Since states across the country first began legalizing cannabis, the ability for cannabis-related businesses to advertise on social media — or even mention or show cannabis products — has remained a contentious issue. 

Many platforms will quickly remove cannabis business accounts once they catch wind of their content, leaving professionals with limited access to their audience and ultimately having to jump through hurdles like self-censorship to maintain their accounts. Some have also questioned if the consistent censorship surrounding cannabis and other drug content may lead to gaps in education or information encouraging harm reduction.

Despite these concerns, there remains a prevailing push to ensure children are not exposed to cannabis marketing and that reform as a whole does not encourage use among people under the legal age.

Colorado is currently caught in the middle of this push and pull, as lawmakers are working to advance legislation that would force social media platforms to ban users for talking positively about, promoting or advertising cannabis and cannabis products online, along with other regulated drugs and substances.

Colorado’s Polarizing Content-Regulation Bill

The bill, SB24-158, is currently facing criticism from multiple angles. 

The legislation was recently amended to include language saying that “a social media platform may allow a user to promote, sell, or advertise medical marijuana or retail marijuana to users who are at least twenty-one years of age,” so long as the content is in compliance with state cannabis laws, Marijuana Moment reports. 

Members of the Senate Committee on Business, Labor and Technology ultimately approved the amended bill unanimously, advancing it to the Appropriations Committee.

Still, some critics argue that the revised legislation does not adequately address concerns around other substances, like psilocybin — which Colorado voters decriminalized and legalized for therapeutic use in 2022 — alongside hemp-derived products or over-the-counter cough syrups.

As it stands currently, the bill would restrict promotion of hemp-derived products with more than 1.25 mg of THC or a CBD-to-THC ratio of less than 20:1. Most other hemp-containing products meant for human consumption that are not a dietary supplement, food, food additive or herb would also be restricted.

R Street Institute’s Shoshana Weismann called out some of the issues in the bill’s initial language, stating that it has some “potentially disastrous quirks.” Speaking with Marijuana Moment, Weismann referenced that the updated bill would prevent social media users from promoting substances like Nyquil or anti-anxiety medications.

“And if you promote those medications, you will be reported to law enforcement,” Weismann told the publication via email. “That is asinine.”

Social Media Age Verification, Data Considerations

So what about the cannabis exemption for those over 21? Does allowing companies to advertise specifically to those of legal age act as a proper workaround?

The bill states that social media companies must “use a commercially reasonable process to verify each user’s age” and “retain any information obtained for age verification purposes only for the purpose of compliance and for no other purpose and to dispose of such information securely after age verification is complete.”

In a recent blog post, Weismann notes that this process is not only expensive for businesses but also would require Colorado social media users to upload sensitive information to any given social media site they use. 

“Although the bill requires platforms to dispose of this information once a user’s age is verified, the rule does not apply to third-party verifiers — rendering enforcement against them nearly impossible. Further, it doesn’t stop nefarious actors who would seek to hack such valuable information,” Weismann writes. 

The bill mandates companies to retain “any data and metadata concerning users’ identities and activities” for one year, and Weismann argues that this only makes data more enticing and accessible for hackers. 

Noting the potential First Amendment and free speech violations of the bill, Weismann also references the bill’s language prohibiting social media companies from alerting users “to the fact that a law enforcement agency is investigating the user’s activity and account,” arguing that this violates Fourth Amendment principles.

“This means that if someone is unaware the government is investigating them due to what is, in effect, a legislatively mandated gag order, they cannot fight government actions or exercise their rights,” Weismann states. “While these orders may be necessary in certain cases, it shouldn’t be an across-the-board call.”

Unanswered Questions and Uncertain Outcomes

There are a number of other potential scenarios the legislation could affect that lawmakers must still answer to. 

For example, it’s still unclear as to whether a medical patient posting about their cannabis use to social media would be banned under the legislation. Even someone posting that an over-the-counter cough syrup helped them to feel better, or Colorado Gov. Jared Polis’ (D) recent touting of the state’s emerging psychedelic industry as a positive and beneficial move, could potentially be banned under the language of the bill. 

