To operate a legal cannabis on social media is getting to be more difficult than actually operating one in real life. The simple act of promoting online can be super tricky. An Alaskan dispensary is dealing with that the hard way right now.
Per TheCannabist
Facebook has shut down pages set up by several businesses licensed to legally sell marijuana in Alaska, severing what some shop owners consider a critical link to their customers.
The social media giant said its standards describe what users can post, and content promoting marijuana sales isn’t allowed. The issue has popped up over the last few years in states that have legalized recreational and medical pot, often coming in waves, industry officials said.
Cary Carrigan, executive director of the Alaska Marijuana Industry Association, said the industry has been forced to fight the same battles repeatedly as marijuana gains broader acceptance nationally.
The drug is legal for recreational use in eight states, but it remains illegal on the federal level. It wasn’t clear why the crackdown in Alaska happened within the past couple weeks or what specifically prompted it.
Jana Weltzin, an Anchorage-based attorney who works with the cannabis industry, said pulling Facebook pages of marijuana businesses “has an incredibly negative, chilling effect on the commercial speech of these companies.”
TV and radio stations often do not allow marijuana advertising, so social media is a way for businesses to communicate directly with their consumers, she said. In Alaska, rules for pot advertising are unclear and inconsistent, Weltzin said.
Taylor West, deputy director of the National Cannabis Industry Association, said her organization has sought clear guidelines from Facebook without much success.
She suggests affected businesses appeal their account suspensions or deletions to Facebook and press for more information. In the past, that has yielded mixed results, she said.
“In some cases, people never hear back. In other cases, they get their accounts back, fully restored,” West said.
