Mosaic-patterned windows, hanging bar lights and wooden shelves lined with colorful packages: Behind an unassuming door in the Clinical Sciences Building at Health Sciences Campus, what comes into view defies expectations of a traditional laboratory. This is the CANNEX, a mock cannabis dispensary developed by the Prevention, Early Intervention, and Addictions Recovery Lab at USC.

Built from what once were office spaces, the CANNEX — short for the Cannabis Annex — mimics a boutique-style cannabis dispensary, including price tags, product displays, decorative plants and a bar counter. The products lining its shelves are empty containers of cannabis products selected from brands that are popular in Los Angeles dispensaries.

Completed in January, the CANNEX simulates a retail experience where research participants shop and indicate which products are the most appealing. Adam Leventhal, director of the Institute for Addiction Science supporting the project, said the CANNEX allows researchers to determine and experiment with factors — such as price, graphic design or warning labels — that may lead people to purchase certain cannabis products.

The goal, Leventhal said, is to use the data to create policies in cannabis packaging that lead people to purchase less harmful products and to use the purchased products more safely.

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