How we make money
The honest answer to “who pays for this?” matters more here than almost anywhere, because our whole worth depends on you trusting that money is not bending our words. So here it is, plainly.
The short version
The Plain Line is free to read. We fund it three ways: clearly labelled sponsorship, our own paid guides and tools, and affiliate income on non-clinic products such as vaporisers and accessories. All three are kept strictly separate from what we write. We do not take a penny from clinics to recommend them, and we never will.
The firewall
Sponsorship, where we run it, is always labelled as sponsorship, so you see exactly what you are looking at. Sponsors never see our work before it publishes, never choose our topics, and never shape what we say. The people who write our guides and the people who handle any sponsorship are kept apart. If running something would compromise this, we leave it out.
Affiliate links
Some guides point to a product you might buy for your treatment, such as a dry-herb vaporiser or an accessory. Where we do, the link is sometimes an affiliate link, so we earn a small commission if you buy. You never pay more, and we label the link so you know.
Two rules keep this clean. We only earn on non-clinic, non-prescription products, never on a clinic, a consultation, or the medicine itself. And the commission never decides what we cover or what we say. If the best product for you pays us nothing, we name it anyway.
What we will never do
- Take money from a clinic to recommend, rank, or feature it.
- Let a sponsor influence our coverage, or disguise an advert as editorial.
- Earn referral or lead-generation fees for sending you to a clinic.
- Hide an affiliate link, or let one shape our advice.
- Sell or share your personal data
- Own, or be owned by, a clinic or prescriber.
Why we are this strict
Our value to you is trust. The moment our words are for sale, we are worth nothing, to you or to anyone. Being this strict is not a marketing line. This is the business model. If you ever think we have fallen short, tell us, and we will put it right.
The standards behind our writing are on our Editorial standards page.