Staying Connected with PAH: Our New Social Media Accounts
As the use of cannabis continues to be legalized in many states across the US, both medically and recreationally, there are still a lot of legalities and rules surrounding its use on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram. And while cannabis may be legal for medical or recreational use in certain states, it is still illegal at the federal level, which has led to some confusion and inconsistencies in how social media platforms regulate cannabis-related content.
For example, Instagram doesn’t allow people or organizations to use the platform to advertise or sell marijuana, regardless of the seller’s state or country.
”Our policy prohibits any marijuana seller, including dispensaries, from promoting their business by providing contact information like phone numbers, email addresses, street addresses, or by using the “contact us” tab in Instagram Business Accounts. However, we do allow people to include a website link in their bio information.” States the Help Center page on Facebook’s website whom owns Instagram so you can bet these rules apply there as well.
One of the biggest issues faced by legal cannabis businesses like PAH is the fact that Facebook and Instagram can remove posts or even shut down accounts that they deem to be in violation of their policies, even if the content is posted by a legal medical dispensary. This is due to the fact that both platforms have strict rules surrounding the promotion of drugs, including cannabis.
This is something that we experienced first-hand with our business, Peninsula Alternative Health, on several occasions. Despite being a fully licensed medical dispensary in Maryland, and complying with our state commissions own rules and regulations surrounding the promotion of our business on social media, our Facebook and Instagram accounts were recently completely shut down with little warning. Essentially, we are given the go from the State to utilize social media as long as we do not solicit or appear to dispense any federally illegal substances. Quite the feat if you are a medical cannabis company.
Recently, we have seen a few of our pop-up event pages get flagged and w believe that this was due to a misunderstanding and the fact that our content was seen as promoting the online illegal sale of cannabis or truthfully, our content can also get flagged by users.
To try to move forward from this, we have set up new accounts on both Facebook and Instagram that do our best to comply with the platforms' policies, while still allowing us to connect with you, our patients and community.
We encourage all of our patients to follow us on these new accounts to stay in the loop and continue to receive updates and information about our new products, events, and services.
Most importantly though, is to sign up for our email newsletter, which is where you can always stay most informed and connected with PAH news and happenings.
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This is also the best place to get updates in regards to sales, events, new products, as well as any changes to our social media presence.
It's important to note that while cannabis has been approved for medical use in Maryland, this does not change the fact that it is still illegal at the federal level. As such, social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram will continue to enforce their policies surrounding drug promotion, which can be frustrating for legal cannabis businesses and patients alike.
We appreciate your continued support and look forward to connecting with you on our new social media pages, as well as our email newsletter.
