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It is very smart, because it is certainly a run around the regulations

Drake commands market access that no cannabis company comes close to having. His Youtube channel has over 13 billion views, and he has almost 53 million followers on Instagram. Within hours of teasing the launch of More Life in an Instagram post Wednesday evening, the company’s own account had gained more than ten thousand followers.

“I’m not sure whether the association right now is stronger between More Life and Drake or between Canopy and Drake, but as this rolls out, this is going to continue creating publicity,” said David Soberman, a marketing professor at the Rotman School of Management. “It is very smart, because it is certainly a run around the regulations. You’re not supposed to use a person in the promotion of cannabis and that’s exactly what this is, if you think about it,” he added.

Soberman believes that Drake’s promotion of More Life on social media falls within a grey area of cannabis advertising regulations. “One of the reasons the government came up with strict marketing regulations is to stop this kind of thing. But at the same time he owns the company, and you are allowed to have some kind of targeted brand promotion talking about the attributes of the products. I think this will be an interesting test case for the regulators,” he said.

Marketing aside, the deal comes at a crucial time for Canopy Growth, which saw revenue decline in its most recent quarter.

Under the terms of the arrangement, the Smiths Falls, Ont.-based company will reserve the right to nominate two board members to More Life, and will continue to hold the Health Canada licence required to cultivate and sell product from the Scarborough facility. And more crucially, Canopy will retain the rights to distribute More Life products.