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

Abstract

Introduction: 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 to 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.

Keywords:

• Marijuana
• substance use
• marketing
• non-health claims

Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge Huihai Wang for building the web crawler utilized for scraping price and product quantity data from sample websites.

Author’s contributions

PL conceptualized the study. LG, CH, and VD collected the raw data and SH, LH, PL and EC helped prepare the first draft of the manuscript. SH, LH, PL, EC, LG, CH and VD contributed to revisions of the paper. LH did quantitative and spatial data analysis.

Declaration of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the University of Nevada, Reno and the California Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program grant 27IR-0042. The university and funding agencies played no role in the conduct of the research or the preparation of this article.