For anyone who grew up before adult and medical use of cannabis was legalized, visiting a dispensary can be a new and exciting experience. The sheer variety of products is impressive, especially as new products appear daily.
With this assortment of options comes the need for diverse packaging solutions — the sandwich bags of days gone by just won’t cut it.
Brands need special packaging to make their product shine, protect contents, and reach compliance, while consumers demand visual appeal, the peace of mind of child resistance, and guaranteed freshness.
Here are the best packaging options for weed products of every kind.
What Are the Best Packaging Solutions for Flower Products?
Flower is the godfather of all cannabis products — humans have been smoking it for 2500 years, by some estimates.
The beautiful buds of the cannabis plant that are harvested, dried, and cured before being smoked and the care given to its cultivation should be matched with the best packaging solutions.
Buds
When it comes to buds, freshness is an absolute must. Improperly stored buds will begin to dry out or even turn moldy if exposed to moisture.
Exposure to air can degrade both the terpenes or essential oils, which give flavor and aroma to cannabis, and cannabinoids like THC and CBD, potentially reducing psychoactive effects.
Resealable and airtight jars, tins, and Mylar bags, such as Dymapak’s Secure Sack and recyclable Secure Sack Eco, are ideal for top-quality storage.
Prerolls
Much like loose buds, prerolls need strong protection from the elements. Plastic or glass vials with screw-top caps are a popular choice for individual servings. Resealable Mylar bags, cigarette boxes, and rectangular tins and cases are commonly used for products with multiple servings.
You can also use taller cylindrical tins to bunch several pre-rolls together in one package, offering customers a more economical and discrete way to carry many at once.
What Are the Best Packaging Solutions for Edibles?
Regarding cannabis edibles, there is a universe of seemingly endless choices. If you’ve been to a dispensary recently, you’ve likely seen a variety of shapes, sizes, colors, and flavors.
Packaging considerations vary significantly with this assortment of products available for each product type.
Gummies and Lozenges
Of all the edible cannabis options, gummies are probably the most popular and familiar to customers. Although they make up a small part of the market, lozenges and hard candies benefit from the same packaging solutions as gummies.
They are all typically packaged loosely rather than in individual servings. For freshness, child resistance, and resealability, flexible bags have become a near-industry standard for this product type. Some brands also opt for tins and jars of varying shapes.
Taffies
Cannabis taffies, much like regular ones, are often wrapped individually in wax paper. This keeps them from sticking together and indicates recommended dose size. From there, resealable flexible pouches are perfect for packaging these multi-serving edibles.
Chocolates
Cannabis-infused chocolates usually come in a handful of different forms: bars, truffles, or other small chocolates of varying shapes.
Individually wrapped truffles travel and store well in flexible bags. For specialty chocolates, rigid boxes with trays fit-to-size give these edible treats a luxury packaging reminiscent of a Valentine’s gift.
Mints
Cannabis-infused mints have become increasingly popular, often in CBD iterations or micro-dosed with smaller amounts of THC. They typically aren’t the most potent cannabis products on the market, offering an entry point for new users.
Flexible bags are always popular, but many brands opt for rectangular aluminum tins reminiscent of popular mint brands.
Baked Goods
When it comes to infused baked goods, the brownie is a tried and true option. There are now many commercially available brownies on the market, but granola bars, cookies, and muffins are also available.
Flexible pouches and tins are popular packaging solutions for multiple servings, while plastic sleeves like those found for typical energy bars are commonly used for individual servings.
Beverages
Infused juices, flavored seltzers, and kombuchas are just a few beverages consumers can easily find at dispensaries. Dispensaries frequently sell drinks containing a ratio of CBD and THC.
When packaging these products, most emulate the standard packaging for their product type. Brands typically opt for glass jars with screw tops for kombuchas and juices and aluminum pop-top cans for seltzers, flavored waters, and sodas.
Tinctures
Although not strictly the same as other edibles in this category, tinctures are consumed orally or sublingually (under the tongue) since they aren’t considered food.
These products are created by soaking parts of the cannabis plant in a solvent, most commonly food-grade alcohol. Once infused, the plant material is strained out.
The resulting liquid can be potent and absorbed quickly for a more immediate high. Because of their fast-acting nature, tinctures are sold in glass jars with droppers to deliver a small dose at a time.
Infused Chips and Snacks
People often reach for corn puffs, potato chips, pretzels, and popcorn when the munchies hit. The cannabis industry has made a happy marriage by making infused versions.
Much like regular versions of these popular snacks, these are best packed in flexible bags — but with resealable and child-resistant closures for legal compliance.
Larger pouches like Dymapak’s distinctive exit bags offer a perfect format for weed-enhanced snacks, allowing customers to indulge in a premium product look and feel.
