Responsible Vendor Training For Cannabis Sales: 6 Important Questions Answered

As the cannabis industry continues to grow across most of the United States and new dispensaries are opening daily, local and state governments are evaluating and deploying new regulations for growers, vendors, and retailers. 

From integrated sales tracking platforms to mandatory training for cannabis point-of-sale representatives, new requirements and standards are rolling out with the kind of regularity that keeps the entire industry on its toes.

Today’s blog from Learn Brands will cover a critical facet of employee education that more and more states are mandating: Responsible Vendor Training (RVT). Whether required by your state’s control board or considered a best practice by ownership, you have questions about RVT, and we have answers.

Read on to learn more and make sure to visit Learn Brands online to discover all the ways that our industry-leading cannabis learning management system can help grow your team and elevate your business to new highs.

What Is Responsible Vendor Training (RVT)?

You might not be familiar with Responsible Vendor Training, or RVT, and that’s okay. So, let’s take a few minutes to get acquainted with this aspect of education for employees in the cannabis space so that you can determine if it’s right for you and your team of budtenders and managers.

Responsible Vendor Training is an educational course (or series of courses) focused on the responsible handling, sale, service, and consumption of cannabis products. 

A strong comparison can be made to the alcohol industry's TIPS program and training. 

Both training programs are designed to provide an industry-wide base of consistent retailer knowledge and best practices and to promote a healthy and informed attitude about the use of their respective products within the general public.

What Can I Expect From A Responsible Vendor Training Course?

The goals of a Responsible Vendor Training course are typically outlined as follows:

Provide Training To Meet State Mandated Regulations

Currently, a number of states require RVT training for some or all personnel working in the cannabis industry — particularly those operating at the cannabis point-of-sale level. The specific guidelines for mandated training vary slightly from state to state, but each state’s objective in requiring Responsible Vendor Training is the same: deploying a consistent set of requirements to promote compliance and public safety. 

Develop A Platform For Safe And Responsible Consumer Use 

Cannabis is a mind-altering substance that chemically interacts with various receptors in the brain to produce effects that can range from euphoria and pain relief to minor auditory hallucinations and potentially reduced fine motor function. And while certain strains and terpenes produce different effects (and sometimes even differently in individual people), there are important consumer and public safety considerations to be made in the sale, possession, and use of cannabis products.

Responsible Vendor Training informs budtenders, retail managers and operators, and other cannabis industry workers as to the safe sale practices of legally sold cannabis products.

From education regarding child-resistant packaging and health warnings to guidelines regarding the sale of cannabis to visibly intoxicated persons, RVT courses are designed to protect consumers, cannabis businesses, and the public as a whole from the potential risks — legal and otherwise — of improper sale and consumption.

Create A Consistent Set of Base-Level Knowledge Throughout The Cannabis Industry

One of the best ways to promote responsible consumption of cannabis while also developing a more well-informed public is to ensure that at the very least, budtenders all have a consistent and meaningful base set of knowledge about different cannabis types, methods of use, and the effects of use.

Even savvy budtenders who are themselves cannabis users may have certain gaps in their knowledge, and extra training will only help to fill these gaps while allowing them to do a better job of assisting customers in finding the right brands and products for their personal use.

Additionally, this kind of industry-wide professionalism helps to create consumer confidence and trust in the cannabis industry as a whole. We all have to remember that despite medical and recreational cannabis being legal in many states and on the ballot in many more, there are still plenty of people who cling to old stigmas about cannabis use. Education has always been, and always will be, the best way to break down false assumptions and dispel prejudice.

Promote Best Practices

As an age-restricted substance that still exists in a gray area, federally speaking, there are potential legal risks that go along with the improper sale, tracking, growing, and use of cannabis.

RVT courses help to educate vendors about best practices in an effort to protect them, protect their consumers, and to promote the legal and safe use of cannabis.

This kind of training is critical to the continued success and growth of the industry as a whole and is essential to doing business ethically.

Are All Responsible Vendor Training Courses The Same?

Because there is still no federally mandated standard for compliance training, RVT courses are designed to meet the requirements put forth by each individual state. 

So if you operate a cannabis business within a state that does require some kind of compliance training, it’s important to make sure that any RVT course you adopt for your budtenders and other dispensary staff is designed to meet those guidelines.

If My State Doesn’t Require RVT, Is It Still Worth Training My Team On?

Here at Learn Brands, we believe that promoting education and learning within the cannabis industry is fundamental to the success of cannabis in the national and international marketplace.

We believe that Responsible Vendor Training courses can only make budtenders smarter, safer, and better able to serve their customers, and it’s hard to make a case against striving for those goals.

Furthermore, professional development training is a great way to invest in your employees, and RVT education can be one more way that operators work to develop and maintain dynamic, highly trained budtenders for growth within the company.

What Are The Benefits Of Taking An Online RVT Course?

There are many advantages to online RVT courses. And for an in-depth look at the benefits of utilizing an online LMS to educate and develop your staff, we encourage you to check out our blog on the 5 most important reasons to implement a cannabis-specific LMS at your dispensary.

When specifically considering online RVT courses, access, consistency, and track-ability are all important facets to consider. Online learning allows for all employees to complete RVT training regardless of location or work schedule.

Online Responsible Vendor Training also offers a consistency that an in-person trainer simply cannot guarantee, ensuring that every employee receives every little bit of state-mandated compliance education every time.

Why Choose Learn Brands?

At Learn Brands, we’ve gone one step further. Our online RVT courses not only meet state-specific requirements, they also contain engaging activities, checks for understanding, and robust reporting for operators and managers to track employee participation and course completion.

Additionally, our online cannabis learning management system houses all kinds of other educational content including general and advanced education courses and brand-specific training for the products your customers know and love. All of which can help you elevate your team to new highs.

To learn more about why Learn Brands is the right solution for your Responsible Vendor training needs, sign up for a free demo today.