs that are informative, accessible, measurable, and adaptable. Marketing is no longer effective when limited to printed materials. This means providing digital modules, learning tools, and compliant materials tailored to specific staff roles and individual retailers. The challenge is that many brands don’t have the infrastructure to deliver this kind of education or the systems in place to measure its success.

The Biggest Gap: Decision Insight

What we’re hearing: There is a lack of visibility into decision-making at the retail level.

Throughout these conversations, one gap surfaced repeatedly:  Brands do not know why their products are being recommended, what limits follow-through at the shelf or on the menu, or how education relates to staff confidence.

Outreach strategies that distribute products or provide education without capturing measurable feedback are not sufficient. Capturing data on what shapes recommendation patterns, decision follow-through, and confidence is how brands can make informed decisions. Teams must be able to refine their strategies and show the value of their outreach efforts. Without this information, outreach and education spending is uninformed.

Activation without insight is not in the budget. Brands are looking for ways to engage retail and consumers while also capturing information that can guide future decisions. Closing this feedback loop better positions teams to respond to the changing expectations of both retailers and consumers.

Where Spend is Moving in 2026

What we’re hearing: Brands are deprioritizing broad sponsorships, awareness-only campaigns, and long-term partnerships without benchmarks.

Broad sponsorships and awareness-only campaigns are being deprioritized and long-term partnerships without benchmarks are facing increased scrutiny. Annual budgets are prioritizing retail staff enablement, digital education, and initiatives that connect in-store presence with actionable insight.

Shorter cycles, clearer metrics, and measurable outcomes are becoming standard expectations and shaping where investment is moving. The underlying driver across these shifts is confidence. Brands want confidence that their investment produces learning that strengthens decision confidence at the retail level.

What This Means for the Cannabis Industry

Success will not necessarily come from being the most visible or the most active. It will come from being the most informed. Brands that understand what shapes recommendation patterns, what limits decision follow-through, and what retail staff need to feel confident will be better positioned to compete.

For the industry, this marks a meaningful shift in how brands allocate spending in 2026. Outreach strategies that distribute products or provide education without capturing data on what drives recommendations, conversions, and confidence are no longer in the budget when teams can’t refine their strategies, and demonstrate the value of these outreach efforts. For brands navigating these changes, these insights are not optional. They drive informed investment and builds long-term resilient growth.

At the Budtenders Association, our role is to support this evolution. We work with brands to educate retailers more effectively, capture real-world insight, and replace fragmented efforts with measurable signals as part of our commitment to a more informed, effective cannabis industry.

If you’re curious about what brands like yours are prioritizing this year, we’re always open to a conversation. Our Brand Health Index supports smarter investment decisions by revealing measurable insight into what shapes recommendation patterns and decision confidence at retail.


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10 Things to Shake off the Gloomies (none of them are “go for a walk”)

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Sometimes you are not depressed, broken, or in need of a major life overhaul. You’re just in a funk. It is that low-level fog where nothing feels terrible… but nothing feels good either. A funk is not a crisis. You don’t need a full emotional excavation. You just need movement, novelty, and tiny sparks. We’re not going to tell you to “go for a walk” and there’s no pressure to “fix” yourself or turn it into a whole thing. Just small shifts that remind you you’re alive.

The first thing to do when you are in a funk is get a beverage. It sounds weird. Maybe even dumb. But there is something about getting a beverage you’ve never tried that helps shift your mood. A fancy coffee, a Shirley Temple, try a new soda, or maybe matcha. The novelty alone can shift any bad mood. It works.

Bake something. Keep it simple and make a box cake. Or make it complicated and go all out if that’s your thing. Literally just bake something.

Do nothing. On purpose. Make a list of your comfort shows and emotional support movies (mine’s Titanic). When the funk hits, put something on and watch it for as long as you want. Just lie down, press play, and turn your brain off.

Start putting names to the faces you see every day. Micro-interactions can make a huge difference in your day. Start in your neighbourhood. If you walk the same route every day, go to the same coffee shop, bus stop, or store, and pass the same people regularly, begin to acknowledge them. Make eye contact. Smile and say “good morning.” Ask how their day’s going.  Over time, introduce yourself and ask their name. These small interactions build a sense of community and belonging in the place where you already exist. You are not moving through the world alone.

