Minnesota Cannabis Advertising Laws

Section 342.64 opens by naming who it covers: "Cannabis businesses, hemp businesses, and other persons shall not publish or cause to be published an advertisement" for a cannabis or hemp business or product in any of the ways it then lists.

What counts as an advertisement is broad. Section 342.01 defines it as "any written or oral statement, illustration, or depiction that is intended to promote sales" of cannabis or hemp products, or sales at a specific cannabis or hemp business.

In a creative review, those provisions come down to four checks:

1. 1What it claims. Cut any health or therapeutic effect you cannot verify, and any line that encourages using more.
2. 2Who and what is in the frame. Nobody under 21 consuming, no cartoons, toys, animals or children, and no alcohol, including a drink sitting in the background.
3. 3The warning. OCM's impairment and health-risk warning goes on the ad. The sample wording is in the warnings section below.
4. 4Where it runs. Keep the medium's audience composition data with the media order, and keep the ad off every outdoor surface except your two fixed signs.

Minnesota protects people under 21 in two ways. Content may not show anyone under 21 consuming or carry imagery likely to appeal to them, and placement may not reach a medium whose audience skews young.

The placement test is a number. Section 342.64 bars an ad "if 30 percent or more of the audience of that medium is reasonably expected to be individuals who are under 21 years of age, as determined by reliable, current audience composition data." OCM's Guidance Memo 2025-07 lists the same point among its don'ts: "Advertise on children's programming or anywhere the audience is likely to be 30% or more persons under 21".

Google Ads and Meta apply their own cannabis policies on top of these rules. Our guide to which ad platforms accept cannabis advertising tracks them.

On the content side, we did not find a definition of "appeal" in section 342.64. The closest statutory definition sits in the packaging section, § 342.62, subd. 1a, which says "appeal to individuals under 21 years of age" means any of the following:

• the use of images depicting toys or robots
• the use of any images depicting fruits or vegetables, except when used to accurately describe ingredients or flavors contained in a product
• the use of any images bearing a likeness to characters or phrases that are popularly used to advertise to children
• the use of brand names or close imitations of brand names of candies, cereals, sweets, chips, or other food products typically marketed to children

That list is written for packaging, and we did not find it applied to advertisements. For ads, OCM's memo lists "Use any image or design that is likely to appeal to anyone under 21" as a don't, and its wording covers design, not only images.

The outdoor rule in section 342.64 starts from a ban: an outdoor advertisement of a cannabis or hemp business or product "is prohibited," subject to the exceptions the statute lists. Section 342.01 defines an outdoor advertisement as one that is "located outdoors or can be seen or heard by an individual who is outdoors" and lists billboards, benches, transit stations and shelters, and "advertisements on the exterior or interior of buses, taxis, light rail transit, or business vehicles." That last item catches a branded company vehicle, inside and out.

For a cannabis business, the opening this section covers is signage on your own property. Hemp businesses should read the full statute before relying on this section, because its exceptions are not all covered here. Cannabis and hemp businesses "may erect up to two fixed outdoor signs on the exterior of the building or property." Section 342.01 backs that up: "Advertisement does not include a fixed outdoor sign that meets the requirements in section 342.64, subdivision 2, paragraph (b)."

The section 342.01 definition also refers to "the display of window and interior signs in a cannabis business." OCM's Cannabis Compliance Connector of Aug. 20, 2026 settles how a window works when it faces the street: "Any window or door sign that is visible from outside the business would be considered an outdoor advertisement." The same bulletin says "Outdoor advertisements for cannabis or hemp are not allowed under any circumstances." A promo poster taped inside the front glass is therefore an outdoor ad if the sidewalk can see it.

The seventh item in section 342.64 makes an ad non-compliant when it "does not contain a warning as specified by the office regarding impairment and health risks." That office is OCM, the state office the state's cannabis law created.

OCM's Guidance Memo 2025-07 gives this sample wording for cannabis ads:

> Cannabis products are not for use by anyone under the age of 21 > > Cannabis use may cause drowsiness, affect focus, reaction time, and decision-making. These products are not evaluated or approved by the FDA. Pregnant people should avoid cannabis due to the risk of low birth weight, premature birth, stillbirth, and harm to fetal brain development.

The memo is direct about the stakes: "Failure to include the required warnings may result in enforcement action against the license holder or business, up to and including penalties or license suspension/revocation." We did not find a placement, type-size or per-channel format rule for the warning in section 342.64 or the memo, so confirm those details with OCM before you finalize print or video.

Section 342.64 names lower-potency hemp edibles and hemp-derived consumer products in its opening sentence and in several of its numbered items, so a hemp ad answers to the same content list as a cannabis ad.

Medical cannabis has its own numbered list inside section 342.64. Its item (2) bars an ad that "uses colloquial terms to refer to medical cannabis flower or medical cannabinoid products, such as pot, weed, or grass," and its item (6) repeats the warning demand: an ad fails when it "does not contain a warning as specified by the office regarding impairment and health risks." Slang that passes on an adult-use social post breaks the medical list, so medical program creative needs its own vocabulary check.

Prepared by Mark Wallace, Bud Authority. Provisions checked against the Minnesota Revisor of Statutes and OCM's published text on October 27, 2026.

Mark Wallace is our Co-Founder & Chief Growth Architect, and his bio lists more than 11 years of experience in cannabis. No lawyer reviewed this page. For how we approach search in this state, see our page on search marketing for Minnesota dispensaries.

Our free dispensary audit is automated and shows the report card on screen; it does not review ad creative. To see our client work, browse our client case files.

We did not find a provision that says so. The two-sign allowance covers fixed outdoor signs on the exterior of the building or property, while OCM's Aug. 20, 2026 bulletin classes outward-facing window and door signs as outdoor advertisements, which are banned. Ask OCM in writing before you treat glass as sign space.

Yes, after age affirmation under section 342.64. Federal rules apply on top: 47 CFR 64.1200 extends its telemarketing rules to "text messages to wireless telephone numbers," and those rules bar telephone solicitations "before the hour of 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m." at the recipient's local time.