NSLC pot descriptions seem about right
If the NSLC starts using the “first hit’s free” pusher’s come-on, there’s a problem. Until then, the LC probably deserves a chance to sell some pot before we tell them they’re doing it wrong.
When the province picked the Nova Scotia Liquor Corporation – over the corporation’s objections – to retail cannabis, it pretty much preordained positive in-store marketing of the product. They do that at the LC, and they’ve worked hard to build a reputation for a positive customer experience.
They had to work hard to overcome the old Liquor Commission’s “government store” rep that came in suitably dank surroundings and with famously sullen service.
Faced with an offer they couldn’t refuse – the province owns the LC, so the “offer” was non-negotiable – the NSLC had no intention of returning to its earlier, priggish incarnation, and felt an obligation to make the pot buyers’ experience no less positive than the booze buy- ers’. But, before it sold a flower top, the Liquor Corp. ran afoul of a Dal academic – and others – for planning to do what it does pretty well, that is move product off shelves and into the hands of legally-entitled consumers.
Dal psych prof, Simon Sherry has blown the whistle on the LC for using descriptions the good doctor, who professes to support legal pot, says promote cannabis as appealing and attractive, so as to glamourize and normalize pot use.
Dr. Sherry takes exception to the NSLC’S use of “soothing,” “relaxing and calming,” or suggesting that a certain strain offers “livelier experiences” that “invigorate the senses.”
He’s worried that the NSLC’S messages appeal to addictionprone people, noting that people use cannabis to enhance their experiences or relieve stress and anxiety.
That being the case, wouldn’t it follow that that’s why people are in the pot store to begin with? The NSLC descriptions seem intended to differentiate the most common effect the various products deliver.
The legalization of cannabis alters the social landscape of the nation. Canadians accepted that change – explicitly or tacitly – when they elected a government that openly advocated legalization.
In a legal environment, it’s folly to shroud retailing and use of the product in whispered social enmity. That would only perpetuate the stereotype that began with “long-haired freaky people” and endured through a strange reference to Jamaica in the Nova Scotia legislature last spring.
Barring a change of course that would require a change in the national government, a year after cannabis is legal, eatables come on the market, so people get ready. Molson-coors announced this week it will make a non-alcoholic cannabis-infused beer. Chocolate pot is said to be very popular in California, where cannabis was legalized January 1.
If the “normalization” ship hasn’t already left port in Canada, the sails are definitely up.
Glamourizing pot’s use is another question. The NSLC has grouped the product into four categories – relax, unwind, centre and enhance. If that’s glamourizing pot, marketing ain’t what it used to be.
The NSLC rejected the first category list that was suggested, which included “veg out; pig out; freak out;” and “hide.” I think they made the right call.
The LC’S attempt to categorize cannabis by its likely effect on the consumer isn’t undue promotion; it’s common sense, because that’s what folks buy it for.
You can search for neutral terms to describe that effect – and the LC found one in “centre” – and you’ll discover they don’t tell you much. Again, see “centre.”
Dr. Sherry believes the LC’S instore marketing violates the limits on promotion in the Cannabis Act, and he wrote to federal Health Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor asking her to investigate. It’s a safe bet the national health minister has bigger fish to fry than the NSLC’S product categories, but if the federal health types do investigate, put your money on the LC.
The in-store descriptors the corporation is planning to use are innocuous and if you think relaxing or unwinding is glamourous, you haven’t seen me in cut-off sweats and a t-shirt, nor do you want to.