Nicole Farah – Founder & Managing Director of Americana Communications – Interview Series

Along with precise cultivation and efficient post-harvest manufacturing processes, proper communications and public relations are absolutely crucial for cannabis brands especially given how new most of the overall industry is. Effective and informative communications could instrumental in a cannabis brand’s overall success regardless of product type or state market. For a greater look at successful cannabis PR strategies and also the various European markets that are opening up, mycannabis.com had the pleasure of speaking with Nicole Farah, Founder & Managing Director of Americana Communications.

So what topics did you study at Chapman University, and what were the driving forces behind moving to England and attending The Manchester Metropolitan University?

I promise I didn’t set out to be a PR nerd when I started out at uni, but looking back, it does feel like I was quietly laying the groundwork. At Chapman University (go Panthers), I started out as a maths major and ended up shifting to English Literature and Creative Writing, with a minor in History. My main goal when I was in undergrad was to become an academic, funnily enough. I was always really drawn to storytelling and at the time, I thought I was prepping myself for a life of writing novels or continuing working in the world of academia, but those skills translated almost seamlessly into comms and PR. 

My move to Manchester really came from wanting to just shake things up. I’d lived in California for most of my life, but I’d always loved traveling through Europe and had strong personal connections in the UK. When the opportunity to get my Masters in the UK came up, I didn’t overthink it and I just leapt. Manchester felt creative, culturally rich, and VERY different from Southern California, which is exactly what I was looking for if I’m being honest. 

I’ve since traded the Panthers’ D3 soccer team for being a very casual, deeply uneducated Manchester United (MANU ) football fan (I know, I’m not thrilled about it either). 

What were the most interesting or otherwise useful courses in Public Relations that you took while obtaining your Master’s? Also, besides college football’s dominance, what are the biggest differences between attending an American university and a British university? 

My Master’s in PR and Digital Communications at Man Met was quite practical, which I appreciated. At this stage, I had already been working in PR at both in-house and agency settings for a few years and I was looking to expand my international experience. The most useful courses for me personally focused on crisis comms, reputation management and strategic campaign planning. Those courses really helped me to think more critically, like not just how to communicate, but when, why, and whether you should at all. Crisis comms has become a huge part of our professional toolkit at Americana, especially in such a highly regulated and often misunderstood industry like cannabis.

One of the biggest differences between American and British universities I found is how independent the British education system expects you to be. In the US, there’s more structure, a bit more hand-holding, more group projects, and yeah, a lot more school spirit (no word of a lie I just looked it up and apparently Man Met has an American Football team that I had zero idea about haha!). In the UK, at least in a Masters programme setting, you’re expected to manage your own workload from day one, think critically and consider broader social implications, not just chase a degree. That’s not to say that American universities don’t expect something similar, but I found that I was having to teach myself a lot more in my free time and come to class ready to contribute my thoughts on brand new topics each day. 

That shift suited me for what I expected from higher education. It helped me develop confidence in my own judgement which is something that’s super beneficial in PR. 

What were your first roles in PR/marketing like, and what were the most valuable lessons you learned during the first few years in your career?

I’ve been very lucky in my PR career. Most of my early roles were genuinely positive learning environments. My most enjoyable in-house role was with Deckers Brands working with the Teva, HOKA, and Sanuk brands in Santa Barbara, CA. The company culture was exceptional and I worked alongside an incredibly talented, driven and creative team (discounted shoes and the ability to attend a number of amazing outdoor industry events was a definite perk). 

At Deckers, I learned the importance of messaging and brand consistency and long-term media relationship building. Big brands don’t react impulsively, and every message is intentional. That experience taught me how to think beyond reactive headlines and focus on solidifying brand equity/foothold in a market. 

My most formative cannabis-specific role was with a San Diego-based PR agency, where I worked alongside my now business partner, Cassandra Dowell. We represented some incredible companies and built a strong, trust-based partnership that ultimately gave us the confidence and the industry knowledge to launch Americana Communications. The biggest lesson from that role was learning how to balance advocacy with compliance and how to tell bold stories whilst respecting regulations, public perception and risk. That balance is the cornerstone of what we do with our clients today. 

What were the defining moments that led you to create Americana Communications? Did you have any initial concerns about starting your own PR firm?

