Last week, the Vermont Cannabis Control Board (CCB) and Middlebury’s FLŌRA Cannabis agreed on a settlement of the lawsuit filed last December by Dave Silberman, owner of FLŌRA. The lawsuit alleged that the CCB violated free speech rights by restricting cannabis advertisements. The settlement does not change the state’s regulatory power over cannabis ads, but grants some leeway to retailers in the pre-approval process.
Previously, cannabis retailers had to submit all advertisements to the CCB and wait for approval to publicize them; Silberman said responses to his submissions have often been slow or sometimes nonexistent. Now, if the CCB does not grant approval or denial within five business days, the retailer will gain automatic permission to run the ad.
Social media advertising gained considerable flexibility under the settlement. Posts still require pre-approval, but basic templates for ads can now be approved and then re-used for up to a year. Businesses are now allowed to include names of products in the posts, though still no photos. The CCB will require lists of businesses' social media handles to regularly monitor their feeds, as well as being looped in on any email and newsletter lists.
In-store signage is newly exempt from pre-approval requirements, and both in-person and online conversations between businesses and customers no longer count as ads.
“That level of government restriction was untenable, and I think the CCB understood that,” Silberman said.
James Pepper, chair of the CCB, said that going forward, the board will be able to issue approvals or denials within the five-day time frame to ensure they are able to look over ads and provide feedback.
“I think some people may voluntarily want to go through pre-approval just to make sure that they're not inadvertently running an illegal advertisement,” Pepper said. “I truly believe that pre-approval has saved a lot of unnecessary administrative activity in fines and administrative penalties.”
The CCB most frequently finds issues with ads that make unproven claims about the medical advantages of cannabis or appear to be targeted at young audiences, Pepper said.
Following another requirement of the settlement, the CCB this week drafted a shortened version of the required health warning for cannabis radio and television ads. The current warning takes about 30 seconds to read, but the new draft takes under five. The Department of Health will review it and decide whether it is sufficient within the next 90 days.
“Sometimes, brevity is the way to actually drive home a point,” Pepper said.
Silberman told The Campus that while the settlement makes meaningful progress for the industry, he is not satisfied with the outcome. The state’s regulatory control over the cannabis industry is a serious violation of free speech, he said. He will continue to push to change the law in the Vermont Legislature in January, hoping to see all restrictions on advertising by cannabis retailers eliminated.
“I intend to remind [legislators] that when they violate the constitutional rights of one sector of society because they don’t like that sector of society, that they are endangering the constitutional rights of everyone,” Silberman said. “The whole point of the First Amendment is to protect speech that is disfavored by government.”
Another glaring constitutional issue with the restrictions on cannabis retailers, Silberman said, is what the U.S. Supreme Court calls “speaker-based violation.” While the Middlebury Natural Foods Co-Op has state permission to advertise their non-intoxicating CBD products in public, for example, FLŌRA cannot do so with those same products because it also sells cannabis.
“When the state restricts the right of an articulate type of person to advertise, that ought to worry everyone,” Silberman said.
Pepper acknowledged that Vermont’s cannabis advertising laws are especially restrictive compared to other states and industries.
“I think there are some lessons to be learned from how tobacco and alcohol advertising have been misused over the years,” Pepper said. “The legislature is trying to correct that for cannabis, a newer industry.”
Madeleine Kaptein '25.5 (she/her) is the Editor in Chief.
Madeleine previously served as a managing editor, local editor, staff writer and copy editor. She is a Comparative Literature major with a focus on German and English literatures and was a culture journalism intern at Seven Days for the summer of 2025.
