Twitter has announced that it’s relaxing its regulations around cannabis-related advertising in certain US states, with brands now able to promote ‘brand preference and informational cannabis-related content for CBD, THC, and cannabis-related products and services’.

Cannabis advertisers will need to be officially licensed, and will only be allowed to market their products in jurisdictions where their licenses apply, but they will now have more freedom to be able to promote cannabis products to engaged users via tweet.

As per Twitter:

“As the cannabis industry has expanded, so too has the conversation on Twitter. In the US – one of the most influential markets for cannabis – it is larger than the conversation around topics such as pets, cooking, and golf1, as well as food and beverage categories including fast food, coffee, and liquor2.”

Which spells revenue for Twitter 2.0, while Twitter chief Elon Musk has also become a proponent for cannabis usage, via his many references to ‘420’ and notable interviews on the subject.

Musk reportedly became a marijuana convert back in 2018, when then-wife Grimes prompted him to try it. Since then, Musk has repeatedly made references to 420 in his public statements - which nobody finds entertaining or funny, except him, presumably.

But given that history, it makes sense that Twitter’s looking to take a more progressive view on cannabis ads, which, again, will also potentially add another revenue stream for the app.

The next question then is whether Twitter actually has the capacity to adequately enforce its regulations around such, given its reduced oversight and other staffing challenges.  

Seems we’ll find out.

You can read Twitter’s updated cannabis ads policy here.