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Training Cannabis Store Personnel in Responsible Vendor Practices

Training Cannabis Store Personnel in Responsible Vendor Practices

Dr. W. Gill Woodall, Klein Buendel Senior Scientist, participated in a panel discussion at the 45th Annual Scientific Meeting of the Research Society on Alcoholism, June 25-29, in Orlando, Florida. He presented data and results from a recent study assessing and training cannabis store personnel in responsible vendor practices. In the wake of a great expansion of recreational cannabis, the prevention of harms related to polysubstance use has gathered attention as well. Specific and effective prevention strategies are needed. One potential approach borrows from alcohol prevention – responsible sales and service.

Regulations in all state recreational cannabis markets prohibit sales of marijuana products to customers under age 21 and in a few markets, sales to intoxicated customers. Using pseudo-patron methods, our team assessed sales to underage-appearing customers in recreational cannabis stores in Colorado and Washington State (175 stores) in 2016-17 and sales to apparently alcohol-intoxicated customers in stores in Colorado, Oregon, and Washington State (150 stores) in 2018.

Refusal of underage-appearing pseudo-patrons were very frequent (92.6%). By comparison, refusal of apparently alcohol-intoxicated pseudo-patrons was infrequent in all three states (11.0%), even though Oregon state law explicitly prohibited it. An online survey of personnel from 59 stores in 2020 explored frequency of sales to these customers. Respondents indicated that underage customers attempted to enter stores frequently (66.1% several/many times) and customers entered stores who were intoxicated by alcohol (40.7%) or marijuana (44.1%). They often refused sales to customers (57.6% several/many times for any reason; 42.4% for being intoxicated). Management support was high for checking IDs (91.5% supported it a lot) but moderate for refusing to sell to customers appearing intoxicated (74.6%).

An online responsible marijuana vendor training created by Dr. Woodall and his collaborators from Klein Buendel and the Prevention Research Center at the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation (PIRE) called “Train To Tend,” may have improved refusal to under-age customers at the entrances in stores that used it (trained stores: 65.9%, baseline, 82.5%, 3-month posttest, and 79.9%, 9-month posttest; untrained stores: 82.6%, 83.1%, 84.5% respectively), but did not seem to impact sales to intoxicated customers (intervention: 11.6%, control: 7.6%).

Deterrence due to state regulations or store policy for sales of cannabis products appears to be lower for sales to customers who appear intoxicated than underage customers in these cannabis markets. Training in responsible sales practices alone may not be successful when deterrence is low. Increasing deterrence may depend on regulators actively prioritizing the law to store licensees and monitoring compliance. Improve understanding of how regulatory policy and retail availability affect potential co-use of alcohol and cannabis in the legalized adult-use markets.

This research was funded by a grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse at the National Institutes of Health (DA038933; Dr. David Buller, Principal Investigator). Dr. Woodall’s Co-Investigators include Dr. Robert Saltz from the Prevention Research Center at PIRE and Dr. David Buller from Klein Buendel.

Online Responsible Vendor Training in Recreational Marijuana Stores

Online Responsible Vendor Training in Recreational Marijuana Stores

A collaborative research team with scientists and staff from Klein Buendel, the Prevention Research Center in Berkeley, California, and the University of Alabama, Birmingham recently published the results from a randomized trial testing an online responsible vendor training program in recreational marijuana stores in the United States. The team was led by Dr. David Buller, Director of Research, and the results were published in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs (JSAD).

The responsible marijuana vendor (RMV) training program implemented in the study was Train To Tend®. Train To Tend is an interactive, media-rich, online, comprehensive RMV program created by Klein Buendel. It’s five modules address state laws and regulations, preventing sales to minors, health effects of marijuana, customer service, and rules of the trade. Train To Tend provides state-approved instruction and certification of cannabis sellers. 

In the JSAD publication, the authors detail the measures, methods, analyses, and results of the randomized trial to evaluate the impact of the RMV training program on refusing sales to buyers without proper identification. The trial was conducted with 175 recreational marijuana stores in Colorado and Washington State using a pseudo-underage patron procedure. The results showed that online RMV training could increase sellers’ refusal of potential buyers at entrance to the store who looked youthful and did not provide state-approved identification.

As more states legalize recreational marijuana sales, responsible vendor training in the safe sale of cannabis products can become more essential to helping to ensure youth and community safety.

This research was funded by a grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse at the National Institutes of Health (DA038933; Dr. David Buller, Principal Investigator). Co-authors on the publication include Dr. Robert Saltz from the Prevention Research Center in California; Dr. Gary Cutter from the University of Alabama, Birmingham; and Dr. W. Gill Woodall, Andrew Grayson, Mary Klein Buller, Sierra Svendsen, and Xia (Lucia) Liu from Klein Buendel.

Effects of an Online Responsible Vendor Training for Recreational Marijuana Stores

Effects of an Online Responsible Vendor Training for Recreational Marijuana Stores

The Train To Tend® responsible marijuana vendor (RMV) training research team recently published results from online RMV training on responsible sales for recreational marijuana store personnel as an abstract for the Annals of Behavioral Medicine. The Train To Tend research team is led by Dr. David Buller from Klein Buendel who would have presented the findings at the 41st Annual Meeting and Scientific Sessions of the Society of Behavioral Medicine in San Francisco, had the conference been held as planned.

