Prevent Coalition has partnered with cannabis retailers, prevention coalitions in the southwest region and numerous community organizations to develop a point of purchase campaign called Secure Your Cannabis. The committee guiding this project has developed reminder cards to distribute to all customers who purchase cannabis at select Southwest Washington retailers encouraging customers to secure their products and talk with youth about substances.

High End Market Place, cannabis retailer, has been involved in the design and implementation process. High End Market Place helped select the design, articulate the message and was the first retailer not only willing but excited to distribute the point of purchase cards.

“All eyes are on us in this unfolding and highly influential new industry, and we want to make sure we are making the most responsible decisions for our business and the communities we are part of here in Vancouver,” says High End owner Morgan Hutchinson.

Prevent Coalition is preparing for a pilot launch of the point of purchase campaign at High End Market Place on April 20th or 4/20, a date often associated with cannabis use. During the launch, project representatives will gather feedback from customers before finalizing the designs and officially launching the cards at multiple locations across Clark, Klickitat and Skamania counties.

After the pilot launch, Secure Your Cannabis cards will also be distributed to all three The Herbery NW retail locations in Clark County. The Herbery NW partnered with Prevent in early April to share strategies and new ideas on the project.

When designing the campaign, the project committee wanted something friendly, connection-based, short and to the point, non-judgmental and focused on youth. The committee desired something eye-catching, playful and colorful and something that didn’t look like your traditional health-messaging brochure. The result is a set of cards that are small and can be displayed on a counter or placed in consumer shopping bags pre-purchase.

The colorful point of purchase cards developed by Prevent Coalition and its partners feature non-judgement statistics on the back to inform adults who use cannabis about the affects on youth. They will launch at High End Market Place on 4/20.

With guidance from its multiple partners, Prevent developed a shared website that outlines the campaign, offers tools for talking to youth about cannabis, describes cannabis laws in Washington and provides materials other organizations can download to implement point of purchase projects in their own communities.

“We are incredibly grateful to our amazing community partners and retailers for making this idea come to life,” says Christopher Belisle, Prevent Coalition Coordinator. “Although recent data show that most parents talk to their youth about not using cannabis, we would like the number of conversations between youth and trusted adults to increase.”

Prevent Coalition is looking for more retailers to join their efforts and distribute cards. For more information about Secure Your Cannabis contact Christopher Belisle, Coordinator at Christopher.belisle@esd112.org.

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