Elon Musk Takes Twitter To Another Level: Greenlights Paid Ads For Cannabis & THC Products In US

The second richest man on the planet, Elon Musk, is making significant changes on the popular social media platform he recently acquired – Twitter, now allowing ads for CBD and THC products.

What happened

Twitter updated its policy, enabling advertisers to promote brand preference and informational marijuana-related content for various cannabis products, first reported AdCann. Those products include:

• CBD (Cannabidiol) and similar cannabinoid products

• THC (Tetrahydrocannabinol) and similar products

• Cannabis-related products and services. Examples include, but are not limited to delivery services, labs, growing technology, search engines, events, etc.

Before these changes, Twitter was allowing promotional content of only CBD topical brands, and paid ads were banned.

Under the “Drugs and drug paraphernalia” heading, Twitter also disclosed some of the restrictions around weed product marketing noting that advertisers must be licensed and pre-authorized by Twitter, only target jurisdictions in which they are licensed to promote these products and services online, and they may not promote or offer the sale of cannabis.

As expected, ads must not target minors (under 21).

Other rules around paid cannabis advertising require that landing pages are age-gated and sales must be age verified, they must not use minors or pregnant women as models, not make false statements about efficacy or health benefits and not promote transport across state lines.

The above policy is for the U.S., whereas for Canada, which legalized marijuana on a federal level in 2018, paid marijuana ads have been already allowed. Some of the largest licensed producers like Cronos Group CRON, Canopy Growth CGC, and Aurora Cannabis ACB have been using Twitter to promote their brands and services.

The policy change comes on the heels of Musk tweeting "420," which is synonymous with cannabis.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 4, 2023

April 20, known as "420," is the unofficial holiday celebrated by marijuana users. His "420" tweet resonated with Twitter users worldwide, with more than 74 million users seeing it, and some 549,000 liking it.

Not The First Cannabis-Related Change Since Musk’s Takeover

This is not the first cannabis-related change on Twitter since Elon Musk started calling the shots. In December, Twitter’s former suggestions that users who searched for specific drug-related words such as “cannabis” should consider getting help for substance use have been suspended. The suspension happened around two years after the feature, which was created in agreement with the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) was installed.

The note suggesting help, which did not appear when people searched for alcohol, had been roundly criticized by marijuana advocates. They argued that Twitter was implying that any interest in marijuana indicates a potential substance abuse problem. What about medical marijuana? Or policy reforms? Or job searches in the industry?

“Help is available. If you or someone you know is struggling with substance use, you are not alone,” the standard warning said, directing users to SAMHSA’s helpline and website.

While it is still officially unconfirmed if the sudden suspension of the feature was the result of an expired arrangement between Twitter and SAMHSA or if it was removed due to policy changes stemming from the platform’s new owner, Musk, new policy changes indicate the latter. After all, Musk, even though not a regular marijuana user, as he believes it is not good for productivity, at least not for him, has been known to publicly discuss cannabis, and raise important questions about marijuana policy and justice.

Blunt About Marijuana, Policy And Justice 

Several years ago, during the beginning of the pandemic, Musk tweeted the following “Selling weed literally went from major felony to essential business (open during the pandemic) in much of America & yet many are still in prison. Doesn’t make sense, isn’t right.”

In July 2022, he voiced the same thinking over the Brittney Griner case. Musk shared a meme of a guy with his hands on his hips that was captioned, “people in the US in jail for weed while the government trades a Russian war criminal to free a woman’s basketball player in jail for weed.”

Musk wrote, “Maybe free some people in jail for weed here too?”

Taking all this into account it is safe to assume that Musk is taking Twitter to a completely new level when it comes to cannabis. Who knows he might even turn into the leading social media platform for marijuana industry advertisers.

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Photo: Benzinga Edit of images by 2H Media on Unsplash and Duncan.Hull  on Wikimedia Commons