The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Chris Hansen (D) told Marijuana Moment last month that he was “working on answers” to these questions.

Should the legislation pass, social media companies would need to update their policies and publicly post them on or before July 1, 2025. Companies would also need to submit annual reports to the state attorney general to confirm “whether the current version of the published policies contain definitions and provisions relating to illicit substances.”

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It’s open season for flagrant ads to sell illegal drugs like psilocybin, LSD, and other drugs, as Meta works to improve its algorithms to filter illegal content. Because content is being filtered by algorithms, not human beings, sometimes the wrong content—i.e. educational cannabis material—gets taken down while brazen ads to sell drugs remain up.

Some journalists are fed up with the double standard. A Canadian reporter said he was able to get an ad for LSD approved on Facebook, leading a Meta employee to finally remove the ad after the reporter reached out for comment. The National Post reports that Facebook’s automated moderation system approved an ad selling LSD, saying the ad doesn’t violate Meta’s advertising standards. The ad was eventually removed after the reporter contacted Facebook for comment.

Christopher McGrath, a senior manager at Deloitte Canada, said he began seeing ads for drugs on Facebook that he believes were triggered by algorithms while he was researching a recent report  on Canada’s black market cannabis trade.

Deloitte Canada’s report, “Clearing the Smoke: Insights to Canada’s Illicit Cannabis Market,” was supposed to provide data on illegal cannabis sales, but McGrath’s research for it only triggered an onslaught of various cannabis ads on Facebook. So on one hand, Meta wants to filter that content, but on the other, also market ads to users looking for items like cannabis.

University of Toronto media economics professor Brett Caraway, is due to the reliance social media platforms place in machine learning and automated algorithms to police their content.

“When these platforms started, they had departments full of people—actual humans—to sift through the most toxic and horrible parts of the internet,” he said.

“With the amount of content that goes up every minute, there’s just no way humans can put eyes on everything, so they rely increasingly on algorithms and AI for the first round of filtration.”

Facebook responded to The National Post’s inquiries with the following, explaining that when those ads are found they are taken down: “We prohibit content—both in ads and in organic content—that promotes the buying and selling of pharmaceutical and non-medical drugs, and remove it whenever we find it,” the statement reads. “We’ll continue to improve in this area in our ongoing efforts to keep our platforms safe.”

Experts wonder if the decline in online advertising is playing a role and if Meta can’t spend enough on moderation. 

“We’ve seen a lot of major players cut back in the money they’re spending,” Caraway said.

“But Facebook needs that [money]—so if Chrysler or BMW leave, then they have no choice but to take on Jimmy-Bob’s Cannabis Store. Their business model is literally 98-per-cent advertising funded, so they don’t have any wiggle room.”

A History of Censorship

Facebook and Instagram are known for targeting cannabis-related accounts in various waves, taking steps to cut back on illegal drug content. In October of 2018, Facebook placed a pause on cannabis searches. The site justified the ban saying users were selling marijuana products through the social network. Soon, the ban would be lifted

The platforms Facebook and Instagram will close an advertising loophole, joining other tech companies amid the “great vape scare” that took place in 2019. In 2019, an Instagram spokesperson said that Facebook and Instagram will start removing posts that promote vaping, tobacco, or weapons.

Companies that make totally harmless products—such as organic soap and care products manufacturer Dr. Bronner’s—reported posts and ads getting taken down. Dr. Bronner’s experienced similar issues with its boosted posts back in June 2017. 

The company received this response from Facebook after some of its ads were inexplicitly taken down: “This ad isn’t running because it doesn’t follow our Advertising Policies. We don’t allow ads that promote prescription or recreational drugs. Ads like these are sensitive in nature and are usually contrary to local laws, rules or regulations. Please keep in mind that advocacy or awareness ads are allowed…”

Eight Tulsa, Oklahoma-based medical cannabis businesses said that the platform was subjectively censoring their Facebook pages.

