Curio Wellness, a Baltimore County-based cannabis company, was fined a total of $8,000 last month for advertising at a music festival and sponsoring a 5K race, neither of which were age-restricted events.

Advertising at those events violated rules intended to prevent cannabis companies from marketing to children, according to an Aug. 5 consent order with the Maryland Cannabis Administration. It says 2023’s Hot Summer Music Festival in Cockeysville, where Curio operated a canopy, and that year’s Baltimore Running Festival, where the 5K race was named for its cannabis brand sponsor, both offered activities for people of all ages — including those under 21.

Curio’s leadership, which signed on to the consent order, noted in an interview that the violations came within the month that followed the state changing its advertising regulations as it moved to legalize recreational cannabis. The Baltimore Sun’s principal owner, Sinclair Broadcast Group Executive Chair David D. Smith, is a major investor in the cannabis brand.

In the legislation that ultimately launched the state’s recreational cannabis industry in July 2023, Maryland adopted some of the nation’s strongest regulations on legal cannabis, with public health experts hailing stringent product testing requirements and laws aimed at preventing marketing cannabis to children. Maryland law restricts advertising cannabis “directly or indirectly” to minors, with rules restricting images attractive to children, such as food products, cartoons, toys or animals, in advertising.

Cannabis companies are also barred from some advertising efforts without showing that at least 85% of the marketing audience is “reasonably expected” to be over the age of 21. Curio did not provide “reliable and current” audience composition data information for either event, the consent order says.

Wendy Bronfein, the company’s chief brand officer and director of public policy, said balancing the company’s marketing with Maryland’s “highly restrictive” regulations was “a really hard space,” adding that she believed the company had proved themselves “in a responsible way” over the course of the past several years to avoid any appearance of malicious intent.

She noted that Curio had sponsored the Baltimore Running Festival for several years prior to the adoption of stricter regulations. The company produces non-psychoactive topical products for aches and pains, which Bronfein said made the brand a “really good fit” for the event. The music festival was an “adult-centric event” that made most of its money off alcohol sales, she said.

But the music festival at Oregon Ridge Park had also advertised activities “specifically for children and families,” the consent order says. The running festival, where Curio’s name and logo appeared on the runner handbook, lanyards and the title of the 2023 Curio Wellness 5K, allowed individuals of all ages to participate and had a designated “Kids Fun Zone” with inflatable activities and games, according to the order.

Curio leadership, which the cannabis administration said cooperated with the investigation, signed off on the consent order in late July, waiving their right to contest the violation.

The Timonium-based cannabis company, which also operates in Missouri, has faced regulatory scrutiny before — in February, the business was ordered to pay a $26,000 fine after its flagship dispensary, Far & Dotter, sold 64 Amnesia OG flower packages that had been in a dumpster for two days.

Although Maryland’s cannabis laws include stringent rules covering marketing, many of the companies with public actions against them have faced charges for violations regarding inventory and ownership matters.

But Curio is not the only company to face a financial penalty under cannabis marketing laws. Cookies, a dispensary in South Baltimore, had its license temporarily suspended and was ordered to pay a $81,500 fine last year for a combination of security failures and marketing violations related to an advertisement that depicted cartoons including “several local mascots” as well as the “likeness of two celebrities.”