A Maryland cannabis company, Curio Wellness, has been hit with an $8,000 fine for advertising at a music festival and sponsoring a 5K race. The company’s actions violated state regulations because both events were not age-restricted, meaning they could have exposed cannabis advertising to minors.
Curio Wellness operated a canopy at the 2023 Hot Summer Music Festival in Cockeysville, Maryland, and the 5K race at the Baltimore Running Festival was named after its cannabis brand. According to the Maryland Cannabis Administration’s consent order, the company’s actions breached regulations that restrict alcohol and marijuana companies from advertising to audiences where less than 85% of viewers are over 21.
Curio Wellness’s management signed off on the consent order in July. However, Wendy Bronfein, the company’s chief brand officer and director of public policy, criticized the Maryland cannabis regulations, calling them “highly restrictive.”
This is not the first time Curio Wellness has been fined by the state cannabis regulator. Earlier this year, the company’s Far & Dotter dispensary in Baltimore County was fined $26,000 for selling marijuana products that were retrieved from a dumpster by some of its employees. A total of 24 medical cannabis patients and 18 recreational cannabis customers purchased over $3,174 worth of the weed in question between July 28 and August 3, 2023.
The regulator’s consent order stated that 224 grams of cannabis product had been discarded on July 25, 2023, by the dispensary and left in the dumpster for over 41 hours. A video recording from July 27 showed three employees retrieving the missing, pre-packaged product from the dumpster. The marijuana was later repackaged by an employee who told the Maryland Cannabis Administration that “the original packaging was covered in a liquid substance.”
Maryland became the 25th state in the US to legalize adult-use cannabis on July 1, 2023, following its approval in the 2022 November election. Governor Wes Moore (D) announced in July that the state’s legal cannabis sales surpassed $1.1 billion in the first year following legalization.