According to a recent study, marijuana legalization has drastically changed cannabis marketing on Instagram.

In the study entitled “From dealing to influencing: Online marketing of cannabis on Instagram” and published in the international journal Crime, Media, Culture last month, researchers Silje Anderdal Bakken and Sidsel Kirstine Harder from the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, compared 60 Instagram profiles belonging to illegal Swedish drug dealers to 70 cannabis influencers’ profiles based in the United States or Canada, most of them belong to women.

They found out that cannabis influencers on Instagram are changing the stereotyped characteristics of illegal cannabis culture, almost entirely dominated by men, to a new one where cannabis is represented as a desirable accessory in certain feminine lifestyles.

“Influencers’ role in transforming cannabis culture to become more mainstream and acceptable for women could potentially affect cannabis cultures globally, as well as the ongoing legalization debates,” the study reads.

Social media platforms, including Meta’s Facebook and Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok, restrict cannabis-related businesses from allowing paid advertisements for their products and services. Therefore, cannabis influencers operate in a legal gray zone, where they are allowed to promote their personal use and recommendations of cannabis without offering direct sales. [Read more at Forbes]