As research continues and attitudes change, the use of medicinal and recreational versions of products like cannabis will increase. Keeping these products legal, safe and effective will require the use of some strong, smart packaging choices. Using dispensary packaging, especially of the bag and pouch variety, will help ensure all those things. If your business is preparing to enter this growing market, we’ve got some suggestions for the kind of features you’ll want in your dispensary packaging.

Food-Grade Materials & Construction

Many of the products kept in dispensary packaging are perishable and sensitive to changes in light or humidity. That’s why great dispensary bags and pouches are constructed from food-grade materials that won’t alter the products once in direct contact with them. Those same materials, often opaque or UV-resistant, contribute to blocking out light, dirt and moisture, while helping to maintain the freshness of what’s inside. There’s not much worse than paying a fair amount of hard-earned money for products that lose their effectiveness or go bad quickly.

Child-Resistant Closures

We all know (probably all too well) how medicines and products like cannabis affect every one of us differently. That’s doubly true for the younger humans out there, who haven’t developed the physical fortitude or mental maturity to understand how things can affect them. That’s why it’s important to ensure that things not meant for children can’t be accessed by children. Great dispensary packaging includes closure features that make it difficult for the younger set’s smaller and less nimble hands to open. Whether it’s a locking component that their fingers can’t reach, or a reinforced zipper designed to be too strong for them, a child-resistant closure is an important feature to have.

Smell-Resistant Materials

Sometimes you want to use smell to advertise your products to people. The rich, incredible scent of freshly-baked bread wafting down the mall concourse will bring new customers straight to you. But with medicinal and recreational products, you’re likely looking for a little more privacy. Great dispensary packaging is made from materials that are lined or coated inside with odour-blocking properties that keep potent smells contained. Many of the products that use dispensary packaging have powerful or notable scents that can draw unwanted attention to you, or disturb and aggravate others. Keeping those smells bottled up out of convenience and discretion is important.

Tamper-Evident Features

In today’s world of e-commerce shipping and tight restrictions on dispensary packaging, it’s important that products kept inside them are protected from external tampering. That’s why great dispensary pouches and bags have tamper-evident features that help deter children, thieves and those who would access the products for less legal uses. Strong, tamper-resistant materials provide product protection, while also making it visually obvious that someone has tried to access what’s inside. As regulations around the sale of medicinal products and recreational cannabis increase, this kind of packaging protection will become more and more important.

Custom Printing Options

As countries and other regions begin to legalize medicinal and recreational products, the need to properly inform the public about regulations will grow. As already done with cigarette packaging, dispensary products will eventually be required to display warnings and other information. This means great dispensary packaging will be made of materials than can be printed on, along with having enough space to accommodate all that legalese. It’ll be important for businesses of all types to understand what they can and cannot do with their bags, pouches and other containers.

Dispensary packaging is a packaging category that will continue to grow in use and importance. Ensuring that you can manage and protect your medicinal and recreational cannabis products will be vital to your business and its survival. Great dispensary products will help you greatly on that front, while also helping to brand you as a forward-thinking, cutting-edge company.