New research quantifies how prohibition-era narratives embedded in today’s advertising and media infrastructure continue to suppress cannabis visibility and stunt industry growth.
U.S. WEED CHANNEL (USWC), the first federally certified cannabis lifestyle network streaming globally, today announced the release of its landmark research publication, The 2025 Cannabis Media Transparency & Advertising Report — the first analysis in the sector to empirically map how advertising restrictions, algorithmic bias, and media consolidation have structurally disadvantaged cannabis operators for more than a decade.
The report demonstrates that cannabis brands routinely pay 2–4× more for advertising reach than comparable mainstream industries, yet receive significantly less visibility due to platform bans, brand-safety classifiers, and decades-old stigma still embedded into regulatory and technological systems.
“At a time when the cannabis sector is fighting for survival, clarity is not optional — it’s essential,” said Madicyn Marinaro, VP of Corporate Strategy & Communications at USWC and lead author of the report. “Operators have been told the crisis is oversupply, low margins, or ‘bad actors.’ But our research shows the root problem is informational: the industry is still governed by scarcity engineered through prohibition-era narratives that never evolved.”
Key insights from the report:
- Cannabis advertising remains artificially expensive, with CPMs disproportionately high relative to reach.
- Programmatic access is restricted, forcing brands into costly, low-scale channels dominated by trade publishers.
- Algorithmic moderation suppresses cannabis content even in legal markets, treating it as a high-risk category by default.
- Decades of stigma continue to shape regulation, creating a feedback loop where fear-based narratives justify policies that limit education, normalization, and patient access.
Introducing the “Datafied Prohibition” Framework
The report defines a new structural concept — Datafied Prohibition — describing how the logic of prohibition has migrated into:
- automated content moderation
- brand-safety systems
- regulatory infrastructure
- advertising policy
- financial risk algorithms
These systems reproduce the same inequities once enforced by criminalization, now through data and compliance frameworks that determine what cannabis businesses can say, show, and reach.
“This research validates the inequities our network was built to solve,” said Shane Doull, Founder & CEO of U.S. Weed Channel. “Brands aren’t failing because they lack demand or vision — they’re failing because they’ve been forced to market inside an ecosystem engineered for scarcity. USWC provides a path out of that.”
A Path Forward: Practical Solutions for Industry Recovery
The report outlines a set of actionable strategies, including:
- FAST/CTV cannabis-safe media distribution models
- Transparent advertising standards via the new Cannabis Council for Advertising Transparency (CCAT)
- New approaches to audience measurement and brand storytelling
- Frameworks for rebuilding public trust and industry legitimacy
USWC will begin hosting industry webinars, investor briefings, and advertiser workshops through the U.S. Weed Channel App, giving operators the first accessible toolkit for navigating — and overcoming — structural visibility barriers.
About U.S. WEED CHANNEL (USWC)
U.S. Weed Channel is the first federally certified global FAST/CTV network dedicated to cannabis lifestyle, education, and entertainment. Through compliant advertising solutions, original programming, and research-driven transparency initiatives, USWC is building a measurable, trustworthy media ecosystem designed to drive industry growth and normalize cannabis worldwide.
