Maryland Cannabis Administration:
Safe Storage
Keeping cannabis out of sight by putting our message front and center.
Over the past five years in Maryland, cannabis-related calls to poison control have been on the rise: Calls for children under the age of 5 increased 15 times since 2018 and doubled from 2021 to 2023. Out of a total of 820 calls in 2023, two-thirds (552) involved Marylanders under the age of 19 — and almost 200 calls involved children under the age of 5 accidentally ingesting cannabis.
Starting a conversation
As part of their BeCannabisSmart campaign, the Maryland Cannabis Administration (MCA) wanted further measures to be taken to make children safer from legally owned cannabis in the home. Their message was to protect children and pets by storing cannabis “up, away and out of sight, preferably locked.” As always, it was no one’s goal to preach at or judge our audience, but to rather offer clear, friendly reminders for a positive response.
We took MCA’s safe storage tips and made them the center of a campaign that lived on paid social, broadcast and streaming TV, billboards and aerial messages, and digital displays. The direct and genuine messaging stressed how much safer kids could be when cannabis was stored safely in the home, with our TV spots featuring medical professionals making strong, emotional pleas to inform and guide our audience.
Message received
And our message reached them, with over 40 million impressions served and a 3.96% engagement rate on social media — the highest in any BeCannabisSmart campaign to date. Streaming TV spots saw a 98.48% video completion rate, and our digital displays had a .31% click-through rate — with over 22K page views on the Safe Storage landing page.
By reminding more Marylanders than ever to store their cannabis in a locked bag, box or safe that’s out of sight, every time, as well as no longer discarding cannabis edibles where children or pets could find them, our work in the Safe Storage campaign helped the MCA make Maryland a safer place to use cannabis.