What Are the Best Packaging Solutions for Concentrates?
The legalization of marijuana has led to much innovation in cannabis products, maybe most of all in the development of ever-new concentrates.
Concentrates are essentially the purest form of cannabis products.
Through various methods, they capture the most critical aspects of the plant — namely, terpenes and cannabinoids — filtering out other excess materials. Of all cannabis products found on the market, concentrates boast the highest levels of potency.
Since concentrates come in a range of textures and formats, packaging solutions vary.
Hash
Hash, or hashish, is likely the oldest known cannabis concentrate. Hash is made by removing the resin from the cannabis plant and pressing it into a hardened brick. The resulting product can be added to a bowl, bubbler, or water pipe with flower to increase potency.
Since hash is sensitive to moisture, it is best packaged in airtight metal tins or glass jars. Additional layers of paper or wax wrappers and films may be necessary to secure hash and ensure customers get the most from every serving.
Oils
Oil is a broad term for any oil infused with the cannabis plant. Oils come in THC, CBD, or a blend of these and other cannabinoids. These potent concentrates are most often vaped.
Oils are generally packaged in vape cartridges and glass dropper bottles. The challenge most brands face when packaging oils is facilitating a workable and precise application process since the products are so potent and valuable.
Dosage effects vary dramatically by just a drop or two, meaning precision application can mean the difference between a good and bad experience.
Dymapak’s Twistspenser is an innovative, child-resistant, leakproof concentrate dispenser capable of holding concentrates of all viscosities. Its discreet lipstick-style design makes it easy to refill vape cartridges with no scary syringe.
In short, the Twistpenser is a compact, sleek, and discrete way to make the most of your oil products and give customers a unique user experience.
Shatter, Crumble, and Crystalline
These concentrates have unique textures and solvent-extraction processes through which they are separated from the cannabis plant. Despite their differences, a similarity they all share in common is that they land on the solid end of the spectrum.
These products must be kept in airtight containers, away from moisture and light. Tins, glass jars, or flexible resealable pouches are all great packaging solutions for these concentrates.
Depending on the product’s structure, multiple packaging layers might benefit the user experience.
Budder
Budder is a solvent-extracted concentrate with a viscous, waxy consistency — reminiscent of butter. Like many other concentrates, it is smoked using a dab rig. A tin or glass jar is usually the best packaging option for budder because of its unique texture.
What Are the Best Packaging Solutions for Topicals?
Cannabis topicals are designed to apply directly to the skin. Instead of giving the psychoactive effects of other cannabis-infused products, they have effects localized to the areas they are applied to.
Lotions and Salves
Cannabis-infused lotions and salves come in both THC and CBD varieties. CBD absorbs easier into the skin, so many topicals are CBD-heavy.
Despite having no acute psychoactive effects, child-resistant closures are usually mandatory since these topicals sometimes contain THC. When it comes to these products, there are many practical packaging solutions, from tins to tubes and glass jars.
Dymapak’s lab-certified child-resistant SecuriTin is perfect for lotions and other topicals. Made from recyclable steel, it features an integrated locking mechanism that makes it child-resistant and resealable.
Bath Salts and Bath Bombs
Like standard bath salts and bath bombs, infused versions have popped up in dispensaries and other retailers. These products’ fans claim they help moisturize and heal skin, increase relaxation, and reduce inflammation.
Bath bombs can be found in single-serving polybags and boxes, while bath salts are often packaged in flexible pouches, jars, or tins.
Transdermals
One of the newer products emerging from the cannabis industry is transdermal patches.
They are applied directly to the skin, delivering a slow dose of cannabinoids over several hours. THC, CBD, and combination transdermals are currently available.
These are typically packaged in boxes or flexible bags, with each transdermal wrapped in packaging similar to a band-aid.
Package Your Cannabis Products for Success
One thing is evident in the world of weed: the legalization of cannabis in states across the country has led to an explosion in the variety of product types available to today’s consumers.
With these exciting developments comes the need for innovative packaging to meet the demands of regulatory bodies, brands, and consumers alike.
The proper packaging will protect your cannabis products from damage during shipping and storage while also helping them stand out in crowded marketplaces and preserve the best qualities of flavors and efficacious ingredients.
A few tweaks to your packaging plan can mean a renewed business image and chart-topping numbers for retail partners and your bottom line.
Dymapak is here to help make your brand and products shine, offering innovative, durable, discreet, and child-resistant packaging solutions for all weed product types.
Sources:
Cannabis as Plant and Product | Brookings
Cannabis (Marijuana) and Cannabinoids: What You Need to Know | NIH
What Medical Cannabis Products Are Available? | Sydney University
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