The U.S. legal cannabis market generated $38.5 billion in revenue in 2024. It is the fastest-growing regulated consumer category in American business history. Cannabis brands cannot advertise on Google, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, national television, or national radio.
The response to that advertising blackout, by any measurable standard, has been inadequate. Cannabis brands spend 80% less on marketing as a percentage of revenue than CPG competitors. The Revenue-to-ad-spend gap is widening, not closing, according to the Cannabis Media Council. And the specific channels where cannabis has no restrictions — earned media, SEO, owned content, and influencer strategy with proper compliance — are the ones most consistently underfunded.
5WPR recently published The Cannabis Communications Gap, a 2026 research report documenting this structural mismatch and its specific implications for cannabis operators navigating the most consequential regulatory moment in the industry’s history. The full report is available free at 5wpr.com/research/cannabis-communications-gap.
The Rescheduling Moment Changes the Economics
President Trump’s December 18, 2025 executive order directs the Department of Justice to complete the rescheduling of cannabis to Schedule III — the most significant federal cannabis policy development in more than fifty years. The final rule is expected in the first half of 2026. It will eliminate Section 280E, the IRS provision that has taxed cannabis operators on gross rather than net income, imposing effective federal tax rates of 70% or more on profitable companies. Cannabis retailers in high-volume states like Maryland would save an average of $805,000 annually per store under 280E relief.
For communications, the implications are direct. Marketing expenses become deductible for the first time — the after-tax cost of every PR, content, and influencer investment drops immediately. Institutional capital will begin evaluating the category, making investor relations and narrative-driven communications critical for MSOs that want to access capital at competitive cost. And the rescheduling news cycle itself is the largest earned media opportunity the industry has ever had — one that favors companies that have already built media relationships, not those scrambling to build them when the final rule publishes.
The Celebrity Data
Hoodie Analytics’ 2024 sales data provides the clearest available measurement of what celebrity brand strategy actually produces. Khalifa Kush, built over a decade on Wiz Khalifa’s genuine cannabis advocacy and scaled through partnerships with Trulieve and Cookies, generated $50 million in 2024 sales. Snoop Dogg’s Death Row Cannabis generated $2–3 million and ranked 20th among celebrity brands. The gap between two of the most famous cannabis advocates in American culture is not an awareness gap. It is an authenticity and communications strategy gap.
The report documents four models for celebrity and athlete cannabis partnerships, the performance profile of each, and the specific communications requirements that separate the brands that build sustained equity from those that generate press release coverage at launch and silence thereafter.
The Athlete Policy Window
The NBA’s 2023 CBA removed cannabis from the banned substances list and opened a genuine endorsement pathway for CBD-focused cannabis brands through active player partnerships. The specific compliance requirements under the CBA — what players can and cannot do regarding investment, promotion, and endorsement — create a navigable framework for brands that understand the rules. Most cannabis brands do not yet have the legal and communications infrastructure to operate in this space compliantly.
The FTC Enforcement Environment
The FTC’s 2024 Endorsement Guides make cannabis brands directly liable for influencer content — including posts the brand never reviewed. At $53,088 per violation in 2025, a non-compliant influencer campaign across dozens of posts represents material financial exposure. The report provides the five-element compliance infrastructure that cannabis brands need before running any influencer program.
“Cannabis is the only major consumer category in America where the advertising blackout has not produced a compensating investment in the channels that work. The brands that recognize that gap and close it in 2026 will have a compounding advantage that late movers cannot replicate.”
The full Cannabis Communications Gap 2026 report is available free at 5wpr.com/research/cannabis-communications-gap.
