Maine state law has a unique provision related to recreational marijuana marketing that can cause some accidental pitfalls for business owners. Recently, South Portland recreational cannabis retailer SeaWeed Co. was slapped with up to a $10,000 fine for their logo. Maine’s regulations are very clear that any advertising, marketing, logos and otherwise cannot contain and/or depict images of humans or animals. SeaWeed Co’s labeling currently depicts a mermaid holding a shell, which the state has deemed human enough to violate the regulations. Owner Scott Howard has months to remove all the appearances of the logos on all labeling, marketing as well as his website.
Maine also includes a provision that no marketing can be considered “attractive to persons under 21 years of age”. This provisions being slightly more subjective. Our recommendation? We’re not marketing experts but accounting is equally as wrought with regulations that can sometimes be unclear to business owners. If you’re not sure, it’s always better to get approval first. In an industry where your profit margin is important, you don’t want to incur the huge costs of having to redo all your marketing and branding, especially after brand recognition has been established. Consider reaching out to the Maine regulatory bodies if you’re unsure if your marketing will clear these tests.