By Kathleen McLean
FB: KathleenMclean
Under the proposed California Senate Bill 162, the state would prohibit state-licensed cannabis business from advertising. This is all branded merchandise, “including but not limited to, clothing, hats or other merchandise with the name of or logo of the product.”
This would be catastrophic for the industry. According to today’s measures, 8 in 10 people own a promotional product. Before receiving a promotional product, 55 percent of people had done business with the advertiser. After receiving a promotional product, 85 percent of people did business with the advertiser.
The majority of people reading this publication are patients and general consumers. If you’ve attended any cannabis event there’s a good chance you have received free stuff. By this I don’t mean medication, but, all the real fun every day merchandise, hats, t-shirts, bags, bumper stickers, pens, necklaces, water bottles; the list goes on and on. If this bill passes it will put an end to all of it in an attempt to reduce exposure to children.
Just this past May, the Senate passed the measure unanimously, 40-0. On Tuesday, the Assembly’s Business and Professions Committee passed it 12-0, sending it on to the Assembly Appropriations Committee.
Leafly’s Ben Adlin spoke with Attorney Rebecca Stamey-White, a San Francisco-based lawyer who works with the cannabis and alcohol industries. Rebecca Stamey-White was quoted as saying “SB 162 is broad enough in its language that it could cover branded merchandise worn by employees or even merchandise produced by an unlicensed third party if it was done so for the licensee.”
This Bill does not fly with the Southern California Coalition, the largest trade group of marijuana businesses in Los Angeles. The organization’s executive director, Adam Spiker sent an email stating, “to ban small businesses from advertising, marketing and branding is ridiculous. The bill would materially hamstring small business owners’ ability to group in the land of opportunity.”
Ultimately, Bill 162 is so broad in writing that legal dispensaries can’t even have their staff in matching t-shirts.
