Key Points
- Highly restrictive framework and channels: only restricted exterior signage, interior-only materials and tightly controlled online activity.
- Broad content bans with no grandfathering: no recreational themes, consumption depictions, influencers, child-appealing content or unapproved products; MMTCs are liable for vendors.
- Tight digital rules and firm compliance deadline: OMMU registration and approvals required; no app purchasing; MMTCs have until March 31, 2026 to come into compliance.
The Florida Office of Medical Marijuana Use (OMMU) adopted a new emergency rule that significantly limits how medical marijuana treatment centers (MMTCs) may advertise and market their businesses and products.
Rule 64ER25-6 became effective Dec. 31, 2025, and MMTCs have until March 31, 2026 to come into compliance.
Overview of the Rule
The rule adopts a restrictive framework under which anything not expressly permitted is prohibited. Its stated purpose is to ensure marijuana advertising remains medical in nature, factual, nonrecreational and not attractive to children. In practice, the rule represents a clear shift away from brand-driven or lifestyle-oriented cannabis marketing and toward tightly controlled, compliance-focused communications.
Permitted Advertising Channels
MMTC advertising and marketing are now limited to the following three areas only:
- Very limited exterior signage.
- Advertising and marketing inside the dispensing facility, provided it is not visible from outside.
- Certain internet-based activity, subject to strict controls.
As a result, many marketing strategies historically used by MMTCs, including broad third-party promotional activity and other traditional advertising approaches, are effectively eliminated.
Content Restrictions
The rule imposes broad content prohibitions. Advertising and marketing materials may not, among other things:
- Reference or imply recreational use.
- Depict marijuana consumption or social use.
- Use celebrities or influencers, including virtual influencers.
- Include child-appealing imagery, fonts or messaging.
- Depict whole flower marijuana, except in limited website product listings.
- Promote unapproved products, packaging, routes of administration or purchasing options.
Importantly, previously approved advertising materials are not grandfathered and must be discontinued if they do not comply with the new rule. For many MMTCs, this will require revisiting existing signage, digital assets and vendor-created materials that were previously considered compliant.
Digital Advertising Under Heightened Scrutiny
Internet advertising remains permissible only within tightly regulated parameters. Social media accounts must be registered with OMMU. Paid or targeted online advertising requires prior departmental approval and must exclude individuals under 18. Websites and mobile applications must be department approved, and mobile applications may not allow product reservations or purchasing functionality.
MMTCs remain fully responsible for the actions of marketing vendors, agencies, and third parties acting on their behalf, even where those parties control content or placement.
What This Means for MMTCs Right Now
For most MMTCs, compliance with this rule will not be a simple policy update. It will require a practical, line-by-line review of existing advertising and marketing activity, including signage, websites, social media content, email templates, paid digital advertising and vendor-created materials. In many cases, materials that have been in use for years, and in some instances previously approved, will need to be removed or revised.
Compliance Timeline and Enforcement
MMTCs have 90 days from the effective date to discontinue the use of any advertising or marketing materials that do not comply with the new rule. After the compliance period, violations may result in disciplinary action under existing enforcement authority.
Given the scope of the rule and the absence of any grandfathering, MMTCs should assume that continued use of noncompliant advertising after the deadline will carry enforcement risk, even where there was prior regulatory acceptance.
Takeaway
Taken as a whole, Rule 64ER25-6 places Florida among the most restrictive jurisdictions in the country with respect to medical marijuana advertising and marketing. The rule effectively eliminates lifestyle-oriented cannabis marketing and requires MMTC communications to remain narrowly clinical, factual and compliance-focused.
MMTCs should promptly review all advertising and marketing activity to assess compliance and identify materials that must be discontinued or revised before the end of the compliance period.
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