In the wake of complaints about New York’s draconian rules governing advertising by licensed cannabis retailers, regulators this week approved changes that will allow the businesses to tout their locations on billboards and other external signage.
The proposed changes would also allow marketing tools such as mascots — as long as they don’t appeal to those under 21 — as well as the use of more colorful signage and promotional items such as T-shirts, handbills and sandwich boards.
But some of the other rules that have frustrated cannabis shop owners, including requiring them not to use neon lighting or have windows that allow someone to see inside, will remain in place. Many of the business owners have complained that having frosted glass or storefronts that are not visible from the outside make them look sinister and also leave them vulnerable to being robbed.
The strict rules that have sharply limited the advertising available to the retail cannabis shops have been in place even as out-of-state cannabis companies have marketed their locations on New York billboards for years. Indeed, even at New York’s Capitol complex, several Massachusetts cannabis shops have distributed slick fliers advertising their locations and products for years.
[Read more at Times Union]