If you’ve stepped foot in a UK city within the last few years, chances are you’ve seen them.
Weed adverts. Everywhere.
They’re popping up on buses, plastered on billboards, tucked into tube carriages. From sleek campaigns by legal medical cannabis clinics to guerrilla-style posters promoting an underground startup, the UK is having a very green moment.
But what does it all mean?
For a country where cannabis remains a Class B drug (illegal to possess, grow, or sell) it’s a strange sight. To some it’s exciting, to others confusing, and to many it’s a sign of something deeper: a shifting cultural and medicinal tide.
Let’s unpack what’s going on, starting with the biggest, boldest player of them all, Dispenseroo.
From Deliveroo to Dispenseroo: The Underground Goes Overground
In late 2022 and early 2023, Londoners started noticing posters on the Underground that read:
“Do you love 🍃? Use code ‘tube’ for £5 off.”
Complete with a QR code, hashtag, and a slick logo that mimicked Deliveroo, the campaign looked real, but also somehow too bold to be legal. Was it a joke? A spoof? A guerrilla art project?
Turns out it was very real.
Dispenseroo is a cannabis-selling startup operating in the greyest of grey areas. Speaking anonymously to VICE World News, its founder, a self-described weed-loving Londoner in his 20s, revealed the company had already put up 2,500 illegal adverts across the tube network using freelance workers hired via Gumtree.
In his words, the idea behind Dispenseroo was simple:
“I love weed. I’ve been buying it since I was 17, but if you want good quality weed in the UK—even with a medical prescription—it’s hard to get. Dealers often spray it with god-knows-what. Now I have access to clean, quality flower, I want to share it with people.”
And it seems the people want it too. After the tube ad campaign went viral online, shared by influencers and street pages like @richkidslondon, Dispenseroo reportedly pulled in £50,000 in weekly sales, dispatching over 250 orders a day.
Yes, that’s illegal. But it’s also telling.
Why These Adverts Are Making Waves
Dispenseroo may be operating outside the law, but it’s far from alone in putting cannabis in the public eye.
Over the past year, a wave of legal medical cannabis clinics have started running major ad campaigns.
Names like Zerenia, Lyphe, Mamedica, and others now run sponsored content online and place ads on public transport.
They offer legitimate consultations with prescribing doctors, and for many patients, life-changing relief for chronic conditions like pain, anxiety, PTSD, and insomnia.
These ads sit in stark contrast to Dispenseroo’s bold, wink-wink strategy, but they speak to the same truth:
Cannabis is going mainstream in the UK, whether the law catches up or not.
For years, cannabis advocacy was relegated to quiet corners. Now it’s front and centre, with branding, funding, and a growing public demand for change.
Cannabis in the UK: A Legal and Cultural Mess
It’s worth pausing here to clarify just how strange the legal status of cannabis is in the UK right now.
- Medical cannabis has been legal since November 2018, but access via the NHS is practically nonexistent. Fewer than five NHS prescriptions have ever been issued.
- To get a legal prescription, patients must go through private clinics, paying out of pocket, often £100+ just for the first consultation, plus monthly medication costs.
- Meanwhile, growing your own plant (even for medical use) or buying from someone like Dispenseroo remains a criminal offence, punishable by fines or prison time.
So here’s the paradox:
You can walk past a weed advert on your way to work, see influencers talk about it online, get a cannabis prescription delivered legally from one company, yet be arrested for possessing the same product from a different source.
It’s no wonder people are confused.
What’s Really Behind the Rise in Cannabis Advertising?
Cannabis ads aren’t just about selling product, they’re a symptom of a larger problem in UK healthcare and drug policy.
Here’s what we believe is happening:
1. People are waking up to natural medicine
More adults are questioning pharmaceutical solutions and looking for gentler, plant-based tools to manage stress, pain, and inflammation. Cannabis, and mushrooms, fit perfectly into this awakening.
2. There’s a deep dissatisfaction with the medical system
With NHS waiting lists at crisis levels and chronic diseases rising, people are desperate for alternatives. Cannabis offers real, accessible relief for many.
3. The demand is already here, laws just haven’t caught up
Whether through legal clinics or underground startups, people will find cannabis. Adverts just make that demand visible. They force the public, and the government, to face what’s already happening.
But Isn’t This Dangerous?
Here’s the thing. Dispenseroo is not your average street dealer. They claim to source pesticide-free, lab-tested products, many from California growers. Vapes come with scannable lab reports. And the company says it actively avoids links to trap houses, child labour, or synthetic cannabis.
That said, buying from them is still illegal. No matter how ethical or safe they try to be, they exist in a legal limbo.
But is that more dangerous than the current UK drug market?
Let’s be honest. The current state of illegal cannabis in the UK is a mess:
- Much of the flower is sprayed or chemically treated.
- Vapes are often counterfeit and untested.
- Buyers (especially women) are forced to meet strangers face-to-face.
Dispenseroo’s pitch is simple: “We can make this safer, cleaner, and more transparent. The only thing stopping us is outdated laws.”
What This Means for the Future of Cannabis in the UK
At High & Polite, we’re not here to glorify any specific seller, legal or illegal. But we are here to amplify this truth:
The system is broken. And the public knows it.
Dispenseroo didn’t invent the demand for weed. They simply tapped into a reality that policymakers continue to ignore: Millions of people in the UK use cannabis, many for health, many for pleasure, most in peace.
It’s time for a new approach.
One rooted in:
✅ Natural medicine
✅ Safe, regulated access
✅ Non-smoking consumption methods like oils, vapes and edibles
✅ Metabolic health and lifestyle empowerment, not chemical quick fixes
Our Take: Keep the Ads Coming
Sure, Dispenseroo’s tactics might be illegal. But they’ve also ignited a conversation that the UK desperately needs.
Why is it easier to put up 2,500 guerrilla weed ads than to get a medical prescription through the NHS?
Why can people see branded cannabis marketing on Instagram but be arrested for growing a single plant?
And most importantly, what kind of future do we want for cannabis in the UK?
At High & Polite, we believe the future is clear:
- A future where natural medicine like cannabis and mushrooms is understood, respected, and integrated into our health choices.
- A future where we treat metabolic dysfunction, not just symptoms, with tools like nutrition, movement, light, supplements, and yes, cannabis.
- A future where the war on cannabis ends, and we finally give people the freedom to choose a better path to health.
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