Like with many businesses, Americana started when I identified a need, well, in this case two needs. A social need and a market need. I had worked in Cannabis PR in the US, specifically California where the plant is of course recreationally and medically legal, and at its peak is estimated to have been worth $5.7 billion. Fast forward to life in the UK and we can paint a wildly contrasting picture.

The UK has an exciting, growing medical cannabis market. It first became medically legal in November 2018. In June 2023, research indicated that only 41.5% of UK adults were even aware that it was legal to be prescribed. This represented a huge communications failure in my view. There are potentially hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of patients here who struggle day after day without having access to, or knowledge of this plant’s medical properties. The UK, in my opinion, has done far too little to improve awareness and accessibility. I wanted to be a part of the solution to this; to destigmatise, to advocate and to build awareness. That was the social need.

As for the market need, there are a handful of agencies in the UK today that touch on Cannabis PR in some form, but when I started Americana Communications, I genuinely believe that we were the first truly PR dedicated agency that had a deep understanding of the plant, regulations and the international market. I saw that need and I filled it when I started the agency in 2024. I also have to once again shout out my incredible business partner Cassandra Dowell. She’s been working alongside me from day 1 on this project and she heads up our North American division. While we wanted to make waves in the UK and eventually Europe, we both have such a strong background in the US that we always knew we wanted to continue serving that market. 

Do I have concerns? Of course. I’m a little bit of a perfectionist, yeah, concerns are basically my background noise both as an advocate and a business owner operating in this industry. But I’m confident that we’re the best at what we do. We know this space, we work hard, and we’re just getting started!

What professional accomplishments has Americana achieved? What are some of the most successful campaigns/projects that Americana has been involved in?

I’m incredibly proud that Americana Communications is now regarded as the leading dedicated cannabis PR agency in the UK. We’ve kept a consistent, strong client base in the US where we work with some incredible brands, whilst increasing our work with a handful of pioneering companies in the UK and mainland Europe. Building a global footprint in such a short space of time is an incredible accomplishment for us as a team. 

As for individual projects, as you might imagine London is something of a hub for UK medical cannabis. Which makes a lot of sense, but it limits accessibility and representation from other areas of England, Scotland, Wales & Northern Ireland. Creating inclusive and accessible spaces for education and dialogue is something that I personally care deeply about, and last year we delivered the first Northern Cannabis Networking Event in Manchester, UK (where Americana is headquartered). These events were a huge success and brought together a vast number of patients, industry professionals and cannabis-curious folks. So much so that we’re working on a bigger, better event that will be taking place later this month called CannConnect UK! So if you’re around Manchester on the 29th of January, please do come along! The event is free to all so we’d love to have anyone who is interested in the UK medical cannabis space. 

What are some specific challenges that your cannabis/hemp clients face when it comes to proper PR/marketing that your clients in other industries usually don’t deal with? How does England’s strict medical-only status when it comes to cannabis lessen your PR/marketing abilities for those clients? 

This is such a great question and in many ways it’s one of our strongest selling points so appreciate you giving me the opportunity to shout about it haha! 

As a PR and events agency, we don’t directly deal with marketing activity. The key difference being that (in its simplest form) marketing is paid, whilst PR is earned. There are, as you might imagine, a huge number of complex regulations surrounding marketing of cannabis in general, whether you’re talking about products or just education around the plant. PR, or earned media, is largely (most of the time) exempt from this. It’s not marketing so much as journalists, bloggers and podcasters writing/speaking to our clients and featuring them in exclusive interviews, articles and product guides/reviews.

A lot of cannabis companies in the UK are scratching their heads as to how they can get their name out there without breaking any rules. PR is the answer, but only if your agency understands those rules/regulations and the language/sensitivities involved. Our hands are relatively untied, but only because we know exactly where the lines are. That expertise is critical in this space. 

What’s crucial is having a PR team that understands the market, have strong relationships with the right journalists and will work hard for you. 

Do you think a recreational/adult-use cannabis market would eventually be created in England? What would that hypothetically look like, and would a British cannabis market be overall successful?

This is a really interesting debate and I think that the natural thing for most of us to do is to look at examples of other countries that have taken steps toward recreational programmes. Germany, for example, is very much a pioneering country when it comes to European cannabis reform. I suspect UK politicians will be doing the same, watching the successes and failures. We recently saw the release of the EKOCAN report in Germany that reinforced what many of us already know – public opinion is softening, patient demand is growing, but the political appetite remains quite cautious. 

