“The Perfect Formula:” Evaluating Health Claims, Products and Pricing on Cannabis Dispensary Websites in Two Recently Legalized States

Abstract

Words: 250Introduction: Many cannabis dispensaries market and sell their products online through websites designed to attract and maintain customers; often, these websites incorporate a variety of product claims and other marketing tactics. This study evaluated website content, product pricing and discounts on dispensary websites in California and Nevada, states that legalized recreational cannabis in 2016. Methods:We content coded product availability, marketing claims and discounts on cannabis dispensary websites in the San Francisco Bay Area (N=34) and Reno (N=15) from March-June 2020 using a web crawler to scrape pricing information for four product types. We conducted bivariate analyses comparing both locations.Results: Prices were significantly lower for flower, edibles, and concentrates in Reno compared to the Bay Area, but not cartridges. In both areas, a range of marketing claims were made regarding the health effects of certain products. The most common were that cannabis products treated pain, nausea/vomiting, spasms, anxiety, insomnia, and depression. Products were also said to promote creativity and euphoria. Other marketing claims related to potency, pleasure enhancement, and improved social interactions. Discounts targeted to senior citizens and veterans were found on over half of all websites.Conclusions: Dispensary websites in the Bay Area and Reno frequently make health-related claims which should not be allowed in absence of scientific evidence. Non-health related claims are similar to those used for selling e-cigarettes and other tobacco products. Monitoring cannabis dispensary websites provides insight into local sales tactics and may help identify subpopulations for research on behavioral impacts of cannabis marketing activities.

Cannabis Dispensary Online Marketing Practices in Response to COVID-19 Lockdowns

“…While we did not find explicit claims that cannabis could treat COVID-19, some announcements suggested ways to use cannabis to avoid infection, or suggested cannabis products to use if experiencing anxiety; these implicit connections between cannabis and health are consistent with prior studies finding cannabis dispensary health benefit claims 16 . This analysis was limited only to the COVID-19 announcements; a subsequent analysis of the full website content found that anxiety was the most common mental health claim, present on 80% of websites in this sample 17 . This limited analysis of the COVID-19 announcements from a single time point early in the pandemic likely underestimates the potential influence dispensary marketing could have on cannabis consumption.…”

“…16 This analysis was limited only to the COVID-19 announcements; a subsequent analysis of the full website content found that anxiety was the most common mental health claim, present on 80% of websites in this sample. 17 This limited analysis of the COVID-19 announcements from a single time point early in the pandemic likely underestimates the potential influence dispensary marketing could have on cannabis consumption. While COVID-19 announcements had largely disappeared from dispensary websites by October 2021, an informal review of the dispensary websites included in this analysis in October 2021 found that one featured a blog post on the topic, "Can marijuana cure coronavirus?"…”

Age-Gating and Marketing Differences Between Storefront and Non-Storefront Cannabis Retailers

“…Despite the limited evidence on the medicinal benefits of cannabis for health-related outcomes, past research has found cannabis retailers use a wide array of health claims to market cannabis on websites (Bierut et al, 2017;Boatwright & Sperry, 2020;Hoeper et al, 2022). In this study, nearly 67% of all retailers displayed physical health claims, and 59% displayed mental health claims.…”

“…Health Claims, Positive States, and Clean Labels Health claims were coded into two categories: (1) Physical health claims were defined as any statement or imagery that describes or insinuates a reduced risk of a physical disease or alleviation of a physical health-related condition (e.g., physical pain, cancer), including sleep-related disturbances (e.g., insomnia) (Hoeper et al, 2022). ( 2) Mental health claims describe or imply a relationship between cannabis and alleviation of a psychological health-related condition or mental illness (e.g., anxiety) (Hoeper et al, 2022).…”

Investigating the Effects of the Big Data Analytics on Customer Response in Online Purchases

“…The crises regarding economics and finance occurred in 2008, which leads to confusion in purchasing products for consumers and the need was arises for online marketing. Consumers compared the product's prices and shapes by using the internet (Hoeper et al, 2022). Due to the increased diversity in the products, individuals are confused and facing difficulties in selecting the suitable and best products for themselves (Ambilkar, Dohale, Gunasekaran, & Bilolikar, 2022;Chen & Chi, 2021).…”