A group of cannabis businesses said they have been negatively affected by social media bans, and they are no longer taking the alleged discrimination lying down. Led by the Ye Olde Apothecary Shoppe, eight dispensaries have announced that they are suing Facebook executives over what they call “a pattern of targeting the Oklahoma medical marijuana industry.”

Efforts are being made to control drug ads on social media, particularly in Canada. In Canada, a new online harms bill includes content guidelines for social media platforms and enforcement frameworks meant to hold the tech companies accountable. In newer legislation,  Meta itself would be penalized if it let illegal drug ads stay up.

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New York Governor Kathy Hochul on Wednesday called on social media companies and popular websites including Google and Yelp to stop running listings for unlicensed cannabis retailers. At a press conference, the governor appeared with licensed dispensary owners, who face stiff competition from the multitude of unlicensed weed retailers in New York City, to call attention to the situation.

“If you type in ‘cannabis dispensaries’ in Google Maps or Yelp, you’ll get a long list of unlicensed illegal vendors,” Hochul said at the press conference on Wednesday.

New York legalized recreational marijuana in 2021, with the state’s first licensed adult-use cannabis retailer opening in the waning days of 2022. But the pace of opening licensed pot retailers in New York has been slow, with regulators citing the complexity of the application and approval process and difficulties securing and renovating appropriate storefronts as some of the causes for the delay. To date, less than 70 licensed weed shops have opened statewide.

The pace of opening newly licensed shops was also hindered by several court cases challenging the state’s process for awarding the first licenses for pot retailers, which were reserved for individuals with prior convictions for marijuana-related offenses. Several injunctions have stalled the awarding of new licenses, although recent settlements have resulted in the opening of 50 additional licensed weed retailers since December, including at least 30 new shops this week.

Efforts To Shutter Unlicensed Weed Shops Unsuccessful

Meanwhile, the number of unlicensed retailers in New York, particularly the Big Apple, has exploded. Estimates by city officials place the number of unlicensed pot shops in New York City at at least 1,300, perhaps as many as 2,000. There are more than 400 such retailers in Manhattan alone, according to a report from The New York Times.

At the press conference on Wednesday, Hochul said that unlicensed shops are a public health risk and a threat to the state’s efforts to create opportunities in the regulated cannabis industry for those harmed by decades of marijuana prohibition. The governor also acknowledged that efforts to close down the unlicensed shops with raids and fines have been too limited and so far have been unsuccessful.

“More and more cash keeps going in their doors and not the doors of our legitimate operators — and that’s what needs to change,” Hochul said.

Hochul has a proposal pending before state lawmakers that would make it easier for the state Office of Cannabis Management to obtain orders to padlock unlicensed cannabis businesses. The orders would also be enforceable by local agencies with more personnel available to execute them. 

While the proliferation of unlicensed pot retailers in New York continues, Hochul on Wednesday asked social media and tech companies “to not be posting the sites that are illegal and ensure that they’re posting the legal shops.”

The sheer number of unlicensed cannabis shops appearing on websites and social media makes reaching new customers difficult for licensed operators, who face restrictions on how they can promote their businesses. Osbert Orduña has two licensed cannabis shops, one in the New York City borough of Queens and the other in New Jersey. 

Orduña said that Google Maps has repeatedly removed listings for his shops. He has not run into any trouble with Yelp, although he said he agrees with Hochul and would like to see the website delist unlicensed retailers.

“Four times, Google has taken us down off of their platform for ‘violating their terms of service.’ We’ve done nothing other than have our store hours and our basic business information listed,” he said.

Tech Companies React

In a statement, consumer reviews website Yelp said that “consumers have a First Amendment right to read and write about all businesses, even if unlicensed,” according to a report from the Associated Press.

“Allowing users to contribute and see information … about unlicensed businesses serves the public interest and provides a resource for regulators to determine whether any particular business has appropriate licenses,” the statement read.

Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, has previously said in a statement that its social media sites “prohibit content in both ads and organic pages that promotes the buying and selling of drugs including marijuana,” ABC 7 New York reported on Wednesday.

