You should be seeing billboards and online ads soon as California is set to spend $1.7 million on an ad campaign encouraging marijuana buyers to go legal when making a purchase.
The campaign, which comes with the hashtag #weedwise, will promote a website where anyone can visit to verify that the cannabis products they are looking to buy are tested and legal. One ad warns customers, “What’s in your weed shouldn’t be a mystery. Shop licensed cannabis retailers only.”
Since allowing legal recreational marijuana sales on New Year’s Day, 2018, the state has seen the black market for weed continue to thrive, in large part because those sales do not come with paying taxes. Of course, that also means that the products have no been tested and could have things like mold, pesticides, heavy metals, and even human waste (!), according to AP (via ABC News).
Of course, the fact that the state hasn’t seen anything close to what it expected in cannabis tax revenue probably also has a bit to do with the campaign.
“Do you know what’s hiding in your counterfeit edibles?” one ad asks. “Shop licensed cannabis retailers only.”
