Connecticut’s growing cannabis space is not even up and running and there is already a new cannabis advertising law that is going into effect.
State lawmakers rewrote several provisions of the cannabis law passed in 2021 and now there are now more extensive rules on how and where it can be advertised.
According to NBC Connecticut Investigates, the law passed in 2021 said billboard advertisers had to prove at least 90% of the audience is reasonably expected to be over the age of 21.
“I think we see alcohol advertisements all over and I think marijuana is less dangerous as long as it’s regulated,” said Kaitlin Erickson of West Hartford.
She said the billboards don’t bother her, but they bothered Connecticut Attorney General William Tong.
“I think common sense tells you they can’t make that showing,” he told NBC Connecticut Investigates last October.
The billboards were still up months after Connecticut’s law went into effect which motivated Tong to send letters to seven dispensaries in Massachusetts asking them to remove their billboard ads.
Some of the companies complied while others said they have the data to show they’re meeting the 90% threshold.
“It’s not a complete ban on billboard advertising. It does place what are called time, place and manner restrictions about the type of advertising you can do for cannabis restrictions, when you can do it, where you can do it,” said Rep. Mike D’Agostino (D-Hamden), who chairs the legislature’s General Law Committee.
The law signed by Gov. Ned Lamont on May 26 stipulates that only cannabis establishments with a Connecticut license can advertise on billboards in our state. Billboard ads also cannot be displayed between 6 a.m. and 11 p.m.
There are also new restrictions on the placement of those billboards.
“We said that there just simply cannot be any advertising for cannabis establishments within 1,500 feet of schools, of churches, of houses of worship, places like that,” D’Agostino said.
