Is a Trulieve Dispensary Sending You Unwanted Text Messages?

Trulieve is a medical cannabis company that grows, manufactures and sells its products in dozens of its own branded dispensaries across Florida. It is also one of an increasing number of businesses that use text messaging dispensary marketing to connect with customers and market its products.

What Is Trulieve?

Florida lawmakers legalized medical cannabis in 2014 and approved five vertically integrated licensees to operate in the state the following year. Trulieve was one of those original licensees.

Trulieve dispensary calls itself a “seed-to-sale operation” that cultivates the raw materials for its medical cannabis products, manufactures them and sells them in 55 branded retail shops throughout Florida, California and Connecticut – and, soon, Massachusetts. It also offers a home delivery service.

According to the company’s website, Trulieve produces more than 443 different items, including cannabis flowers, concentrates, cigarettes, syringes, tinctures, capsules, powders, topical applications, and CBD products.

Trulieve dispensary products are formulated for use in the treatment of “seizures, severe muscle spasms, pain, nausea, loss of appetite and other symptoms of serious medical conditions such as cancer,” says CannaMD, a network of physicians who work with medical marijuana and the patients who use it.

Why Is a Trulieve Dispensary Sending Unwanted Text Messages?

Retail businesses across the U.S. are increasingly turning to direct text message marketing to engage customers, industry experts say. A recent article on Business.com reports that studies show text messages are effective at driving sales, likely because today’s consumers spend more time on their smart phones than ever before and find it a convenient way to make purchases.

Trulieve has embraced the text message marketing concept and heavily promotes it through social media, encouraging customers and those interested in the company to sign up for text message promotions and campaigns. One post on the company’s Facebook account says Trulieve will deliver new product information, sales “and more right to your phone.”

The report by Business.com says many consumers now prefer text message marketing, especially when it includes direct links that make exploring product offerings and making purchases convenient.

“Text messaging is incredibly popular, racing ahead of even social media platforms,” the article says. And “among more surprising stats on text marketing, messages have an incredibly high open rate of 98%.” That means less than 25% of text marketing goes unopened, a much lower rate than for email marketing.

Further fuel for the test message marketing trend was a recent survey by research and marketing firm Code Broker that found of 1,200 consumers, 60% said they would redeem a retail coupon sent to them via text message within a week of getting it and 25% said they would redeem it in three days.

Are These Spam Text Messages Legal?

No matter how popular marketing companies say text message advertising is, some of it runs the risk of violating federal law. If you have received unwanted advertising text messages from a Trulieve dispensary, there are two laws that may be on your side.

The Telephone Consumer Protection Act, or TCPA, was enacted by Congress in 1991 and assigned the Federal Communications Commission to enforce it. The TCPA restricts the use of automatic telephone dialing systems, artificial or prerecorded voice messages and text messages, and requires entities making telephone solicitations to maintain do-not-call lists.

In 2012, new technology and marketing trends prompted the FCC to revise its rules to “require telemarketers to obtain prior express written consent from consumers before robocalling or texting them … and to require telemarketers to provide an automated, interactive ‘opt-out’ mechanism … so consumers can immediately tell the telemarketer to stop calling,” the FCC’s guidelines on the telephone act says.

In addition to the TCPA, a new law was enacted in late 2019 to add additional protections for consumers who receive robocalls or text coupons. Under the TRACED Act, telephone service providers are now required to implement number authentication systems that can detect potential incoming spam calls. They are also required to offer this service to customers at no additional fee. Many telephone service providers have begun to abide by this requirement by flagging incoming robocalls as “Scam Likely” or similar warnings.

Additionally, telephone service providers are also required to adapt technology that can detect when spoofed calls are coming in. Spoofed calls are calls that come from one number but are made to look as though they are coming from a different number. Often, spoofed numbers are made to appear as though they are coming from a friend or neighbor, and will include the same area code and many of the same digits as the recipient’s own number.

The TRACED Act has also increased the amount of time that the FCC is allowed to pursue litigation against companies that violate consumer privacy laws by sending unsolicited texts or making unwanted calls. Under the new law, the FCC has four years to find and prosecute violators of the law. The FCC is also now allowed to pursue heavier fines against scammers. While the TCPA allows consumers to sue for between $500 and $1,500 for violations, the FCC may pursue as much as $10,000 under the TRACED Act.

In December 2019, a Tennessee man who claims he received two unsolicited text messages from Trulieve filed a class action lawsuit against the company for violating the TCPA. Mats Jaslow filed the action against Trulieve in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida. He says the company’s promotional texts invaded his privacy, harassed and aggravated him and compromised the performance of his mobile phone. He is seeking $1,500 in damages per message and estimates when a full class of plaintiffs is counted, the total damages could top $5 million, a report by the Tampa Bay Business Journal says.

When Should You File an Unsolicited Text Message Lawsuit?

Anyone who has been the target of unsolicited, unwanted advertising text messages might qualify to participate in a class action lawsuit against the company sending them. That includes the class action lawsuit against Trulieve dispensary. Consulting with a qualified attorney who has experience with class action litigation is a good first step in determining whether there are grounds for legal action.

Join a Free Marijuana Dispensary Unwanted Text Messages Lawsuit Investigation

If you received an unsolicited text message, ringless voicemail, robocall, and/or a call with a pre-recorded voice from a marijuana dispensary, you may be able to join a FREE marijuana dispensary unwanted text message class action lawsuit investigation.

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This article is not legal advice. It is presented
for informational purposes only.