Doomscroll a place you have always wanted to go. Spend a few hours watching travel videos, reading blogs, and looking at pictures of somewhere you’ve never been. A city you want to visit. A country you’re curious about. Let yourself casually explore a future beyond today.

Go to the dollar store. You don’t need a reason. Grab candles, stickers, or a shitty little craft kit. Get something small that feels nice. Little treats can counteract a funk more than we admit.

Take a shower. Not a full “everything” shower. Just get in and touch water. Then put on a robe, wrap your hair in a towel, and lie in bed. A shower resets a lot more than we give it credit for.

Develop a skill in something you always wanted to do. Something outside your career. Something that doesn’t need to be productive or profitable. Crochet. Painting. Weight lifting. Running a mile. Running a marathon. Learn how to swim. Swim in the ocean. Take a skiing lesson. Learn how to skateboard, or roller blade, or screen print. Cook one really impressive dish. Start learning a new language. Take a class. Watching yourself get better at something you’ve never done changes how you see yourself. This is just for you. You don’t need to be good. You just need to start.

Start a photo album on your phone filled only with photos that make you happy. Memes. Happy moments. Your best friend. Your favourite tree. No photos from a trip with your ex. No emotional landmines. No jump scares. Just photos that instantly make you smile. Main character energy only.

Add flair to your outfit. It’s not shallow or frivolous. When everything feels flat, self-expression is empowering. Show up in what you wear. Express your inner self on the outside. A favourite bracelet. A band t-shirt. Your favourite colour. You don’t need a new identity, just put something on your body that says something about who you are for the world to see.

Funks shrink your world. Expand it gently. I promise, you don’t need to overhaul your life. You just need a little motion, connection, and novelty. Trying out these small shifts can bring you back into your body, your environment, and your dynamic self.

Cannabis, Feelings, and the Power of Naming What’s Really Going On

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Most cannabis consumers can describe how a product makes them feel physically: relaxed, uplifted, heavy, creative. But far fewer can clearly describe what’s happening emotionally during or after a session. That’s not a failure. Emotional language isn’t something most of us were taught. And when life feels busy, stressful, or overwhelming, it’s easy to collapse everything into one vague feeling: fine, burnt out, anxious, or over it.

When used with intention, cannabis can slow things down just enough to notice what’s underneath. Paired with a simple emotional-mapping tool, such as a Feelings Wheel, it can turn a routine session into an opportunity for insight.

Why Cannabis Can Make Emotions More Noticeable

Cannabis doesn’t create emotions out of thin air. What it often does is reduce background noise, mental multitasking, constant stimulation, or internal pressure enough that emotional signals become easier to hear.

For some, cannabis creates calm. For others, it highlights sudden awareness: irritation you didn’t realize you were carrying, sadness you’ve been avoiding, or relief you didn’t know you needed. This is why intention matters for regular and new cannabis consumers. Without it, cannabis can become a way to mute emotional discomfort. With it, cannabis can support awareness and help you notice what your nervous system has been trying to communicate.rt.

The Role of an Emotions Wheel

An emotions wheel is simply a visual map of feelings from broad emotional states at the center to more specific ones at the edges. Its value isn’t in being “right,” but in offering visual cues and language.

Instead of stopping at:
“I’m stressed.”
“I feel off.”
“I’m in a weird mood.”

You can explore:
Is this stress actually pressure?
Is this heaviness disappointment, grief, or exhaustion?
Is this restlessness anticipation, anxiety, or boredom?

For cannabis consumers, this matters because cannabis can either blur or sharpen emotional clarity, depending on dose, strain, and mindset. The wheel grounds your awareness and provides language to work through your emotions. Once you name a feeling, it’s easier to address.

Choosing Cannabis for Emotional Awareness

Not all cannabis experiences support reflection. High-THC products can amplify emotions too quickly, making it harder to stay present.  If your goal is emotional insight rather than intensity, consider:

Micro-dosing THC to avoid emotional overload
Balanced THC:CBD products for steadier awareness
CBD-dominant options if you’re feeling anxious or emotionally sensitive

A Cannabis-Centred Emotional Check-In

This practice can take 10 to 30 minutes.

