My Top 3 Secret Budtender Tips

Question: Do you have any secret budtender tips that you feel like sharing with us? The budtenders at our local shop always have cool tricks up their sleeve, and they always suggest things I wouldn’t have thought of on my own. Do you have any special tips that we should know about?

Cannabis Coach Haley’s Answer: Part of what I love about the dispensary is that it’s a friendly setting where we can all learn from each other! Cannabis culture in general is one big sharing of information and tips and tricks—no one just wakes up one day knowing everything about cannabis. It has to come to you in little bits and pieces over the years.

When I first started working in our town’s dispensary, there were no budtender training programs in our state yet, so everything I learned was passed down to me from my coworkers—we’d all share our tips and tricks with each other. Over time, I found that many of my tried-and-true tips were ones that clients taught TO ME! Here are my top three.

1. Put Your Grinder in the Freezer

This tip was taught to me by an older gentleman at the dispensary who rolled a lot of joints by hand. He said that if he wants his flower to get ground up nicely and cleanly, he’ll put his grinder in the freezer first! This helps the metal teeth of the grinder to be ice-cold, so when you go to use it on a piece of bud, it cuts through it easily and evenly. If you’re going to be grinding up a large amount, I suggest popping the grinder in the freezer first for 30-60 minutes.

PRO TIP: Many grinders have a compartment called a “kief catcher,” a small screen where the finest particles of cannabis are sifted out. If you pop your grinder into the freezer, it’s much easier to scoop up your kief crystals when they’re cold!

2. Use Eye Drops Before You Smoke

This tip is one that my husband discovered, and now we always do this: Before you smoke your joint or bowl, put eye drops in first! We used to always smoke a joint on a hike and then put in eyedrops to help our eyes feel less dry and red. But the problem is that by the time we’re adding eyedrops, our eyes are already squinty, tired, and red from the joint we smoked!

One day, we had the idea to put our eyedrops in BEFORE lighting the joint and going for our hike, and we were astonished by how much it helped our eyes stay clear and comfortable! Now I always add this as a step in our joint-smoking process. Add eye drops to each eye, and then spark up your joint!

3. Keep Lemon Juice and CBD on Hand

This tip is one that I’ve learned over the years from helping friends with their first cannabis experience: Keep lemon juice and a bottle of CBD oil on hand! If a friend is trying cannabis for the first time, I always want them to have an experience that they’ll fondly look back on. I make sure they start with a small dose, have a comfortable, safe environment, and don’t have to drive.

Typically, if a friend is going to overdo it with cannabis, it’s likely that they’ve overconsumed edibles and report feeling “way too high.” Many people make the classic mistake of “I’m not feeling it, so I’m going to take more,” and then a few hours later, find that all of their edibles have kicked in at once.

If this ever happens while a friend is at your house, here are two quick things you can do for them:

• Make them a glass of ice water and add some lemon juice. This can be freshly squeezed or from a bottle. Encourage your friend to drink some of this iced lemon water and take deep breaths. Drinking something that is ice-cold will help bring them back into the here-and-now, and the lemon juice can help change their perception of being high (more on this below).

• Give them some CBD. Get a small dose of CBD (10-25 milligrams of full-spectrum CBD oil is what I’d recommend) and have your friend place the oil under their tongue. Tell them to hold it under their tongue for 1-3 minutes to allow it to fully absorb, and then swallow whatever is left.

Lemon juice contains limonene, which is a cannabis terpene that plays an important role in how cannabis works and can change the way we perceive being high. Some people find that consuming lemon makes them feel more uplifted, less paranoid, and more comfortable with the experience of being high. It definitely doesn’t “cancel out the high,” but it can change the way your high feels.

CBD helps the THC in our bodies not bind so tightly to our cannabinoid receptors. If you take CBD oil when you feel too high, CBD acts as a “buffer” to block feelings of anxiety and paranoia. Of course, creating a safe environment and allowing time to comfortably pass is the best way to get over being too high. Check out this post for more ways to counteract an uncomfortable high.

Hope these tips are helpful for you! If you have tips and tricks you think I should know about, feel free to comment below.