Google also responded to Hochul’s call to eliminate listings for unlicensed cannabis retailers, saying the company bans weed ads in New York and would remove listings for unlicensed shops once they have been closed by regulators.

“If we can confirm that a business has closed for any reason – including license issues – we’ll reflect that it’s closed in the listing,” the statement reads. “We also prohibit cannabis ads in New York and remove them upon detection, often before they ever run.”

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Meta Platforms Inc., aka Mark Zuckerberg’s tech giant behind social media giants like Facebook and Instagram, has chosen to ignore advice from its ethics watchdog regarding how the platform manages posts connected to psychedelics.

The drama dates back to a 2022 “paid partner” post that promoted a ketamine treatment as a “medicine” and a “magical entry into another dimension,” Bloomberg reports. The post yo-yoed on the platform, like a law implemented, then overturned, then reinstated, depending on which party is in the White House. 

Ketamine, discovered in 1956 and approved in 1970, is a dissociative anesthetic with psychedelic traits. It first became famous in battlefield settings like Vietnam for its ability to maintain stable blood flow, gaining a reputation as a safer anesthetic than opioids and being listed on the World Health Organization’s List of Essential Medicines. Besides being an alternative to opiates, recent studies highlight its potential for treating depression, PTSD, and other mental health conditions, making it the only legal psychedelic medicine at the federal level. While it can certainly help transform someone’s life, the drama boils down to whether it’s a good idea to promote it as a medicine that could provide a magical entry into another dimension. Is that just a nice way to describe a medically induced k-hole, or is it irresponsible for IG to allow it to be posted?

Fast forward to August of 2023, and Meta’s Oversight Board didn’t just overturn Meta’s decision to keep the post alive, but also used it as a jumping off point for more sweeping recommendations. The board expressed concerns over what they termed “inconsistently enforced” guidelines about the selling or promoting of substances that sit in the gray areas of legal medicine and recreational fun, such as ketamine, which doctors prescribe off-label for depression and other mental health conditions.  

However, despite members of the psychedelics community believing that Meta is far too strict, censoring content, they responded to the board’s recommendation with resistance. While they agreed to the board’s suggestions regarding clarifying “paid partnerships,” they chose to ignore the stricter guidance on users posting about ketamine and other psychedelic medicines.

Regarding the audit that the board’s been championing, Meta used the tried-and-tried technique of procrastination. They responded that they would “assess the feasibility” in 2024, responding that their current “machine-learning automation” already does a good job at flagging potentially dangerous content in violation with their boundaries.

Meta’s surprising but welcome (for the psychedelics community) decision came after input from about 15 different parties, including Mindbloom, the telehealth company that prescribes ketamine at-home. Mindbloom has been lobbying for Meta to chill and allow posts containing psychedelic content. But the board isn’t happy.

“The board is concerned about inconsistent enforcement of Meta’s policies with regards to pharmaceutical and non-medical drugs,” Dan Chaison, an Oversight Board spokesperson, said in an email, writes Bloomberg. “It stands by its recommendation that Meta should clarify the policy language around content that admits to using or promoting pharmaceutical drugs. The board will closely monitor Meta’s progress toward the recommendations from this case.”

The standing policy permits content that “admits to using or promotes the use of pharmaceutical drugs,” even if it might induce a “high,” provided it’s framed within a “supervised medical setting.” The board emphasized the need for Meta to be clearer about what this setting entails.

In the past, the Oversight Board, funded by Meta, has tackled topics such as COVID-19 misinformation. But Meta isn’t bound to follow its recommendations, and perhaps felt that sharing information, even magical, about ketamine, is different than allowing people to promote faux remedies for a potentially fatal illness such as COVID-19. Companies such as Mindbloom would have lost out on opportunities to promote their mail-order ketamine services. Michael Petegorsky, Mindbloom’s General Counsel, expressed, “This decision is a big win for people who use ketamine therapy and other psychedelic medicines.” He believes it paves the way for individuals to “speak freely about these emerging mental-health treatments using their own words, and without revealing private health information.

