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Although marijuana is legal in some capacity in 23 US states plus the District of Columbia, Facebook has been shutting down several registered sellers’ pages, according to reports.
Many state-approved legal cannabis dispensaries have received messages from the social media site informing them they have been “unpublished” because their content “doesn’t follow Facebook terms”, reports NBC.
According to the American news channel at least 12 businesses in six states experienced a shutdown.
Three of New Jersey’s five dispensaries, aka Alternative Treatment Centres (ATCs) were removed for allegedly violating “community standards”.
Peter Rosenfeld, one of the state’s 5,668 registered patients, told NBC: “Facebook pages are an important link to let patients know which strains of cannabis or marijuana they have available, the best strains for which medical conditions, and to allow the patients to interact with the ATCs.”
Some ATCs have appealed and been reinstated after making changes to their content, some have made new pages and some have disappeared. But the point is, they are actually legal sellers for registered buyers.
A Facebook spokesman said: “These pages have been removed for violating our Community Standards, which outline what is and is not allowed on Facebook.”
According to recent figures from research group ArcView legal marijuana is one of the fastest-growing industries in the US.