1. Set your reason for consuming
Before you light up or take an edible, ask: What am I hoping to get from this session?
Relaxation, clarity, grounding, and curiosity are all valid, but naming it matters.

2. Consume slowly
Especially if you’re checking in emotionally. Give yourself time to feel the shift instead of rushing past it.

3. Notice your internal state
As the effects settle in, scan your body and mind:
Is your jaw tight?
Is your chest heavy or open?
Are your thoughts racing or slowing?

4. Use emotional language, not judgment
Instead of asking What’s wrong with me?
Ask “What emotion fits this feeling best right now?”
Start broad, then get more specific.

5. Sit with it briefly
You don’t need to analyze or solve anything. Often, simply naming an emotion reduces its intensity.

6. Capture patterns
If you journal or reflect regularly, you may start noticing trends:

  • Certain strains are linked to irritability or calmness
  • Emotional shifts tied to time of day or stress levels
  • Reasons you reach for cannabis emotionally, not just habitually

What This Practice Can Teach Regular Cannabis Consumers

Over time, emotional check-ins can reveal important insights:
Are you using cannabis to avoid discomfort — or to understand it?
Does cannabis help you unwind or postpone emotional processing?
Which emotions tend to surface most often when you slow down?

This isn’t about quitting or cutting back. It’s about your relationship with the plant. A healthier relationship with cannabis often starts with a more honest relationship with your emotional state.

Emotional Awareness ≠ Emotional Fixing

Cannabis doesn’t need to resolve your feelings to be useful. Awareness alone can change how emotions move through you.

When you can say:
“This is frustration, not anger.”
“This is loneliness, not boredom.”
“This is relief mixed with grief.”

You gain choice. Choice in how you respond. Choice in whether cannabis supports the moment, or recognition that something else might serve you better.

A More Intentional Way to Consume

Some sessions will feel light and easy. Others may surface uncomfortable truths. Both are part of mindful consumption and benefit maximization with cannabis. Used thoughtfully, cannabis helps you listen to your inner world.  Naming what you feel is a first step toward feeling grounded, more regulated, and more in control of your experience.

Using cannabis with emotional awareness tools isn’t about turning every session into therapy.  It’s about building a habit of checking in instead of checking out. Not every session will be profound, and not every emotion will be easy to face. That’s normal. But it might transform how you approach cannabis and support unexpected personal growth. Try it yourself:

Cannabis as a Lens into Mood and Stress

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Many people use cannabis as a way to decompress after a long day. But did you know it does something deeper? Something more subtle and fascinating? Maybe you’ve noticed that a song hits differently, a sunset feels more profound, or a huge worry suddenly feels small after smoking a joint? It’s actually your brain’s emotional circuitry in action, and emerging research is suggesting that cannabis isn’t changing your mood. It’s making you more aware of it by heightening the emotions that are already there.

THC and CBD are Emotional Amplifiers

THC, aside from being the compound that brings the high, can heighten the intensity of your feelings. It binds to the receptors in the brain’s endocannabinoid system which is the area of the brain that regulates stress, reward, and mood. On the other hand, CBD, the non-intoxicating counterpart, works more subtly. It can help to calm overactive stress circuits in the amygdala (your brain’s alarm center) without dulling your cognition, and bring clarity to your emotional or mental state. These major cannabinoids aren’t switching emotions on or off. They’re emotional amplifiers.

The Science of Awareness

Emotional granularity is the ability to notice and accurately label subtle feelings. Higher granularity is linked to better stress management, emotional regulation, and decision-making. Cannabis, when used mindfully, can temporarily enhance this awareness, allowing you to notice small emotional shifts that often go ignored in day-to-day life.

It’s like turning up the contrast on a photo. Things you might not have seen clearly before suddenly stand out: a fleeting moment of happiness, a trace of anxiety, or a tension you didn’t realize you were carrying.

