Why you won't be seeing Missouri medical marijuana advertised on TV
Gregory J. Holman
Tobacco had the Marlboro Man, but absent major changes to federal law, it's unlikely marijuana will ever have a TV advertising mascot.
Nor are Missouri consumers likely to encounter TV or radio spots advertising dispensaries or CBD shops.
That's because holders of broadcast licenses depend on the good graces of the federal government to keep them. Since 1934, the Federal Communications Commission has been in charge of regulating the public airwaves.
And the federal government prohibits cannabis.
Could things change? It is not likely
Even today, with medical or full adult-use cannabis legal in 33 states, and boosters predicting Missouri's medical cannabis market could be worth $500 million, TV and radio stations try not to flout Uncle Sam's rules.
That's according to Mark Gordon, president and CEO of the Missouri Broadcasters Association in Jefferson City.
"I can’t imagine any broadcaster taking any medical marijuana advertising," Gordon told the News-Leader last week. "Our licenses are worth more than that."
Gordon said the association's legal hotline gets a few questions on the topic from time to time, but not frequently.
"We get very, very few calls on that," he said. "I can't even recall the latest."
When the association gets a question about marijuana ads, Gordon said that the standard response is to recommend license-holders take no business marketing a product that's illegal on the federal level.
And even though CBD is now legal under the Farm Bill of 2018, which permitted hemp products containing no more than 0.3 percent THC, broadcasters remain wary.
"That product is a slippery slope, and you need to be careful," Gordon said. "You don't know where the hemp comes from. You're not even sure that it's less than 0.3 percent. You have to be sure of that."
The association recommends broadcasters consult with their own legal counsel when it comes to CBD advertising, Gordon said. Many broadcasters have a blanket policy of not accepting CBD ads.
So-called "adjacent" businesses, like law firms offering services to marijuana-related companies, may be able to get on the air.
In fall 2017, Leafly reported, a Denver-based law firm placed an ad that ran on CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, Viceland, the Weather Channel, Headline News and Fox Business. It was a first for the cannabis industry.
The Hoban Law Group's founder told Leafly that TV networks insisted "we didn’t hit people over the head with the word 'marijuana.' So in the ad we talk about industrial hemp, and the medical and adult use marketplaces."
The issue doesn't seem to have come up much in southwestern Missouri lately. One local broadcaster that deals extensively with advertising, Branson-based The Vacation Channel, said nobody had asked them about advertising a would-be dispensary or CBD shop.
And members of the public do not appear to have filed any objections to TV advertising in recent years. Since 2017, only two FCC complaints originated from Springfield, according to a data center maintained by the commission. In that year, someone complained about cable internet billing, and in 2018, someone had an issue with phone number portability.