A southern Tasmanian Gin maker has a fight on his hands with social media giant Facebook over the use of edible hemp in one of his products.
Rex Burdon has operated the Nonesuch Distillery near Sorell, south of Hobart, for the past four years and has advertised his produce with Facebook during that time.
"We've never had any problems until recently when we started marketing our hemp gin," Mr Burdon said.
"The batch of ads which included the hemp gin ran for a week, and suddenly all of the ads were pulled by Facebook.
"When we inquired why that happened, Facebook told us their global policy was not to support the supply of illicit drugs.
"I was a little offended to think that people out there may see me as a drug dealer."
Food Standards Australia changed its policy over hemp as a food product in the past 12 months, but other countries still have bans on hemp as a food product.
The decision on hemp as a food product has given farmers across the country the go-ahead to expand plantings of industrial hemp due to surging demand.
"The policy Facebook has over hemp needs to be sorted as it could impact the hemp industry in general in Australia," Mr Burdon said.
"I know of four other gin makers who are producing hemp gin, and even the CWA [Country Women's Association] are putting hemp seeds in their scones.
"I certainly don't see the CWA as being drug dealers and common sense needs to prevail.
"I think Facebook has the ability to set a policy country-by-country, similar to what they do in general with alcohol advertising restrictions."
In a statement, Facebook said its global policy does not permit advertising hemp as a food, even if hemp as a food product is legal in certain countries.
Mr Burdon said he has had strong online support from thousands of people around the country and will now look at traditional advertising to promote the product.