Approach cannabis with intention because this heightened awareness isn’t always comfortable. Cannabis can intensify negative feelings, especially in stressful moments. That’s why context and setting matter. Your mindset, your environment, and even the strain you choose can all influence your overall experience. When cannabis is not as an escape but as a tool for observation, it will maximize the plants’ potential to help you connect with your emotional inner landscape.

Mindfulness and Cannabis

There’s a reason people recommend using cannabis to elevate mindfulness practices. Both invite you to observe your thoughts and emotions without immediately reacting. In fact, many mental health researchers are sharing ways to pair low-dose or CBD-rich cannabis with journaling, guided reflection, or mindful breath work. The goal is to unmask emotions so you can see, understand, and engage them to respond more thoughtfully.

Why This Matters for Cannabis Consumers

In a fast-paced world where so much of our emotional life goes unnoticed, cannabis can offer a rare opportunity to see and understand your feelings more clearly, to recognize patterns, and to reflect on the root of what truly affects you. This approach is less about chasing a high or dulling a potentially negative experience, and more about cultivating awareness to understand the feelings behind it.

When used thoughtfully, cannabis isn’t altering your mood. It’s acting as a mirror, magnifying joy, clarifying stress, and revealing the subtle emotional currents that shape our daily experience. If you’re willing to try, why not approach your next decompression sesh with curiosity and mindfulness? It may be the most meaningful tool for managing stress and understanding your mood.

BTA Launches Groundbreaking Learn & Earn™ Platform and Canada’s First-Ever Cannabis Brand Health Index™

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A first-of-its-kind education, rewards, and insights ecosystem redefining how consumers, brands, policy, and frontline professionals connect with cannabis and each other.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | JANUARY 26, 2026 | TORONTO —The Budtenders Association (BTA) has officially launched its newly redesigned digital platform, introducing two industry-defining innovations: Learn & Earn™, a rewards-based education portal for frontline professionals and shoppers, and the Brand Health Index™(BHI)—Canada’s first centralized, ongoing brand trust and perception intelligence warehouse built from verified retail and consumer insights.

This launch marks a historic milestone for the Canadian cannabis industry. Until now, no platform has successfully combined education, incentives, and real-world behavioural intelligence into a single, scalable ecosystem.

“With Learn & Earn and the Brand Health Index, we’re flipping that model. This platform rewards education, amplifies frontline voices, and gives industry leaders access to insights they’ve never had before, directly from the people shaping purchasing decisions and consumption patterns everyday.”

Learn & Earn™: Education and Rewards

The Learn & Earn™ portal allows members to complete informative micro-learning modules, brand experiences, and industry content in exchange for points redeemable for real-world rewards. Unlike traditional training portals, Learn & Earn is designed to drive engagement, not obligation, empowering budtenders, retail staff, and consumers to deepen their knowledge while being recognized for their time and expertise.

Key features include:

  • Verified resources and brand learning modules
  • Points-based rewards and incentives
  • Inclusive access for frontline staff, management, and consumers
  • Ongoing engagement rather than one-time training

This approach addresses a deeper industry challenge: moving beyond transactional training toward a culture of informed, responsible cannabis use, guided by education and real-world insight.

The Brand Health Index™

Launching alongside Learn & Earn is the BTA Brand Health Index™(BHI), a first-of-its-kind cannabis insights portal that measures brand trust, familiarity, and perception across Canada, through carefully developed research methodology and longitudinal study using ongoing insights shared directly by the frontlines; shoppers and retail professionals.

The BHI provides partners with:

  • Real-time visibility into brand trust and credibility
  • Longitudinal tracking of brand performance
  • Insight into what drives loyalty—and what erodes it
  • A benchmark against industry peers

Unlike traditional research snapshots, the Brand Health Index is continuous, standardized, and grounded in frontline reality, offering brands an unprecedented feedback loop in a rapidly evolving market.

A New Standard for Cannabis Industry Engagement

Together, Learn & Earn™ and the Brand Health Index™ establish a new standard for how education, engagement, and intelligence operate within the industry. The platform reinforces BTA’s mission to advocate for, empower, and elevate frontline voices while providing brands with ethical, actionable insight.

