F<\/span>or years, T-shirts have been one of the only options for folks trying to get their brand out there. In the dark ages it was word of mouth, in the less dark ages it was word of mouth, Weedmaps and tees. Today we live in an age where cannabis companies can advertise in mainstream news publications, but this wasn\u2019t always the case.<\/p>\n SB 162<\/a> (which has already passed the state Senate and an additional committee) seeks to slash the marketing capabilities of licensed cannabis; the original language would have seen bans on describing products on websites and online ordering, but those didn\u2019t make the cut.<\/p>\n What we\u2019re left with is a bill that bans cannabis-branded merchandise\u00a0and mandates that any advertising or marketing for cannabis shall only be displayed where at least 71.6 percent of the audience is reasonably expected to be 21 years of age or older.<\/p>\n So basically you can show a Purple Kush commercial during a UFC card but not the Macy\u2019s Thanksgiving day parade.<\/p>\n Activists, like California NORML\u2019s Dale Gieringer, who helped co-author California\u2019s first medical cannabis law, say the bill caught them by surprise.<\/p>\n \u201cUnfortunately we didn\u2019t get wind of this turkey until too late. It had already passed the Senate and a key Assembly Committee with hardly a vote of dissent,\u201d he said. \u201cCasinos, alcohol producers, gun manufacturers are all allowed to have commercially branded apparel\u2026 Cannabis is certainly no worse. \u00a0It\u2019s possible that Gov. Brown will veto the bill, but more likely we\u2019ll be stuck with it.\u201d<\/p>\n Gieringer added that constitutional protections on political speech could help companies circumvent the ban.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d suggest that the cannabis companies add a political message to their apparel,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n NORML Executive Director, Erik Altieri,\u00a0 went a bit further in his scathing review of the legislation than his counterpart at the state level.<\/p>\n \u201cThis proposed ban on cannabis apparel is patently absurd and goes against the core American values of free enterprise and free speech,\u201d he said, adding that he doesn\u2019t believe there is a reason to single out state-approved marijuana operators for these restrictions when you can walk into any Target store across the country and buy t-shirts branded with Wild Turkey or Budweiser, \u201cin the young men\u2019s section no less.\u201d<\/p>\n Altieri also said it was a violation of the free speech rights of small business operators.<\/p>\n \u201cWhile we understand that reasonable restrictions should be put into place to avoid aggressively marketing marijuana products to minors and other overt promotions such as giveaways, this proposed blanket ban on merchandise is a bridge too far,\u201d he said. \u201cIt would not only hurt small business owners in their attempts to gain a foothold in a growing market, but is a clear affront to commercial free speech.\u201d<\/p>\n Dr. Amanda Reiman told us it was definitely the mom and pops that would take the hit.<\/p>\n \u201cThe idea that banning t-shirts and hats with cannabis logos is somehow protecting us from something is ludicrous! We allow t-shirts to have images of weapons, alcohol, lewd comments about women, minorities, etc., so this is just one more example of illogical control points based on fear,\u201d Reiman said. \u201cThis proposal is ridiculous and I hope it quickly fades into the background so that we can address real issues, like support for the ecologically superior sun grown product!\u201d<\/p>\n TELL US,\u00a0<\/strong>does branded merchandise affect your cannabis purchases?<\/p>\n The post Legal Cannabis Could Mean Illegal Cannabis Company T-Shirts<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
The T-shirt \u2014 one of the oldest mainstays of decriminalized cannabis branding \u2014 may be hitting the chopping block in California\u2019s capitol: Senate Bill 162 would ban cannabis companies (or anyone with a license to sell pot in California) from selling branded merchandise. For years, T-shirts have been one ofContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[148,50,80,90,65,541,542],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17545"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17545"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17545\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17546,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17545\/revisions\/17546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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