Cannabis Edibles Packaging Descriptors Experiment

The Impact of Cannabis Edibles Packaging Descriptors on Consumer Appeal, Harm Perceptions and Willingness to Try

The purpose of this study is to assess differences in perceptions of product appeal, harm, and subsequent willingness to try cannabis edibles products with/without product descriptors of interest.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Cannabis Use
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: "All Natural" descriptor; Behavioral: "Gluten-free" descriptor; Behavioral: "Vegan" descriptor; Behavioral: "100% Organic" descriptor; Behavioral: "Handcrafted" descriptor; Behavioral: "Made with live resin" descriptor; Behavioral: "Fast-acting" descriptor; Behavioral: "Relax" descriptor; Behavioral: "Energy Boost" descriptor; Behavioral: No descriptor (control)

Detailed Description

Cannabis edibles are rapidly leading the legal recreational cannabis market. They present health harms that are not typical of smoked marijuana, including accidental overconsumption of high levels of Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). Product packaging plays an important role in influencing perceptions of a product's appeal and potential harm. This experiment will assign participants to view real cannabis edibles packaging edited with one of nine commonly used product descriptors found on real cannabis edibles products, and ask a series of questions to assess perceptions of product appeal and harm. One group of participants will serve as the control and will see the same cannabis edibles packaging without any product descriptors.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 2521
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • North Carolina
    • Winston-Salem, North Carolina, United States, 27157
      • Wake Forest University Health Sciences

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Adult; Older Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• US resident
• Aged 18-65, inclusive
• Up to 13% of participants will be those who identify as Black/African American
• Up to 16% of participants will be those who identify as Hispanic
• Approximately 50% of participants will be past year cannabis users

Exclusion Criteria:

• Does not currently reside in the United States
• Younger than 18 or older than 65
• Does not provide information regarding history of cannabis use
• Otherwise eligible but demographic and/or user group quotas have been met

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Prevention
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

10

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: "All Natural" descriptor; Four edible product packages (gummies, chocolate, mints, cookies) with the product descriptor "All Natural."	Behavioral: "All Natural" descriptor; Participants in the nine intervention conditions will be shown four cannabis edibles packages that have been altered to contain one of the product descriptors of interest. All participants will see the same four products, and each condition will see the products with the same descriptor.
Experimental: "Gluten-free" descriptor; Four edible product packages (gummies, chocolate, mints, cookies) with the product descriptor "Gluten-free"	Behavioral: "Gluten-free" descriptor; Participants in the nine intervention conditions will be shown four cannabis edibles packages that have been altered to contain one of the product descriptors of interest. All participants will see the same four products, and each condition will see the products with the same descriptor.
Experimental: "Vegan" descriptor; Four edible product packages (gummies, chocolate, mints, cookies) with the product descriptor "Vegan"	Behavioral: "Vegan" descriptor; Participants in the nine intervention conditions will be shown four cannabis edibles packages that have been altered to contain one of the product descriptors of interest. All participants will see the same four products, and each condition will see the products with the same descriptor.
Experimental: "100% Organic" descriptor; Four edible product packages (gummies, chocolate, mints, cookies) with the product descriptor "100% Organic"	Behavioral: "100% Organic" descriptor; Participants in the nine intervention conditions will be shown four cannabis edibles packages that have been altered to contain one of the product descriptors of interest. All participants will see the same four products, and each condition will see the products with the same descriptor.
Experimental: "Handcrafted" descriptor; Four edible product packages (gummies, chocolate, mints, cookies) with the product descriptor "Handcrafted"	Behavioral: "Handcrafted" descriptor; Participants in the nine intervention conditions will be shown four cannabis edibles packages that have been altered to contain one of the product descriptors of interest. All participants will see the same four products, and each condition will see the products with the same descriptor.
Experimental: "Made with live resin" descriptor; Four edible product packages (gummies, chocolate, mints, cookies) with the product descriptor "Made with live resin"	Behavioral: "Made with live resin" descriptor; Participants in the nine intervention conditions will be shown four cannabis edibles packages that have been altered to contain one of the product descriptors of interest. All participants will see the same four products, and each condition will see the products with the same descriptor.
Experimental: "Fast-acting" descriptor; Four edible product packages (gummies, chocolate, mints, cookies) with the product descriptor "Fast-acting"	Behavioral: "Fast-acting" descriptor; Participants in the nine intervention conditions will be shown four cannabis edibles packages that have been altered to contain one of the product descriptors of interest. All participants will see the same four products, and each condition will see the products with the same descriptor.
Experimental: "Relax" descriptor; Four edible product packages (gummies, chocolate, mints, cookies) with the product descriptor "Relax"	Behavioral: "Relax" descriptor; Participants in the nine intervention conditions will be shown four cannabis edibles packages that have been altered to contain one of the product descriptors of interest. All participants will see the same four products, and each condition will see the products with the same descriptor.
Experimental: "Energy Boost" descriptor; Four edible product packages (gummies, chocolate, mints, cookies) with the product descriptor "Energy Boost"	Behavioral: "Energy Boost" descriptor; Participants in the nine intervention conditions will be shown four cannabis edibles packages that have been altered to contain one of the product descriptors of interest. All participants will see the same four products, and each condition will see the products with the same descriptor.
Experimental: No descriptor (control); Four edible product packages (gummies, chocolate, mints, cookies) without any product descriptors	Behavioral: No descriptor (control); Participants in the nine intervention conditions will be shown four cannabis edibles packages that have been altered to contain one of the product descriptors of interest. All participants will see the same four products, and each condition will see the products with the same descriptor.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Product Appeal	One item to assess the appeal of the product. Results will be reported as mean for all products within condition. Question: How appealing is this product to you? Response Options: (0) Not at all appealing to (10) Very appealing	After exposure to product packaging up to 1 minute
Product Harm Perceptions (Absolute)	One item to assess participants' opinions of safety of the product. Results will be reported as the number of each type of response. Question: How safe do you think it would be to eat the edible in this package? Response options: (1) Completely unsafe, (2) Somewhat unsafe, (3) Somewhat safe, (4) Completely safe	After exposure to product packaging up to 1 minute
Willingness to Try Free Sample	One item to assess participants' willingness to try a free sample of the product shown. Results will be reported as the number of each type of response. Question: How interested would you be in a free sample of this product? Response Options: (1) Not at all; (2) Slightly; (3) Somewhat; (4) Moderately; (5) Very	After exposure to product packaging up to 1 minute
Package Appeal	One item to assess appeal of the packaging of the product. Results with be reported as mean for all products within conditions. Question: How appealing is this packaging to you? Response Options: (0) Not at all appealing to (10) Very appealing	1 min
Package Harm Perceptions (Absolute)	One item to assess participants' opinions of product safety based on the packaging. Results will be reported as the number of each type of response. Question: How much does this packaging make you think this edible is safe to consume? Response Options: (1) Not at all; (2) A little; (3) Somewhat; (4) A lot	After exposure to product packaging up to 1 min
Willingness to Try Product	One item to assess the participants' willingness to try the product based on the packaging. Results will be reported as the number of each type of response. Question: How much does seeing this packaging make you want to try this edible? Response Options: (1) Not at all; (2) A little; (3) Somewhat; (4) A lot	After exposure to product packaging up to 1 min