With no comparable system currently operating in Canada, the launch represents a defining step forward for a maturing industry seeking transparency, accountability, and stronger relationships between brands and the people who represent them daily.

About the BTA
Since 2020, The Budtenders Association (BTA) is Canada’s leading community-driven organization dedicated to supporting frontline cannabis retail professionals and informed consumers through education, advocacy, and insight. By bridging the gap between brands and the people who influence purchasing decisions, BTA is shaping the future of industry engagement.

Media Contact: Casey Hiltemann
Founder, Budtenders Association
[email protected]
www.budtendersassociation.ca

Download BTA Press Release 2026

Understanding Dry Flower Pricing

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Often in dispensaries, I hear consumers dismiss their budtender digging for information; “It’s all the same, I just want the cheapest” they claim! Budtenders are in the unique position to show these clients a better experience by explaining what can drive the price between these products up!

Production Methods Matter!

It all comes down to the method of production, and how much production went into your product. Dry flower can come as whole flower, pre-ground, or pre-rolled; Pre-Rolls generally at an elevated cost due to needing to be rolled, and pre-ground at a lesser cost as it (often) utilizes dry cannabis that wouldn’t be well-received in a jar! 

Starting with rare genetics may elevate some costs, especially if there are inherent difficulties with that phenotype; such as Blueberry’s notorious PM issues.

Human hands & eyes are the most effective tools for producing amazing buds, and that means these folks need to be paid! The more people in the facility nurturing your cannabis, the better; they all bring expertise that will change every element of the flower inside – from how it looks to how it smokes!

A Master Grower can identify what their crops need to grow healthy and potent while a machine just gauging the moisture and feeding on a schedule cannot. A trained trimmer can perfectly manicure your flower, while a machine will remove trichome heads and leaves indiscriminately. 

So What Do We Do?

To uncover why the price is elevated, encourage your budtenders to browse the brand’s website and the website of your provincial wholesaler, which contain most of the pertinent information. Another amazing source of information is the brand’s territory manager, who will be happy to answer any questions your budtenders may have.

How to Make a Career Transition

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They say the better you know your customers, the further you will go. For cannabis producers, the bridge between a company’s customers and their growth is budtenders.

Budtenders are the first to hear about consumer questions, desires, concerns and complaints. That’s the kind of “data” cannabis businesses need when discussing how to improve their products and stand out from competitors. Your experience and interactions with customers is what businesses need to grow and improve. Why hire fancy market researchers when you can talk to a budtender? 

Budtending is not a “dead end” job. It’s a springboard to other careers within the cannabis industry. It’s just a matter of having some direction and proactivity to get there (as with anything in life).

As the owner of a digital marketing agency, I often work with and mentor writers and designers that come from budtending and trimming. In this blog post, I’ll share my two-cents on how to transition from budtender to cannabis marketer. 

A Transition into Cannabis Marketing

The cannabis industry is made up of dozens of winding career paths. From cultivation, production, distribution and packaging all the way to research, data and compliance, and anywhere in between, the avenues are endless.

The career path I know best is marketing. If you’re someone that … 

  • Gets bored easily and prefers project-based work.
  • Strives to be empathetic and a strong communicator. Either with words or visuals.
  • Has a combination of creative and analytical skills.
  • Wants the option to work remotely or in another industry.
  • Believes everything is “figureoutable”.

… then marketing may be a good fit for you, too.

Simple put, marketing is the practice of persuading people to take action. Cannabis being a consumer packaged good (CPG), there are typically two types of marketing: trade and digital.

Where a trade marketer’s job is to get a product on a store’s shelves, a digital marketer’s job is to get it on consumer’s screens. 

Marketing Avenues

Most marketers, including myself, start off as generalists. As a generalist, you’ll do a little bit of everything. 

Some days, you’ll orchestrate an email marketing campaign. Sometimes you’ll find yourself designing graphics or negotiating with influencers. In between it all, you’ll research, brainstorm,  strategize and analyze.