Recreational marijuana regulations have been designed, in part, to ensure that cannabis products are sold only to adults over the age of 21 who provide state-approved identification (ID). The Train to Tend online RMV training was developed with input from state regulators and recreational marijuana store personnel to train store staff. The training consists of five modules with interactive learning elements that cover state laws, ID checking, health effects of marijuana, driving under the influence, refusal of sales to intoxicated customers, and store processes, such as product labeling and tracking.

A sample of 175 recreational marijuana stores in Colorado and Washington were selected for a randomized controlled trial with sales to pseudo-underage customers. Of the 175 stores, 75 were assigned to the control condition (usual and customary training) and the remaining 100 were given the online RMV training. At baseline, sales of marijuana to pseudo-underage buyers were refused at 93% of 349 visits to stores across the two states. After adjusting for store characteristics, there was no difference in change in refusal rates between treatment groups from baseline, to a 3-month posttest, or a 9-month posttest. For the intervention stores, training uptake was not related to refusal rate and nearly all recreational cannabis stores refused sales to young patrons who failed to produce appropriate ID.

This research was funded by a grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse at the National Institutes of Health (DA038933; Dr. David Buller, Principal Investigator). Co-authors include Dr. Robert Saltz from the Prevention Research Center at the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation; Dr. Gary Cutter from the University of Alabama, Birmingham; and Dr. Gill Woodall, Andrew Grayson, Mary Buller, Sierra Svendsen, and Lucia Liu from Klein Buendel.

Responsible Marijuana Vendor Training

Responsible Marijuana Vendor Training

Dr. David Buller, Klein Buendel Senior Scientist and Director of Research, presented recent work by his research team at the Tenth European Society for Prevention Research (EUSPR) Conference and Members’ Meeting in Ghent, Belgium in September. His presentation, “Effects of an Online Responsible Vendor Training for Recreational Cannabis Stores on Sales to Pseudo-intoxicated Customers: Need for Increased Deterrence,” was coauthored by Dr. Gill Woodall, Mr. Andrew Grayson, Ms. Sierra Svendsen, and Ms. Mary Buller from Klein Buendel; and Dr. Robert Saltz from the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation.

The advent of recreational cannabis in Canada, Uruguay, and several U.S. states raises the risk of polysubstance-impaired driving. In alcohol markets, training in responsible sales practices is an intervention to reduce sales to intoxicated patrons and thus prevent impaired driving and other harms. Similar training may benefit communities with recreational cannabis sales.

An online responsible marijuana vendor (RMV) training, Train To Tend, was developed with input from state regulators and store personnel. Among its five modules, learning elements taught store personnel to recognize signs of alcohol impairment and intoxication, refuse sales, and understand the risks of driving under the influence of cannabis. A sample of 150 recreational cannabis stores in Colorado, Oregon, and Washington State, USA were enrolled in a randomized controlled trial, half of which were randomly assigned to use the RMV training. Stores were posttested using a pseudo-intoxicated patron (PiP) protocol in which confederate buyers feigned obvious signs of intoxication.

Sales of cannabis to PiPs were refused at only 16 of 144 stores across the three states. There was no difference in refusal rates between intervention and control stores or between stores that used the RMV training or not. In 11 visits, store personnel commented on the buyers’ behavior or expressed concern/suspicion about buyers but sold to them anyway.

Training in responsible sales practices alone did not appear to reduce sales to intoxicated customers. Legal deterrence from making these sales may be insufficient or nonexistent for store management to support adherence to this responsible sales practice. Regulatory actions (such as swift, severe, and certain penalties) may be needed to increase perceived risk with such sales  to achieve training’s benefits.

This research was sponsored by a grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse at the National Institutes of Health (DA038933; Dr. David Buller, Principal Investigator). Train To Tend was programmed by the Creative Team at Klein Buendel.

Dr. David Buller presenting the RMV training program
Train To Tend Licensed to Avid Will LLC

Train To Tend Licensed to Avid Will LLC

Klein Buendel has licensed its online responsible vendor training program for recreational marijuana stores, Train To Tend®, to Avid Will LLC for sales and marketing. Senior Scientists, Dr. David Buller and Dr. W. Gill Woodall, and their collaborators created Train To Tend to provide retail staff with knowledge and skills to sell recreational marijuana responsibly in an effort to keep their communities safe. Avid Will LLC will make Train to Tend available immediately to retail recreational marijuana stores in Colorado. State-specific versions for Oregon, Washington State, Massachusetts, and California will be launched this year, as well.

In 2017 and 2018, Train To Tend was tested using a random sample of state-licensed recreational marijuana stores (n=225) in Colorado, Oregon, and Washington State. One hundred twenty-five stores were randomly selected to receive the Train To Tend training while the remaining stores received the usual and customary training in their state. Post-training surveys were administered to Train To Tend trainees to gauge their perceptions of self-efficacy toward responsible vending practices, as well as their ratings of usability for Train To Tend.

The training improved trainees’ ability to check IDs, and their confidence in using their state’s inventory tracking system and identifying intoxicated customers. Trainees rated the training as user-friendly and thought that the information and skills learned in the training would help keep their communities safe. In a recent review, Danielle, an Instructional Designer for Native Roots, a Colorado retail chain, said “Train To Tend has been effective and engaging for our employees, and we are thankful for the Train To Tend team and their online responsible vendor program.”

The development and evaluation of Train to Tend was funded by a grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse at the National Institutes of Health (DA038933; Dr. David Buller, Principal Investigator). Additional scientific collaborators include Dr. W. Gill Woodall from Klein Buendel and Dr. Robert Saltz from the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation in California.