However, the gains made in the industry have also come with several caveats, most of which are coming in slices. In the latest move, Health Canada sent out letters warning medical marijuana growers in the country to cool their promotional activities, according to CBCNews.
The regulator has noticed that almost all of the licensed commercial growers of pot, about 20 of them, have gone overboard with their product promotions. As such, Health Canada wants them to stop making pot look so good, so to speak. Competition in the Canadian pot industry has meant that players are trying almost every trick in the book to promote their products. However, in so doing they end up promoting pot in a manner that appear offensive to the regulator.
In its letters to the 20 officially licensed commercial pot producers, Health Canada warned them to stop going into details about the strains of the marijuana they produce. In other words, the producers should only seek to pass the most basic information to the potential buyers. In particular, the producers in the in their promotional tools should simply mention the price of their products, content, brand, and contact information.
The medical marijuana companies in Canada have also been barred from brazen promotion of pot on social media. Hyperlinking websites to other online sources that may give what can be termed as offensive information about pot is also not allowed.
According to industry observers, the guidelines for the advertising of pot were expected. There was a lack of clarity in the promotion of cannabis, which necessitated the regulator to shed more light on the same. The guidelines are expected to be of help to the producers rather than stifling their operations.
The promising medical marijuana industry has attracted many players in Canada, but only a few of them have been approved to operate. It is reportedly that over 1,000 companies have applied for producer licenses, but just about 22 companies have received the nod to open shops.
In the U.S., analysts believe that legalized marijuana could generate income of up to $6 billion by 2018 across the country, according to an article on StarTribune.
mmjobserver.com