While some generalists go on to become department managers, others prefer to specialize in a specific skill set or marketing channel. Here are some examples:

  • Copywriting and content writing
  • Email marketing 
  • Graphic design, photography and video
  • Branding
  • Search engine optimization
  • Online advertising * 
  • Public relations and influencer marketing *

* Paid advertising is a gray-area in the cannabis industry and there aren’t many opportunities. However, this could change if Big Tech changes their advertising policies.

Learn from the Best

A career in marketing means you’ll constantly be learning. 

Start with learning as much as you can. Learn a little about everything before you specialize in a specific area of marketing. There’s no need to jump into a formal education program from the get-go. The internet is your oyster and there are plenty of free resources available online like articles, videos, podcasts and short online courses. 

Choose a company you admire and stalk the marketers behind it. Follow them on social media, study their careers and cadence their style. When learning any new skill, it’s natural to copy the best until you have enough knowledge and confidence to make your own decisions and opinions.

Lastly, read books about marketing, communications and psychology. My favourites are This is Marketing by Seth Godin, Scientific Advertising by Claude Hopkins, Make it Stick by Chip and Dan Heath, Building a Story Brand by Donald Miller and Influence by Robert Caldini.

Dabble on Your Own

In my books, lessons from real-life experience will always triumph lessons from a classroom.

Instead of enrolling in a formal education program, take on a project of your own. Start a blog, a YouTube channel or an e-commerce website. It can be about whatever you want. Learn what it’s like to create something from nothing and market it from the ground up. This will be a part of your portfolio.

It probably won’t make a profit. Heck, you’ll probably lose money. However, you’ll learn tremendously from the first-hand experience and that’s worth so much more than a college tuition.

Pitch Your Skills at Work

Once you have a baseline, pitch your new skills at work. Could the check-out counter display be improved? Do you see a way to increase engagement on social media? How can you negotiate and increase sales with cannabis brands? What about your ranking on Google Maps? Look for an opportunity to improve something about the business’s marketing efforts and offer to help.

If your employer isn’t willing, offer your skills elsewhere. When I first wanted to specialize in search engine marketing, I offered to get local mom-and-pop shops on Google Maps for $100. Now, I do it for a couple grand but it takes me a quarter of the time to do the same job and my results are tremendously better. 

You’ll only get so far applying your skills to your own projects. Venture out and take on projects that are bigger and different than what you’re comfortable with.

Keep a catalogue of your best projects on a portfolio website. Graphic designers do a great job of this. When applying for marketing jobs, having a website portfolio of 1 or 2 excellent projects will be stronger than a PDF resume.

Written by Daniela Furtado from Findable Digital Marketing for the Budtenders Association

About Daniela Furtado: At Findable Digital Marketing, Daniela helps businesses get quality traffic and sales from their website. Her specialization is cannabis SEO. Connect with Daniela on LinkedIn.

The Brands Winning Today Treat Budtenders and Consumers as Partners

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The results are in: Cannabis brand loyalty isn’t dead. But it is conditional.

The BTA surveyed its community on brand familiarity, trust, purchasing behaviour, and perceptions to capture insights on what actually builds trust and loyalty in the cannabis space.

We surveyed the BTA community to understand how brand trust is built, broken, and earned in today’s market and the answers are clear: brands winning right now aren’t the loudest or flashiest. They’re the most consistent, transparent, and respectful of the people selling and buying their products.

What is disappearing? Blind loyalty. In its place is a more informed, more skeptical, and more demanding audience: budtenders and consumers who know the market, track quality, compare batches, and remember how brands show up when things go wrong.

Across the survey, the brands praised most consistently shared the same behaviours. These brands don’t treat retail or consumers as a channel. They treat them as collaborators. They engage directly with budtenders instead of speaking at them. They respond publicly and transparently when questions or issues arise. And they resist the temptation to over-market, inflate claims, or rely on hype to carry the product.


1. Today’s Strongest Brands Aren’t Selling Products. They’re Building Partnerships.

The cannabis industry is a brand-literate audience. One of the strongest signals in the survey was just how familiar respondents are with cannabis brands in their province.

