Hey man, thanks a lot for this article. As someone who has budtended for 3 years in the industry, and a paranoiac when it was more illegal when I was a teen, I have personally helped others carefully ease into it with fairly good results. Most customers who struggle with this are usually a generation or two older than me, so aged 40 and upwards, and this is usually directly related to the legal stigma that still exists in their psyche - the last time lots of them smoked was when they were a teenager and getting caught had much worse consequences than today.
However, I have seen lots of my customers overcome this. I try to find the best strain that will put them at ease and i encourage them to have a proper setting that is conducive to a nice trip. Usually that is an Indica leaning hybrid, but it can vary. Usually that generation was smoking Thai or Mexican , low THC sativa, so a much smaller dose of a hybrid seems to have decent results. Also reminding them every time they come in of the health benefits that it has, that they arent a criminal, they aren't going to get in any trouble,

For the more extreme cases, I usually recommend CBD before anything with THC and then I ease them into a 50/50 chocolate bar, just some nibbles before bed, then before ya know it theyre smokin doobies down the block with their friends :P