11 October 2016
A little off topic from us this morning but an image that came across our desktop this morning from Portland (OR) publication “The Daily Leaf” set alarm bells ringing.
For the past 12 months, here at CLR, we have been reading the cannabis media and let’s be honest, there isn’t too much out there that’s designed to educate, inform and challenge. Rather sell sell sell.
To much soft porn imagery is a major bugbear especially in light of Trump’s comments coming to light over the past week . Do we really need this sort of imagery advertising a growing industry sector. It’s all a bit playboy circa 1974 and needs to be stopped in its tracks.
This morning though the following image appeared along some thinly veiled advertising masquerading as a story about what cannabis smoking accessories you “must” take on a hike.
As Published in The Daily Leaf 11 October 2016
We’d ask whether a publication covering the alcohol industry would take an equally laissez -faire approach to imagery and place a photo of somebody in a similar situation holding with an obvious intent to consume a bottle of gin, vodka or tequila.
Like it or not cannabis is a regulated industry and will remain so. Rules are currently lax due to the nature of state based legislative management so it is behooves the media players and publishers to employ a little common sense when making editorial decisions and especially so with regard to imagery.
We’d suggest that if they don’t think about the issue, the concept of a legal and informative cannabis media will be subsumed by rules and regulations that will essentially reduce a lively industry sector media to catalogues at one end and lightweight “lifestyle” magazines at the other.