68% of respondents say they are very familiar with available brands and actively compare them
26% say they are somewhat familiar and can still name specific trusted brands
Only 6% report low or no brand familiarity

That means 94% of respondents are brand-aware and most are making intentional, informed choices. Budtenders and experienced consumers are not discovering brands for the first time. They’re validating claims, cross-checking terpene profiles, remembering past batches, and sharing feedback with peers.

This has major implications for marketing and sales. Cannabis brands are not marketing to beginners. They’re marketing to people who remember everything.

2. Brand Power In Cannabis Is Conditional.

When asked how much a brand name influences purchasing decisions, responses showed a clear middle ground:

24% say brand name influences them very strongly
52% say brand influence is moderate
24% say brand influence is low or minimal

Very few respondents said brand name doesn’t matter at all — but very few said it overrides everything else either. This tells us something critical: A recognizable name may earn attention on a menu or shelf, but it does not guarantee a sale or a second chance. Brand names open the door. Trust decides whether it stays open.

What actually builds trust?

When respondents were asked what makes them trust a cannabis brand, the answers were strikingly consistent and the takeaway is unmistakable: Consistency and transparency are not “nice to have.” They are the foundation of trust.

The top trust drivers from our multi-select question:

88% cite consistent product quality
63% point to positive past experience
58% value transparency around terpenes, sourcing, cultivation, and potency
41% trust brands with responsible or sustainable practices
39% rely on budtender or peer recommendations

In contrast, traditionally “strong” marketing signals ranked far lower:

22% said brand story or authenticity alone builds trust
18% cited packaging or visual identity

When asked what causes them to lose trust in a brand, respondents were clear (multi-select):

76% say inconsistent quality between batches
61% cite lack of transparency (THC, terpenes, sourcing)
54% mention poor customer or retail support
49% point to price increases without clear quality improvement
38% say product recalls or compliance issues
31% are turned off by overly aggressive or misleading marketing

Beyond the numbers, strong emotional reactions appeared repeatedly in open responses when retailers were ignored or “ghosted” and quality issues weren’t acknowledged. The take-away? One bad batch can undo years of brand equity especially when accountability is missing.

3. Loyalty Is Real. But It’s Fragile.

When asked what they associate most with brands they love, the hierarchy was clear: the strongest brands feel reliable and honest.

82% associate favourite brands with quality and reliability
44% associate them with innovation — but only when quality is stable
41% value education and transparency
36% connect with alignment to values (sustainability, honesty, community)

Most people operate within a small rotation of trusted brands, experimenting occasionally but returning to what has proven reliable with 62% of respondents often repurchasing the same brands. This behaviour was especially strong among more experienced respondents, many of whom selected “always stick to brands I trust.”

Even among those who claim low loyalty, quality signals still guide purchasing decisions. The data points to a clear, unavoidable conclusion: the brands winning today are the ones treating budtenders and consumers as partners, not targets. In a market this saturated and this informed, trust is not something that can be manufactured through louder messaging or flashier branding. It has to be earned, batch by batch, interaction by interaction.

What would increase loyalty the most?

When asked what would make them more loyal to a brand, the same themes surfaced again and again. The top brand loyalty builders (in order):

1. Consistent quality across batches
2. Better product education
3. Sampling or trial opportunities
4. Product innovation (after quality is locked)
5. Budtender training and engagement
6. Real sustainability and social responsibility
7. Rewards or loyalty programs

What budtenders and consumers are asking for isn’t complicated: it’s education, access, and reliability. Not discounts and swag.

4. Cannabis Loyalty Is Flexible And Easily Disrupted By Inconsistency.

Trust in cannabis is built through fundamentals that cannot be faked: consistent product quality, honest transparency around what’s in the jar, genuine respect for retail staff, and accountability when things go wrong. These are not “nice-to-haves” — they are the baseline expectations of a brand-literate audience.

Marketing may still spark initial interest. But loyalty is decided after the sale. When the product performs as promised, when questions are answered instead of ignored, and when brands stand behind their offerings instead of disappearing.

What makes these findings significant is not just what people said, but how consistently they said it. Budtenders and consumers are aligned. They are paying attention. And they are quietly rewarding the brands that treat them like partners in the process.

Source: BTA Brand Trust & Loyalty Survey, January 2025