Marijuana News & Updates: Facebook Shuts Down Legal Weed Dispensary Pages in the US

Marijuana has been legalized in 23 states in the United States already - some states for medicinal purposes while states like Colorado legalized cannabis use for recreational and medicinal purposes. Given this notion, it was pretty surprising to find out that Facebook had been shutting down some dispensary pages.

According to NBC News, Facebook has been gradually shutting down the Facebook pages of "state-legal cannabis businesses" across the U.S. for the past three weeks.

It is still unknown how many cannabis business pages have been shut down, but the outlet confirms that at least 12 businesses in six states have already been affected by the new move from Facebook.

Why is @Facebook shutting down legal marijuana pages in the US? https://t.co/eQGdeYjxOY pic.twitter.com/sLCZ8HVjLH

— BBC Trending (@BBCtrending) February 23, 2016

One company affected by the move was Mary's Medicinals, a Colorado-based manufacturer of cannabis products and authorized marijuana dealer. According to the company's business development manager, Graham Sorkin, the business' Facebook page was taken down at the end of January.

"Nobody at Facebook had noticed our page or flagged it for being something that potentially violates their policies... we're licensed by the state of Colorado and state of Washington to make these products," said Sorkin.

As it turns out, the reason behind the new move is based on Facebook's Community Standards. Although marijuana is legal in some states, the tech company still has to put consideration onto others who still deem it illegal.

FYI: Facebook and Instagram are shutting down marijuana-related accounts... https://t.co/SiDFw7zIhd — VibeMagazine (@VibeMagazine) February 22, 2016

BBC Trending reached out to Facebook, who has issued an official statement regarding the matter:

"In order to maintain a safe environment on Facebook, we have Community Standards that describe what is and is not allowed on the service. Anyone can report content to us if they think it violates our standards. Our teams review these reports rapidly and will remove the content if there is a violation."