However, playing devil’s advocate, as the research behind ketamine’s use for depression is still rolling in, there are those who would make the case that posts calling ketamine magical for depression, which is also a deadly disease, is also irresponsible. Ketamine’s side effects vary based on factors like dosage and how it’s taken. Generally speaking, users might experience feelings of being out of their body, dizziness, altered perceptions, and euphoria (which is usually welcome). Nausea and vomiting are among the most reported negative side effects. While overdosing on ketamine is rare, people must be careful to avoid activities like driving post-intake. Notable, excessive consumption can lead to bladder, urinary, and kidney issues. Responsible providers will share all of this information with patients before they begin treatment, but as it exists in a legal gray area, and considering that not all medical providers have their patient’s best interest at heart, deciding how and where ketamine should be promoted as a treatment for depression and other mental health conditions is sure to be a continued hot topic not just for Meta, but for the psychedelic community. 

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Major social media platforms continue to gradually warm up to cannabis. As Meta rival Twitter announced it will allow some CBD and THC ads last February, Meta is taking steps as well by continuing to loosen up restrictions for CBD-related ads. On July 11, Facebook posted an announcement, unveiling Meta’s new policy on CBD and related products in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, and changing some of the language from hemp to CBD. 

“We want people to continue to discover and learn about new products and services on our technologies,” Facebook wrote. “Effective today, we are renaming our advertising policy Hemp & Related Products to CBD & Related Products and allowing the promotion of legally permissible, non-ingestible CBD in the U.S., with some restrictions.”

Keep in mind that these products have been legal for some purposes at the federal level since the passage of the 2018 Farm Bill, which legalized industrial hemp and hemp products with insignificant amounts or >0.3% THC on a dry-weight basis.

“Under the new policy, advertisers don’t need written permission to run ads that: Promote or offer the sale of hemp products that don’t contain CBD or >0.3% THC (e.g. hemp seed and hemp fiber) in Canada, Mexico, and the United States, provided that they comply with all applicable local laws, required or established industry codes and guidelines,” a Meta spokesperson told High Times in an email statement.

In 2019, when Facebook announced it would allow topical hemp product ads—but not ads for ingestible products. This could be in part because the FDA determined that THC and CBD products are excluded from the dietary supplement definition. The new changes clarify between hemp and CBD products and remove the written permission requirement. This also includes ads to “educate, advocate, or give public service announcements related to CBD and related products provided that such ads don’t offer any prohibited products for sale.”

This is unlikely to allow hemp-derived products marketed as psychoactive. The spokesperson continued, “Advertisers will continue to be prohibited from running ads that promote THC products or cannabis products containing related psychoactive components. Additionally, advertisers can only run ads that promote or offer the sale of legally permissible, non-ingestible CBD products that don’t contain more than 0.3% THC as long as they are: 

• Certified with Legitscript
• Have written permission from Meta
• Comply with all applicable local laws required or established industry codes and guidelines.

“Further, ads for CBD products must not target people under 18 years of age and are only allowed in the U.S.,” the spokesperson continued. 

This is a slight improvement compared to what we’re used to: Meta’s Instagram and Facebook routinely pull cannabis accounts off the platforms in a game of cat and mouse if they are deemed to violate Community Standards. There’s no indication that will stop anytime soon.

In February, Twitter announced it will now be allowing ads for CBD and THC products in certain jurisdictions. “As the cannabis industry has expanded, so too has the conversation on Twitter. In the US—one of the most influential markets for cannabis—it is larger than the conversation around topics such as pets, cooking, and golf, as well as food and beverage categories including fast food, coffee, and liquor,” Twitter wrote.

Facebook’s new app Threads—dubbed the “Twitter Killer”—grew astronomically as soon as it was released to the public, hitting 100 million users within days. Social media apps are in high competition, even in the way they regulate CBD and/or THC-related ads.

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If Twitter embraces legal weed—and succeeds—the company could force Instagram, Facebook, and others to follow.

