A Maryland marijuana panel has approved a ban on all cannabis advertising. The Baltimore Sun reports that The Maryland Medical Cannabis Commission was unanimous in its vote Thursday to eliminate all advertising on radio, TV, billboards and most digital by marijuana companies. And if a newspaper cannot prove 85% of its readership is over the age of 18, the ban applies to them as well.
Online, ads must be accompanied by an age-verification page which basically kills that medium from running the ads as well.
According to the paper 71 stores in Maryland have sold $96 million in cannabis related products over the past year.
Cannabis advocates say the ban is a result of two lawmakers who were upset over a billboard they say depicting Adam and Even smoking a joint. Lawmakers sat that’s not the only reason, that the ban mirrors restrictions on other tobacco product.
The attorney general’s office still has to review the regulations and its possible the Maryland General Assembly would have to vote on them.