We work closely with a data-driven cannabis tech company in Germany, and see firsthand how consumer behaviour, regulatory compromise, and political optics intersect. The takeaway here, again, is that progress in Europe is measured and cautious.

Whilst I think a recreational market would ultimately benefit the UK both economically and socially in the future, I don’t realistically see it happening within the next few years. At the moment I think the most important thing for the UK is to increase education around the medical opportunity for patients and what is currently available to them as far as treatments. If a recreational programme did arrive sooner, I highly doubt it would resemble US-style dispensaries. A Germany-style model where social clubs, consumption lounges and limited home-growing would be available for medical patients feels far more likely and politically palatable.

From attending European cannabis events such as CannaConnect UK and the International Cannabis Business Conference, what have you observed about the European markets, and which countries are becoming pioneers in the industry?

Attending events like CannConnect and ICBC really highlights how Europe’s cannabis landscape is evolving, and how different it still is from North American models. 

Europe remains dominated by medical cannabis, and it’s growing rapidly. Estimates suggest that Europe’s medical cannabis market could expand from €2.6 billion in 2024 to over €12.6 billion by 2033, which is super strong growth for a medically-focused market. 

Like I mentioned before, Germany is still the largest medical market in Europe and a pioneer in the space as far as market establishment goes. In 2025 its projected to be worth €670 million, and could exceed €1 billion within the next few years thanks to reforms that have streamlined access and licensing. The UK follows close behind as the second largest medical market in Europe, expecting to be worth €300 million by 2025 and continuing to grow as private clinics and telehealth services expand access for patients. There’s high per-patient consumption here in the UK which is showing really strong demand even amongst all of those regulatory constraints I mentioned. Other notable countries include Portugal, Poland, Spain, Denmark and the Czech Republic – they’re becoming important suppliers, exporters and cultivators in Europe’s market definitely. 

How do countries that are such strong European Union members, such as Germany, get around the EU’s strict policies surrounding cannabis?

This is a great question because it touches on something that often surprises people: the EU doesn’t actually ban legal cannabis outright. The regulations are mainly handled at national level and as long as countries meet broader EU health, safety and pharmaceutical standards, they can largely make their own choices as far as how cannabis laws in their countries are established. 

Germany’s expansive medical cannabis programme fits within its national healthcare (NHC ) and pharmaceutical laws and that’s perfectly legal under EU law. Countries that legalise medical cannabis have to align with EU good manufacturing and distribution practices, and Germany enforces rigorous quality control and traceability standards that satisfy EU frameworks whilst still enabling a legal market. It’s not really about “getting around” EU policy as much as it is working within multi-layered legal structures. Each country makes its own laws but they have to fit into broader EU health and safety expectations. That’s why European cannabis markets often look more conservative and medically focused compared to the US and Canada’s more commercial approaches, for example. 

With the recent rescheduling of cannabis here in the US, how will that massive change impact the operations of your American cannabis clients and your duties as their PR firm? Will such a huge reform lead to more PR/marketing opportunities for cannabis brands?  

Definitely. The recent rescheduling of cannabis in the US is one of the larger shifts we’ve seen and it’ll have major implications for the brands we work with and the PR work we do for our clients. 

Rescheduling is going to move cannabis out of the most restrictive federal category, we know this already. From a PR point of view, the change will open doors to more mainstream media outlets (as it has started to already) and corporate partnerships that were previously pretty hesitant to engage with cannabis brands. We might also see a change in social media/general advertising rules. For PR, that means broader narrative opportunities for sure. 

But what rescheduling won’t do is legalise cannabis federally. It’ll still remain illegal at the federal level. So whilst optics improve, the fundamental legal conflict is still unresolved. Rescheduling is definitely progress, but it’s not a cure-all. It doesn’t legalise cannabis federally, it doesn’t automatically solve banking access, it doesn’t eliminate the ongoing conflict between state and federal law, and it doesn’t free those who remain incarcerated for cannabis offenses (whilst others profit). There’s also a real risk that rescheduling benefits large pharmaceutical interests more than the existing cannabis operators who built the industry under state-legal frameworks. So it still leaves a lot of structural and equity issues unresolved.

Thank you so much again, Nicole! For more information on Americana Communications, please visit its website.