Responsible Vendor Training as a Macro-Level Prevention Tool– A Case Study of the Massachusetts Cannabis Industry
Authors: Laramie Olivia , Colby Alexander , Pensky Hailey , Doonan Samantha , Johnson Julie 
Published: September 2022

As of March 2022, adult-use cannabis is legal in 18 states and medical-use is legal for certain patients in 37 states. Unlike the illicit market(s), legal market(s) present new opportunities to embed public health strategies in varying levels of policy and regulation, such as Public Awareness Campaigns or Responsible Vendor Training (RVT). Using the Social Ecological Model (SEM) as a guiding framework, we conceptualize state-implemented public health strategies as operating at the macro-level through public policy or regulations, and interacting within and across varying social environments to impact individual behaviors. Macro-level prevention and intervention tools that aim to reduce and prevent adverse cannabis outcomes, such as developing cannabis use disorder and cannabis impaired driving, are imperative to more safely implement cannabis legalization. RVT programs are an under-studied, yet critical macro- level intervention, in many new cannabis industries that sell varying cannabis products with both known and unknown effects on the human body. RVT programs, operated by varying education providers and curriculums, are trainings provided to cannabis industry employees (“agents”) involved in the handling and sale of cannabis. Training may include, but is not limited to, learning the law and regulations, identifying fake identification cards (IDs), health effects of cannabis, and other public health and safety practices. At the implementation level, RVT training may affect individual change by shaping industry employees’ perceptions of their role in order to better support public health, clarifying the latest research on health effects, and roleplaying judgement-free strategies to provide public health education. Currently, 31 states have RVT programs, however, Massachusetts is currently the only state with both legalized adult-use and medical markets that mandates an RVT program by regulation [935 CMR 500 and 935 CMR 501]. As of February 2022, Massachusetts certified 22 RVT program vendors and trained 10,142 out of 23,772 (42.7%) agents in the medical and adult-use workforce. RVT programs have the potential to counteract potential unsafe cannabis use behaviors following cannabis legalization implementation. However, the effectiveness of RVT programs is largely unknown. Guided by the SEM, this presentation will take a holistic view of the overlapping social environments surrounding an individual, to assess the potential of RVT programs operating at the macro-level to interact across social levels, including meso- and individual-levels, in order to prevent adverse outcomes (Bronfenbrenner, 1977). This presentation provides a theoretical model and potential quantifiable metrics of study for researchers to better assess RVT program effectiveness. To reduce potential health and safety risks of cannabis legalization, policymakers and regulators can embed varying public health strategies in legal cannabis markets, including RVT programs. It is imperative that research assist policymakers and regulators to assess the effectiveness of current RVT programs to ensure RVT program(s) have the intended public health outcomes, in order to facilitate evidence-based cannabis policy in these new and emerging cannabis markets.