Pubdate: Wed, 30 Oct 2013 Source: Kansas City Star (MO) Copyright: 2013 The Kansas City Star Contact: http://www.kansascity.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/221 Author: Lewis W. Diuguid MARIJUANA BILLBOARDS SIGN OF CHANGING TIMES Seeing billboards advertising marijuana would make a lot of people do double takes because pot has been reviled as a devil weed for generations. But as that old Bob Dylan song goes, "Times they are a changing." Pro-marijuana billboards are on city buses in Portland, Maine, ahead of Tuesday's ballot proposal, which if approved would make the city the first in the East to legalize pot for recreational use. Cigarette ads used to populate street and roadside billboards and those on buses. But because of the health hazards of cigarette smoking, those have been banned in most cities, including Portland. But the Greater Portland Transit District did accept $2,500 for the marijuana billboards on four buses and in two bus shelters, the McClatchy Washington Bureau reports. If the ballot proposal passes, the city would join Colorado and Washington in legalizing - and taxing - marijuana for recreational use. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom