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Medical marijuana industry urges patients to speak out against Missouri ad restrictions
Industry insiders are urging medical marijuana patients to raise objections after Missouri regulators told dispensaries this summer they couldn’t advertise cannabis sales.
In practice, the rule means companies aren’t allowed to spread the word on product discounts, including holiday specials, even though dispensaries are free to lower prices as they see fit.
The advertising restriction is an unconstitutional barrier to information for medical marijuana patients, business owners said in a full-page ad printed in September’s “The Evolution Magazine,” a cannabis-focused publication based and distributed in Missouri.
The ad asks readers to mail a prewritten postcard to Lyndall Fraker, director of the medical marijuana program, requesting that he rescind the rule because it “runs afoul of the department’s core mission.
“With more than 135 dispensaries now operating in Missouri, patients absolutely should be able to receive information about discounts, products, and events and should not be denied critical information,” the postcard said.
“The Department views a promotional event as any activity, advertisement, or publicity designed to increase interest in purchasing medical marijuana or a particular product or brand of medical marijuana,” an email to dispensaries said.
It said advertising “price discounts on a particular product” or holiday sales events were not allowed.
Lisa Cox, spokeswoman for the DHSS, said Tuesday that the department had not altered its stance.
Missouri voters in 2018 approved a constitutional amendment to legalize medical marijuana.
The amendment allows the state to regulate the drug “so long as patient access is not restricted unreasonably and such rules are reasonably necessary for patient safety ....”
Like cannabis, alcohol advertisements have also faced limits in Missouri.
The state had restricted stores, bars and restaurants from advertising special sales prices, but after a federal judge determined the regulation violated free speech rights, the state was forced to pay out $550,000 last year to end a long-running legal dispute.
Backers of legalizing marijuana for adult use have filed numerous initiative petitions with the Missouri secretary of state.
Legal Missouri 2022, which has backing from established industry players, has been raising funds for a signature-gathering campaign.
A competing effort, Fair Access Missouri, hasn’t kept pace with Legal Missouri’s fundraising.
Canvassers will have to collect enough signatures by next May in order for an adult-use question to make the November 2022 ballot.
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