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Appeal to Children Responses	One item to assess the participants' assessment of the product packaging's potential appeal to children. Results will be reported as mean for all products within condition. Questions: How appealing do you think this packaging would be to children? Response Options: (0) Not at all appealing to (10) Very appealing	After exposure to product packaging up to 1 minute
Product Harm Perceptions (Relative)	One question assessing participants' opinions of safety of the product compared to other, similar, products. Results will be reported as the number of each type of response. Question: Compared to other edible products on the market, how safe do you think the edible in this package is? Response Options: (1) Much less safe; (2) Somewhat less safe; (3) As safe; (4) Somewhat safer; (5) Much safer	After exposure to product packaging up to 1 minute

Other Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Perception of Quality	One item to assess the participants' perceptions of the quality of the product. Results will be reported as the number of each type of response. Question: To what extent do you agree or disagree that this looks like a good quality product? Response options: (1) Strongly disagree to (5) Strongly agree	After exposure to product packaging up to 1 minute
Perception of Good Taste	One item to assess the participants' perceptions of the taste of the product. Results will be reported as the number of each type of response. Question: To what extent do you agree or disagree that this edible might taste good? Response options: (1) Strongly disagree to (5) Strongly agree	After exposure to product packaging up to 1 min
Perception of Healthfulness of Product	One item to asses the participants' perceptions of the healthfulness of the product based on the packaging. Results will be reported as the number of each type of response. Question: How much does this packaging make you think this edible is healthy? Response options: (1) Not at all; (2) A little; (3) Somewhat; (4) A lot	After exposure to product packaging up to 1 min

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Wake Forest University Health Sciences
• Collaborators: National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Beth Reboussin, PhD, Wake Forest University Health Sciences

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): March 15, 2024
• Primary Completion (Actual): April 15, 2024
• Study Completion (Actual): April 15, 2024

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: December 5, 2023
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: December 5, 2023
• First Posted (Actual): December 14, 2023

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): May 9, 2025
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: May 2, 2025
• Last Verified: November 1, 2023

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Cannabis use
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Mental Disorders; Substance-Related Disorders; Chemically-Induced Disorders; Marijuana Abuse
• Other Study ID Numbers: IRB00104038; R01DA053209 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No