Liquor Control Board answers questions about marijuana advertising

Legal marijuana businesses are trying to determine how best to market their products and stay within our state’s recreational marijuana law.  This week, the Liquor Control Board released answers to frequently asked questions from marijuana business licensees.  (They do not apply to medical marijuana businesses.)   Here are a few:

Online Advertising

May I have a website to promote my company? Are there any limitations on a company website?
Yes you may have a website to advertise your business. However, the law does not allow a business to use a website to sell marijuana/marijuana products. All recreational marijuana sales must take place at a licensed marijuana premises.

Can I use social media to promote my business?
Yes. Please use social media with caution and be mindful not to appeal to, or solicit, viewers under the age of 21. If possible, please restrict views to adults age 21 and older.

Am I able to produce a YouTube page with comedy commercials promoting my marijuana business?
Yes. Please use social media with caution and to be mindful not to appeal to, or solicit, viewers under the age of 21. If possible, please restrict views to adults age 21 and older.

Am I able to have a mascot in the YouTube commercial?
Yes, as long as the mascot is not a cartoon character or is appealing to children. 

Traditional Advertising

 

May I set up a separate business to promote my marijuana retail store?
Yes. That would be allowed if the business is used to sell t-shirts, hats etc. Those items, however, could not be sold within your retail marijuana store.

May I advertise for cannabis on the radio and TV?
The law states that licensed marijuana producers, processors and retailers “may not advertise marijuana or marijuana-infused products in any form through any medium whatsoever within one-thousand feet of the perimeter of a school ground, playground, recreation center or facility, child care center, public park or library, or any game arcade admission to which is not restricted to persons aged twenty-one years or older.” The fine is $1,000 for each violation.

Although print media, such as newspapers, are often delivered to locations at or near schools, the LCB does not intend to enforce the 1,000’ buffer for newspaper advertising as long as the advertising does not violate other provisions of I-502.

Television and radio, of course, carry across state lines as well as places where children can see or hear. TV and radio are also regulated by the Federal Communications Commission. Licensees should consult with their attorney and media-buyer or other advertising sales representative to ensure cannabis/related advertisements are permissible.

As I-502 is implemented, an understanding of prevention is needed

The need to scientifically-define prevention is once again obvious when reading the latest Brookings Institute report on our state’s implementation and evaluation of I-502.  In the report, the author notes that some marijuana revenue is dedicated to funding prevention and treatment programs.  He claims, “Given the paucity of good scientific information about marijuana, this is a tall order . . .”  In fact, research has already shown what works to prevent adolescent marijuana use.  A few examples of evidence-based programs are:

• Keepin' it REAL
• Guiding Good Choices
• Life Skills Training
• Lions Quest
• SPORT
• Project Northland

Revenue from I-502 earmarked for prevention will fund community coalitions.  These coalitions will then identify drug-related risk factors particular to their communities and implement programs, policies, and practices that are proven to reduce those risk factors.  The programs listed above are examples of prevention activities to be implemented, but community-based policies and practices (also called “environmental” strategies) will also be implemented. 

What we don’t know is if policies and practices that work for preventing alcohol and tobacco use among adolescents will work for marijuana since it has never been marketed and sold like alcohol and tobacco.  Right now, prevention providers advocate for the following policies that are best practices for alcohol and tobacco prevention:

• Limit the number of retailers that sell the drugs in a community. 
• Limit days and hours of sale.
• Levy high taxes on the drugs.
• Enforce age limits for purchasing and using.
• Limit where products may be consumed.

Most of these policies are included in the new marijuana system.  The policies limiting the number of marijuana stores in a community, limiting hours of sale, limiting where marijuana products may be consumed, and high taxes on marijuana should be maintained and studied.  As the Brookings paper suggests, this is an experiment and we should strive to learn as much as possible from it. These policies work for alcohol and marijuana, we should find out if they work for marijuana, too.  

How to influence change in your community

Founder of Citizen University in Seattle, Eric Liu recently gave a TED Talk about the importance of every-day individuals actively participating in local decision making.



