• by Les Luchter , Yesterday

U.S. regulations set to take effect this November are designed to greatly narrow an eight-year-old federal loophole that legalized a wide range of hemp-derived, intoxicating cannabinoid products, sold as edibles, beverages, vapes, concentrates or extracts.

These products – containing either Delta-8 THC, HHC or THC-P – still required safety warnings, but Rutgers University research into such brands’ social media posts has found such information overwhelmed by recreational and youth-oriented themes.

Published Aug. 19 in Addiction, the study looked at 837 Instagram posts published between Feb. 2024 and Feb. 2025 by nine brands: CannaAid, Cycling Frog, Delta Extrax, Elyxr, Fly Urb, Hometown Hero, Koi CBD, Mood, and Official Canna River.

Calling “brand marketing on social media…largely underregulated,” Rutgers charged in a press release that the brands have been “capitalizing on lack of oversight.”

The university’s researchers evaluated the social posts for such “key marketing themes” as product recreational appeals, imagery oriented to those aged 18 and younger, health claims, and safety warnings.

Approximately half of the posts included youth-oriented elements, such as cartoon imagery, memes, and influencers.

Fifty-two percent showed images depicting the products as part of daily routines and social or leisure experiences. 

Marketing approaches varied by product type, Rutgers said.  For beverages, called “the most heavily promoted product category,” 84% emphasized recreational themes, 57% using youth-oriented appeals and 40% focusing on “brand positioning.” Youth-focused themes, the study said, were also prominent in posts marketing vapes/cartridges (54%) and edibles (49%), with recreational themes more common in posts for edibles (61%) and pre-rolls or blunts (53%).

Even with the coming change in regulations, which both narrows the federal definition of hemp and decreases the maximum allowed amount of THC, the researchers cautioned that “brands with established social media audiences may continue using indirect lifestyle and brand marketing even as the product marketplace changes.”

“These findings highlight important gaps in platform policies and enforcement,” Julia Chen-Sankey, study co-author and an assistant professor at the Rutgers School of Public Health, said in a statement. “In addition to maintaining the prohibition on intoxicating hemp products… regulators and social media companies need clearer standards addressing youth-oriented features, such as cartoons and memes, as well as potentially misleading health claims and inadequate safety information.”

“While this study focused on Instagram,” Chen-Sankey noted, “similar indirect marketing practices warrant closer examination on platforms such as YouTube, Facebook and TikTok.”

The researchers explained that social media platforms’ policies “use broad and vague language regarding restrictions on the sale and promotion of cannabis and THC products. This ambiguity allows brands to continue posting content that, while not directly selling these products, may still promote their use among young people.”

“Stronger standards are needed to restrict content that is potentially misleading and directed at youth and even reconsider whether commercial brands that market intoxicating substances should be permitted to maintain social media accounts,” said Chen-Sankey.