Facebook Mulling Changes To Policy Banning Cannabis Pages
By Thor Benson “Big Buds” 15 th March 2019
Facebook users who have launched pages for
cannabis businesses, legalisation advocacy or
other cannabis-related groups have long faced
issues with their pages being deleted without
warning and not being able to advertise on the
social media platform.
These restrictions have harmed their ability to
grow their businesses and has made cannabis
advocacy more difficult to actively participate
in.
Now, it appears things may be starting to
change. According to The Telegraph,
Facebook is considering changes to its
policies
surrounding
cannabis-related
content.
According to the report:
The social network is mulling whether to
relax its policy on “regulated goods”, which
currently forbids all discussion of buying and
selling the drug.
That could allow legitimate medical and
recreational cannabis vendors in places where
the drug is legal to market their products, list
their prices and encourage people to contact
them in order to buy them.
Among other details, Facebook is
investigating how to prevent underage users
from accessing cannabis-related content, and
the laws for allowing businesses to advertise
such products.
With the increasing worldwide popularity of
legalised cannabis — more US states and
nations legalising medical marijuana, legal
sales across Canada, and US presidential
candidates debating the merits of federal
legalisation — it’s clear that changes will
need to be made sooner than later.
One of the major problems cannabis-related
Facebook pages have encountered is that
they’re not being shown in search results as
clearly as other non-cannabis pages might be.
Curt Dalton, founder of cannabis.net and
CEO of Evergreen Buzz, tells Big Buds that
due in part to this issue, his pages often lose
likes faster than they gain them.
“Facebook has long caused headaches for not
only cannabis businesses but also advocates,”
says Mason Tvert, spokesman for the
Marijuana Policy Project (MPP). “MPP has
had issues for years with placing political ads
and getting included in searches.”
Tvert says he understands why Facebook
would be hesitant to allow product
advertisement on the platform because
cannabis is still illegal at the federal level, but
says there’s “no excuse” as to why Facebook
has routinely censored “cannabis-related
advocacy and education organizations.”
“Facebook should treat cannabis advocacy
and education organizations no differently
than other non-profit organizations,” Tvert
says. “They should allow them to be found in
searches, allow them to advertise, and
encourage their use of the platform to
connect, inform and organize.”
The National Cannabis Industry Association
(NCIA) has started a petition against
Facebook’s cannabis policies, which as of
March 14, is just 1,000 signatures from its
goal of 25,000.
The petition refers to Facebook as one of the
“most popular tools” for reaching people with
similar interests and businesses you may want
to support, and is simply calling for the social
media giant to treat cannabis pages fairly.