F.A.Q.
Frequently Asked Questions
Setting Up Your Cannabis Business
As of January 2021, adult-use cannabis is legal and operating in the following 12 states and districts: Alaska, California, Colorado, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont, Washington, and Washington, DC.
As of November 2020, four new states voted to legalize recreational cannabis: Arizona, Montana, New Jersey, and South Dakota.
Good question. If you have relevant cannabis experience and know what your market positioning is—what you’re selling, whom you’re targeting, how you’ll connect with customers—then the time could be ripe to get a copywriting agency like ours to help shape that vision into a compelling cannabis license application, powerful and effective website copy, and other marketing content.
If you’re not yet sure how you’re positioned, we’d suggest you develop those pieces—on your own or with a consultant or branding agency—before getting in touch.
Securing a Cannabis License in a State or Municipality
Where legal, available state and municipal cannabis licenses include:
- Cultivation
- Distribution
- Processing
- Retail
- Testing
Note that each state has its own varied regulations and requirements for each type of license, so you want to make sure you’re clear on your local rules before proceeding.
There are several things you’ll need to secure before we can get started writing your application.
In general, you need a business plan that provides details about everything from your hiring practices to your fire security measures. You’ll also need a location for your facility, a list of vendors, and details about your operating procedures, like inventory management and maintenance.
Each state has its own set of rules, so you’ll need to start by visiting your state’s cannabis regulatory body to see what the application requirements are.
In short—no. We don’t provide legal interpretation, opinions, or counsel; you can hire a law firm to handle all that. If you have retained a legal team, that’s great! Our team will collaborate with them to get your application done.
We can still proofread it, humanize it, and take your application to the finish line.
If you have a finished application dense with legal jargon and dry, long-winded technical details—it won’t be an effective application. Our job is to make sure we cover all the details in a way that will capture the attention of scorers, helping you stand out with a memorable brand narrative that never compromises character for compliance.
Marketing Your Cannabis-Related Business
Yes. There are two biggies: 1) Don’t make health claims and 2) Don’t misinform–do your research.
When writing about cannabis, it’s important to not make any therapeutic or medical claims about cannabis or its components, including CBD and THC. There are several reasons for this. First, making unsubstantiated claims about the effects of cannabis can put patients at risk, who may be influenced to discontinue their approved therapies in favor of untested cannabis products.
Secondly, you can get in trouble for it. Cannabis products (and the language we use to market them) are heavily regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and failure to comply with their rules can be a costly misstep for your business.
General Questions About Working with a Cannabis-Focused Copywriting Agency
While an agency may seem like a larger investment on the surface, it will provide you with greater opportunity for scale.
When you hire an agency, you hire a group of minds, years of shared experience, and diverse knowledge of industries from cannabis to healthcare, finance, law, tech, and more.
Our multifaceted team brings together writers of diverse backgrounds: journalists, creative writers, copywriters, and a former lawyer.
We can work lightning-fast if your situation calls for it. However, we suggest starting the process as early as possible so we can dive into all facets of your business—and create the most compelling copy.