Maine Cannabis Advertising Laws

Maine requires two items on all print, television, radio and internet advertising: the statement "For use only by adults twenty-one years of age and older" and the licence number of the establishment. It sets no audience percentage, prohibiting instead advertising where there is a high likelihood of reaching persons under 21 and requiring reasonable steps. Its school buffer is 500 feet or more where a municipality or the Land Use Planning Commission has set a distance, and 1,000 feet where none has been set.

Working with a partner that already knows these rules shortens the launch cycle. See how we run campaigns as a cannabis marketing agency in Maine.

Legal for licensees across print, television, radio, internet and outdoor. Section 5 contains no mandatory pre-approval. The constraints are the two required statements at 5.4, the high-likelihood audience test at 5.2(C)(3), the content list at 5.2(B), the school buffer at 5.2(C)(4), and the website and pop-up rules at 5.3.

Maine legalised adult-use cannabis through a 2016 ballot question, with retail sales beginning October 2020. The regulator is the Office of Cannabis Policy within the Department of Administrative and Financial Services. Maine also runs a long-established medical programme.

Advertising sits in the Adult Use Marijuana Program Rule, 18-691 CMR Chapter 1, Section 5, across five subsections: definitions, prohibitions, websites, required statements, and objectionable and non-conforming advertising.

Medical and adult-use cannabis do not share one advertising rule set. The medical programme operates under a separate rule chapter, so a licensee operating in both should confirm which framework governs a given communication. This page addresses the adult-use rules.

A rule revision is in progress. The Office has provisionally adopted a replacement, 18-691 Chapter 30, marked as subject to legislative review. It restates the advertising provisions with some changes of wording and adds two elements: an express branding and logos permission, and a voluntary sign, advertising and marketing review process under which a licensee may ask the Department to approve creative before use. This page is written from the rule currently in force.

This page is part of our state-by-state cannabis advertising laws library, covering all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

The definitions that set channel scope

Under 5.1, "radio" means a system for transmitting sound without visual images, and includes broadcast, cable, on-demand, satellite or internet programming, expressly including any audio programming downloaded or streamed via the internet. "Television" means a system for transmitting visual images and sound reproduced on screens, and includes broadcast, cable, on-demand, satellite, or internet programming, expressly including any video programming downloaded or streamed via the internet.

"Advertising" means publicising the trade name of a licensee together with words or symbols referring to marijuana, or publicising the brand name of marijuana or marijuana products.

Business name and licence number

Required. Under 5.4, the licence number of the marijuana establishment must appear on all print, television, radio and internet advertising.

The required warning statements

One statement plus the licence number. Under 5.4, a licensee must include on all print, television, radio and internet advertising, either in print or audio:

• "For use only by adults twenty-one years of age and older."
• The licence number of the marijuana establishment.

The rule spells "twenty-one" in words.

How the warnings have to appear

In font size legible to the viewer, or at a volume and speed readily understandable by the average listener. Section 5.4 prescribes no percentage of area and no point size, and expressly permits audio delivery.

When the warnings are not required

Section 5.4 names print, television, radio and internet advertising. It does not name outdoor advertising. Under 5.1, publicising a trade name without words or symbols referring to marijuana is not advertising for the purposes of the section.

Hotline number

No. Section 5 requires no helpline, hotline or poison control number.

Prohibited manner of advertising

Under 5.2(A), in the course of promoting its brand, marijuana or marijuana products, a licensee may not advertise in a manner that is attractive to persons under 21; that promotes irresponsible use; that promotes activity illegal under Maine law; that is contrary to or in direct violation of state or federal consumer protections; or that otherwise presents a significant risk to public health and safety.

Prohibited content

Under 5.2(B), advertising may not:

• Contain deceptive, false or misleading statements
• Display consumption of marijuana or marijuana products
• Include claims related to potency beyond listing of cannabinoid content
• Depict activities or conditions considered risky when under the influence, such as operating a motorised vehicle, boat or machinery, being pregnant or breastfeeding
• Contain content designed to be appealing to individuals under 21, including images of persons under 21
• Contain any imitation of candy, sweets or snack food advertising, including imitation of advertising used for branded candy, sweets or snack food
• Include the term "candy" or "candies" or any imitation of the names of branded candy, sweets or snack food
• Make claims that any government agency endorses or supports marijuana
• Make claims that marijuana has curative or therapeutic effects
• Contain any health or physical benefit claims, including on labels or packaging
• Contain material that encourages excessive or rapid consumption

The potency limb permits listing cannabinoid content and prohibits claims beyond that listing. The candy limb prohibits the words "candy" and "candies" without qualification. The rule prohibits curative or therapeutic claims and health or physical benefit claims as separate limbs.

Conduct prohibitions

Under 5.2(C), no licensee or agent may make deceptive, false or misleading assertions on any informational material, sign or document provided to a consumer; distribute handbills in public areas or on publicly owned property; advertise where there is a high likelihood of reaching persons under 21; advertise within the prohibited distance of a school; direct marketing to location-based devices outside the installed-application exception; or permit third-party use of the licensee's trademarks, brands, names, locations or other distinguishing characteristics on advertising that does not comply.

Third-party misuse

Under 5.2(D), where a third party has used a licensee's brand, trademarks, names, locations or other distinguishing characteristics in a non-compliant advertisement, the licensee must immediately notify the Department, issue a cease-and-desist order to the third party, and pursue appropriate legal action. All three steps are stated.

Discounts, coupons, and price promotion

Section 5 contains no price or discount prohibition. Promotions are subject to the content list at 5.2(B), including the prohibition on material that encourages excessive or rapid consumption, and to the prohibition on promoting irresponsible use at 5.2(A).

Pre-approval

Not required under the rule in force. Under 5.5 the Department may take action against non-compliant advertising, including specifying a period by which the licensee must cease and remove it. The provisionally adopted Chapter 30 would add a voluntary review process under which a licensee may submit a sign, advertisement or marketing material for approval, with "sign" expressly including vehicle wraps.

What the Law Requires

Twenty-one throughout. Under 5.2(A), advertising may not be attractive to persons under 21. Under 5.2(B), advertising may not contain content designed to be appealing to individuals under 21, including images of persons under 21.

Audience Percentage Thresholds

Section 5 sets no audience composition percentage. This is an absence in the rule rather than an omission from this page. Other states do set one: Connecticut requires reliable evidence that at least 90 percent of the audience is 21 or older, and Delaware requires at least 85 percent.

What the rule states instead

Under 5.2(C)(3), a licensee may not utilise television, radio, print media or internet advertising in cases where there is a high likelihood it will reach persons under the age of 21.

The reasonable steps the rule names

Licensees or their agents must take reasonable steps to ensure that any mass marketing or advertising does not reach persons under 21. The rule gives two examples: using marketing information from the vendor, and employing age verification techniques commonly used in internet advertising.

Event sponsorship

Section 5 sets no audience threshold specific to event sponsorship.

Where the burden sits

On the licensee or its agents. Section 5.2(C)(3) places the reasonable steps obligation on them.

Age Gating and Consent

Websites

Under 5.3(A), appropriate measures to ensure that individuals visiting the web page are over 21. Section 5.3(A) prescribes no mechanism.

Pop-ups and banners

Under 5.3(B), no unsolicited pop-up or banner advertising on the internet other than on age-restricted websites for people 21 and over who consent to view marijuana-related material. Two conditions apply together: the site must be age-restricted, and the user must have consented to view marijuana-related material.

Location-based devices

Under 5.2(C)(5), marketing directed towards location-based devices, including cellular phones, is prohibited unless the marketing is a mobile device application installed on the device by the owner of the device who is 21 or older, and includes a permanent and easy opt-out feature. Section 5 does not define "directed towards" and does not address marketing served to a device based on its location outside an installed application.

Established customers

Section 5 contains no exception removing communications to existing customers or opted-in recipients from the prohibitions.

People Depicted in Ads

Under 5.2(B), no images of persons under 21 and no content designed to be appealing to individuals under 21. No displaying consumption of marijuana or marijuana products. No depicting activities or conditions considered risky when under the influence, such as operating a motorised vehicle, boat or machinery, being pregnant or breastfeeding.

The pregnancy and breastfeeding limb is a depiction prohibition rather than a warning requirement. Section 5 sets no minimum age for persons appearing in advertising beyond the under-21 image prohibition.

Restricted Locations and Buffer Distances

The school buffer

Under 5.2(C)(4), a licensee may not advertise within a prohibited distance of the property line of an existing public or private school, which is:

• 500 feet or more as established by the municipality in which the advertising is located;
• 500 feet or more as established by the Maine Land Use Planning Commission for advertising located in unorganized or deorganized areas; or
• 1,000 feet if no other distance has been set by a municipality or the Land Use Planning Commission.

How the structure operates

The 1,000 foot figure applies where no municipality or the Land Use Planning Commission has established a distance. Where one has been established, it is 500 feet or more. The first question for any placement is therefore whether a distance has been set for that location.

Unorganized and deorganized areas

Maine has territory with no municipal government. In those areas the Land Use Planning Commission establishes the distance.

What the distance is measured from

The property line of the school.

Facility types named

One: existing public or private schools. Section 5.2(C)(4) names no playground, park, library or childcare centre.

Transit and venues

Section 5 contains no transit or venue prohibition. Under 5.2(C)(2), no handbills distributed in public areas or on publicly owned property.

Can You Run a Digital Out of Home Screen in Maine?

Maine has prohibited off-premises billboards generally since 1977 under its Traveler Information Services law, independent of cannabis regulation. That law governs classic billboard inventory. Where a permitted outdoor format exists, the cannabis provisions are the school buffer at 5.2(C)(4), the content list at 5.2(B), and the high-likelihood audience test at 5.2(C)(3).

Compliant Use of Geotargeting

• Determine, per municipality, whether a distance has been established under 5.2(C)(4). Where none has, the exclusion is 1,000 feet rather than 500.
• For unorganized and deorganized areas, check the Land Use Planning Commission position.
• Measure from the school property line, as 5.2(C)(4) states.
• Build the record the rule names at 5.2(C)(3): marketing information from the vendor, and age verification techniques commonly used in internet advertising.
• Review display inventory against 5.3(B), which reaches banner advertising as well as pop-ups and requires both an age-restricted site and user consent to view marijuana-related material.
• Have compliance sign off on how mobile display inventory is bought before launch, under 5.2(C)(5).
• Plan for delivery into New Hampshire, which has no adult-use retail market, and into Canada.

Maine runs two advertising rule sets under the Office of Cannabis Policy. The medical programme is long established and operates under a separate rule chapter from the Adult Use Marijuana Program Rule. A licensee operating in both should confirm which framework governs a given communication.

This page addresses the adult-use rules at 18-691 CMR Chapter 1, Section 5. Those rules are drafted around the marijuana establishment and licensee without internal distinction between licence types, so cultivation facilities, products manufacturing facilities, testing facilities and stores are subject to the same advertising provisions.

Maine's labelling rules sit separately at Section 11 and include a mandatory warning in no smaller than 6-point font covering health risks, risks in pregnancy and breastfeeding, and impaired driving. That is a labelling requirement and does not transfer to advertising, where the required items are the 21-plus statement and the licence number. Labelling also prohibits depicting a human, animal or fruit, or the word "candy," on any container or marketing layer.

Who regulates hemp here

The Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry administers the hemp programme, separately from the Office of Cannabis Policy.

Non-intoxicating hemp and CBD

Permitted through general retail, and Maine was an early state in permitting hemp-derived CBD in food and consumer products. A hemp product within the federal definition and sold outside the licensed cannabis channel is not being advertised by a marijuana establishment, so Section 5 does not apply to it. General Maine consumer protection law and federal restrictions on health claims apply instead.

Intoxicating hemp-derived cannabinoids

Maine has acted to restrict intoxicating hemp-derived cannabinoid products outside the licensed channel, with measures addressing synthetically derived cannabinoids and products sold in general retail. The federal definition of hemp narrows in November 2026. Confirm the current status before planning an intoxicating hemp campaign.

What it means for advertising

A product advertised by a marijuana establishment carries the 21-plus statement and licence number under 5.4, the content list at 5.2(B) including the candy word prohibition and the potency claims limitation, the school buffer at 5.2(C)(4), and the pop-up and banner restriction at 5.3(B). A non-intoxicating hemp product in general retail is outside Section 5. Classify each product before building a media plan.

Every statement on this page traces to one of the following:

• 18-691 CMR Chapter 1, Adult Use Marijuana Program Rule, Section 5 Advertising and Section 11 labelling
• 18-691 Chapter 30, provisionally adopted rules subject to legislative review, including the branding and logos provision and the voluntary sign, advertising and marketing review process
• 28-B M.R.S., the Maine Cannabis Legalization Act
• Maine Traveler Information Services law, the general prohibition on off-premises billboards
• Maine Office of Cannabis Policy
• Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry, Hemp Program

Chapter 30 is provisionally adopted and subject to legislative review. Confirm which rule is in force before relying on the voluntary review process or on Chapter 30's revised wording.