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A new study with a modest sampling pool found that cannabis retail companies are not adhering to state restrictions on social media, and are targeting teens.

The study was published in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs recently and online on January 19, and found that many recreational cannabis companies market their products in a way that appeals to children and teens, “flouting state regulations.” A press release was released the following day.

The study, “A Content Analysis of Cannabis Company Adherence to Marketing Requirements in Four States,” provided an analysis of social media posts from cannabis companies in a handful of legal states. 

A team of researchers evaluated one year of publicly displayed posts on Facebook and Instagram by retail cannabis companies in four states—Alaska, Colorado, Oregon and Washington—and evaluated if companies adhered to restrictions on social media. 

Researchers looked for content that goes against restrictions, including branded promotions or discounts, modeling overconsumption, youth-focused messaging and health benefits. They also took a look at various state requirements.

They checked to see if companies displayed required warnings, including stating that cannabis is limited to people ages 21 and older, avoiding impaired driving and listing health risks.

But in the study, only 14 businesses were evaluated. Researchers evaluated 2,660 posts from those 14 businesses, to be exact. 

“I had expected that cannabis companies were unlikely to fully adhere to existing guidelines,” said lead author Megan Moreno, M.D., M.S.Ed., M.P.H., division chief of general pediatrics and adolescent medicine at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “Some cannabis companies generated dozens of social media posts per day, and there is no current system in place to monitor or enforce these regulations. However, it was surprising to see how the presence of guidelines made a difference between states.”

What the Findings Show

Discounts or promotions were found in approximately 35 percent of the posts, researchers said. “Overconsumption” was found in 12 percent percent of all posts. Content containing warnings, “despite being required,” researchers said, were evident in less than half of all posts.

The researchers noted that Washington State, for example, prohibits displaying branded products, such as T-shirts with a company logo. But they found that about one percent of the posts on social media from Washington state cannabis companies ignored this restriction.

The research team did admit that “in states without this regulation, these types of posts appeared between five and 10 times more frequently. So while regulation did not guarantee compliance, it seemed to have an impact on how often companies shared content that may or may not be restricted.”

“As a pediatrician, I know that marketing and advertisements have a strong influence on kids and teens,” said Moreno. “Previous studies have shown how alcohol and tobacco companies’ marketing is associated with youth using these products.”

She continued, “Parents should talk with their kids about how cannabis companies seek to influence them by using youth-friendly approaches, like using cartoon characters and memes.”

The study was picked up by FOX23 News and ABC10 in New York at the time of writing.

Both Facebook and Instagram fall under the Meta umbrella, and we can’t help but wonder if studies such as this impact Meta policy. “I don’t think the results of this study have any impact on Meta censoring cannabis brands because they justify their actions by saying cannabis is federally illegal in the U.S. and therefore not allowed anywhere in the world, even in countries where it’s federally legal, like Canada,” ADCANN CEO Cody Hicks told High Times. ADCANN provides cannabis marketing tools, such as how to restore an Instagram account if it’s been disabled because of cannabis.

We Have Questions

If legal cannabis companies are targeting teens, it doesn’t appear to be working. A separate, broad study published in the JAMA Pediatrics—using data from national and state Youth Risk Behavior Surveys from 1993 to 2017, researchers from Montana State University, University of Oregon, University of Colorado–Denver and San Diego State University—examined states that had legalized medical and adult use cannabis and the likelihood of teen use (during the past 30 days).

The study analyzed data from 27 states and the District of Columbia, and seven states where adult use of cannabis is legal, during a 25-year time period. Adult-use cannabis laws were associated with a eight percent decrease in the likelihood of teens trying cannabis, as well as a nine percent reduction in the odds of frequent cannabis use, the study found. They found medical cannabis laws had no significant effect on teen cannabis use.

Usually, headlines about children and cannabis tend to pop up around Halloween, yearly. Bias focused on the harm (or benefits) of cannabis abounds in both clinical and nonclinical cannabis-related research.

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