Google is updating the policy to allow certified hemp and CBD products

Google released an announcement this month detailing an update to its “Dangerous Products and Services, and Healthcare & Drugs.” As of January 20, 2023, cannabis advertising will be legal, but currently only in California, Colorado, and Puerto Rico.

This update specifically affects U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved products containing CBD or topical hemp-derived CBD products with 0.3% or less THC. “Certain formats, including YouTube masthead, cannot be served. CBD will be removed from the list of unapproved drugs and dietary supplements. All ads promoting other CBD-based products, including dietary supplements, food additives, and inhalants, are still disallowed.”

Google is working with LegitScript to create a certification program for ingestible CBD producers. Scott Roth, CEO of LegitScript, explained how the certification aims to create a standard for the cannabis industry. “When people see the LegitScript seal on your product or website, they know you’re doing business securely and transparently,” Roth said. “In an industry that still has widespread issues with contaminated, substandard, or illegal products, it’s more important than ever to give consumers confidence that the CBD products they buy have been properly tested.”

LegitScript works with other payment service providers such as Visa, Google, Bing and Facebook. “LegitScript certification lets the world know which healthcare retailers, CBD products and websites, and drug and alcohol addiction treatment facilities are operating safely and transparently,” the company said in a press release. “The result? Certified merchants are able to stand out from the crowd, grow their online presence and demonstrate credibility in high-risk industries. LegitScript is the leading third-party certification expert in these highly regulated and complex sectors.”

LegitScript charges a fee for processing and monitoring applicants (although the company’s website says it will waive fees until March 31, 2023). Applicants can submit their websites for LegitScript certification to advertise on Google. After LegitScript certifies a website, they receive “information proving your certified status,” such as: B. a LegitScript “seal of approval” that can be displayed on a certified website.

LegitScript’s starting fees per CBD product vary from $650 for one to five products, decreasing for groups, including $600 for six to 50 products, $550 for 51 to 99, and finally $500 for 100 or more. There is also an annual monitoring fee that ranges from $750 to $1,000 depending on the number of CBD products. Full sites require a fee of $800 per site, either an annual fee of $1,600 per site, or $2,250 per year for a “trial site” for sites with “a history of significant compliance issues.”

This move is a step in the right direction for hemp products, although there is currently no mention of expanding this new update to other states.

There have been some negative interactions between Google and cannabis-related content in the past. In 2016, a Minnesota-based medical cannabis company fought Google for banning it from advertising online for having “dangerous products or services.” In the same year, Google saw a 75% increase in online searches for cannabis and allowed war on drug games to be promoted on Google Play.

In 2017, Google Docs temporarily flagged documents, including those related to cannabis, as inappropriate (although the event was due to a coding error and was promptly fixed).

In July 2019, Google announced that it would ban cannabis products from the App Store, and during the peak of the vape epidemic later that year, Apple also removed all vape-related apps from the iOS store.