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.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom