There is one other thing you need to consider between return a hash or hash-ref. Do you want the original data editable?
Look at this code:

sub hash {
        my $h = shift;
        return %$h;
}

sub href {
        my $h = shift;
        return $h;
}

my $n = { moo => 'blah', arrg => 'no' };
my %hash = hash($n);
$hash{arrg} = 'yes';
print join(' ',%$n) . "\n";
# Output: moo blah arrg no

my $m = { moo => 'blah', arrg => 'no' };
my $hash = href($m);
$hash->{arrg} = 'yes';
print join(' ',%$m) . "\n";
# Output: moo blah arrg yes
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The first one is what you were doing originally, I don't know why it didn't work. But it is better to return a hash-ref unless you really need to protect the original data (which anyone can get to with $p->{buddys_list} anyway if they really want to).