Weed Feed: Weedmaps Claps Back at Bureau of Cannabis Control; Says It Has No Authority to Police Their Ads

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WEED FEED / John Ross Ferrara / Monday, March 19, 2018 @ 9:32 a.m.

Weed Feed: Weedmaps Claps Back at Bureau of Cannabis Control; Says It Has No Authority to Police Their Ads

The beginning of the letter addressed to BCC Chief Lori Ajax.

Weedmaps has fired back at the California Bureau of Cannabis Control after receiving a cease and desist letter from the state entity last month claiming the site is unlawfully running ads for unlicensed marijuana companies.

The Sacramento Bee reports that Weedmaps CEO Doug Francis and President Chris Beals sent a response letter to Bureau of Cannabis Control Chief Lori Ajax last week stating that the company is not licensed by or under the jurisdiction of the BCC.

The three-page letter says that Weedmaps is committed to working with the BCC to find solutions to these issues. However, the letter also takes the stance that Weedmaps is an “interactive computer service,” and says that it is therefore protected under the federal Communications Decency Act, which in theory prevents Weedmaps from being held responsible for the publishing of third-party information.

The letter goes on to defend California’s illegal marijuana companies as well, saying that unlicensed operators need the opportunity to be invited “into the light” before transitioning into compliance with the new legal regulations. The letter even goes so far as to say that small illegal business owners “rely on this industry to feed their children or pay their mortgage.”

Weedmaps wraps up the letter by placing the blame of California’s still prominent illegal marijuana industry on the state’s “broken policy.”

“The fate of these unlicensed operators is critical to the success of the licensed operators; over 90% of the cultivators and manufacturers in the state are unlicensed (some would estimate even more) and retailers are set to face crippling shortages in products in the coming months,” the letter reads. “Scrubbing the internet of the reality of unlicensed operators that have created thousands of jobs over the last 20 years does nothing to fix the underlying issues. It is simply opening a new face of regulatory “whack-a-mole” when the ultimate cause is broken policy that provides no opportunity for thousands of business owners who just want a chance to get a license and enter the legal market.”

Read the letter in its entirety here.

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The Weed Feed is a weekly column written by John Ross Ferrara.

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