by Josh Jardine
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ON YOUR LAST trip to the dispensary, you might have noticed that some of your favorite non-flower cannabis products are missing. That pain-relieving topical you count on, or that creamy, chronic ice cream you’ve come to love? Gone, gone, gone. Budtenders apologize for the slim product selection, but a return date for those missing products seems hazy at best.
ISTOCK / JDAWNINK
ON YOUR LAST trip to the dispensary, you might have noticed that some of your favorite non-flower cannabis products are missing. That pain-relieving topical you count on, or that creamy, chronic ice cream you’ve come to love? Gone, gone, gone. Budtenders apologize for the slim product selection, but a return date for those missing products seems hazy at best.
What’s going on?
I recently booked a broad range of cannabis professionals for a panel discussion called “Women in Cannabis,” and the topic of product shortages came up. I reached out afterwards to ask two panelists to elaborate.
Trista Okel owns and operates Empower BodyCare, a well-regarded line of THC- and CBD-infused oils and soaking salts. I asked her why Empower products, which have been available since 2013, have become increasingly difficult to find on the shelves.
She stresses the problem is related to the new costs of lab testing, which require both the concentrate and the finished product to be tested separately.