This is an important topic for those of us advocating for public policy that supports healthy youth development.  To have our voices heard by decision makers, Mr. Liu advises citizens to use the following five skills:

1. Understand the system: Determine how decisions are made in your community and who makes them.  Who most influences those bodies?  What do you need to do to gain more power to influence decisions?

2. Identify your objective: What specifically do you want to change?

3. Sharpen your sense of strategy: Organize people by using social media or other communication tools.  Build alliances with others concerned about substance abuse prevention and healthy youth development.  

4.  Tell a story: Offer a story that people can relate to and share the solution you envision.  Here in King County, the most meaningful testimony for the adoption of a medicine return program came from parents of children who struggled with addiction to pain medications and whose children overdosed and died.

5. Practice: The more you advocate for policies that promote healthy and safe environments for children, the better you will become at it.  Learn from successes and challenges and share what you know.

Marijuana advertising milestone

Another legal marijuana milestone: the billboard ad campaign.

This billboard sure looks a lot like old "lifestyle" ads for beer and cigarettes.

In their press release, the company advertising their products says:

We've seen a lot of curiosity from the recreational market and hopefully that curiosity will translate to affinity for our brands," said Dax Colwell, co-founder of New Leaf Enterprises. "Our goal is to build brand awareness and educate the market about safe, lab-tested Cannabis, in an effort to minimize the stigma that Cannabis products face with legalization."

Moving forward, New Leaf Enterprises plans to increase its marketing investment by 200% in 2015, setting the pace for emerging companies in the cannabis industry. It will continue to invest in media awareness for its Dàmà products in an effort to educate the public about responsible use for Cannabis products, and to create a dialog to overcome stereotypes about the use of Cannabis products.

First list of approved marijuana-infused foods released today

Today, the Liquor Control Board released the first list of marijuana-infused products that they approved for sale in recreational marijuana shops in our state.  The list includes the following marijuana-infused products:

Rainier Cherry Soda

Pomegranate Soda

Lemon Ginger Soda

Cannabis Infused Single Shots - Tart Cherry

Cannabis Infused Lemongrass Nuggets

Cannabis Infused Chili Cinnamon Fire Nuggets

420 Party Mix

Assorted Cookies

Brittle

Cookies & Cream Bar

Crazy Carnival Nuts

Dark Chocolate Bar

Granola

Twisted Trail Mix

How Florida reduced prescription drug related deaths

The following message from the Florida Attorney General provides a good example of how effective policies and their enforcement can be in preventing substance abuse.  Policies are especially effective when they address problems specific to a community, in this case the state of Florida.  

At the beginning of my term, prescription drug overdoses were steadily rising over the past seven years. Florida was known as the “pill mill capital of the country” with drug dealers from all over the country traveling to my state to stock up on prescription painkillers. Ninety-eight of the top 100 Oxycodone dispensing doctors lived in Florida. Florida gained national notoriety because of the pill mills throughout the state that were prescribing and dispensing large amounts of controlled substances outside the scopes of standard medical practice. Florida became the destination for distributors and abusers, and seven Floridians were dying every day as a result.

In response, we began implementing various laws and enforcement actions to reverse this alarming trend.  I made fighting this epidemic a top priority and worked with state legislators to pass a tough new law cracking down on pill mills that included prohibiting physicians from dispensing Schedule II and III drugs. Law enforcement then began statewide raids resulting in thousands of arrests including more than 70 pill mill doctors, seizures of more than $10 million, and more than 240 pill mills closing.  I also helped create the Statewide Task Force on Prescription Drug Abuse and Newborns, which examined the extent of prescription drug abuse among expectant mothers, as well as the costs of caring and the long-term effects for babies with Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome. Thanks to all of these multi-faceted efforts, pill mills have been closed and Florida is no longer the “pill mill capital of the country.” 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently released a report on Florida’s success in reversing drug overdose trends. The analysis showed that the crackdown in Florida was followed by a significant decline in prescription drug abuse.  Florida now has the first documented substantial decline in drug overdoes mortality of a state during the past 10 years, and prescription drug related deaths have decreased by 23 percent from 2010 to 2012. 

More information is available on the Attorney General’s website.