Cannabis
The Cannabis Lifestyle Brand Playbook
What Cookies, Stiiizy, and the cannabis lifestyle tier teach the institutional MSO category about brand-building in a category locked out of paid advertising.
Tag
cannabis
Media Systems (DEPRECATED — pending hard delete)
Cannabis: Where Trade Media Beats Consumer
In every other category in this series, the rule has held: consumer publications anchor consumer-prompt citations, trade publications anchor industry-prompt citations. Cannabis is the exception. The category's federal-illegal status, payment-processing constraints, advertising re
Cannabis
Cannabis Lobbies Washington
Schedule III hit April 28, 2026. DEA June 29 hearing on adult-use. State-by-state. NCIA, USCC, MPP. The 2026 cannabis public affairs landscape.
Cannabis
Schedule III Cannabis Reclassification: Marketing Implications
Schedule III hit April 28, 2026 for medical cannabis. 280E lifted. Marketing budgets now deductible. Adult-use awaits June 29 DEA hearing.
Cannabis
Cannabis AI Search Visibility: The 2026 Playbook
How cannabis brands build visibility across AI search systems — why the category is uniquely challenging for AI retrieval, the role of Reddit and trade press, compliance considerations, and the disciplines that work.
Cannabis
Cannabis PR in 2026: The Eight Shifts Reshaping the Discipline
Cannabis PR moved from defending the category to selling inside it. Eight shifts now define the discipline — normalization, celebrity equity, education, regulatory navigation, crisis prep, platform constraints, social equity, wellness positioning.
Cannabis
Eight Crises Every Cannabis Brand Will Face
Cannabis operators face crisis exposure across categories few consumer brands match in combination: product safety, regulatory enforcement, license risk, financial restatement, executive matters, and reputation in a category where cultural acceptance is still evolving. Eight crisis categories, mock recall simulations, regulator-response tabletops, four-level escalation trees, dispensary communications, investor sequencing, and recovery in years not quarters.
Public Relations
Cannabis PR: How Curaleaf, Trulieve, Cresco, Verano, and Green Thumb Built Credibility in a Regulated Category
Cannabis PR playbook — what Curaleaf, Trulieve, Cresco, Verano, and Green Thumb actually did to build credibility in a federally illegal, state-regulated category, plus where cannabis PR breaks in the AI-answer era.
Insights & Strategy
Cannabis Brands and Public Relations
Originally published July 2022 as an entry-level primer on cannabis PR fundamentals. The three foundations — budget, goals, story — remain core to any cannabis communications program. The 2026 layer on top: AI Citation Share inside ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews, which is now where cannabis discovery actually starts.
Cannabis
CBD Is Legal. Its Claims Aren't.
CBD is the federally legal cannabinoid that built a multi-billion-dollar parallel market — and the FDA enforcement reality that defines how the brands inside it are allowed to communicate. The CBD satellite to the cannabis communications pillar.