Pubdate: Wed, 29 Jan 2014
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2014 The New York Times Company
Contact: http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/lettertoeditor.html
Website: http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Author: James Barronjan

SUPER BOWL ATTRACTS A MARIJUANA MESSAGE

New Jersey probably looks a lot like home to the Denver Broncos. The 
billboards, anyway.

The Marijuana Policy Project, one of the main groups behind the push 
to legalize marijuana possession in Colorado, posted advertisements 
on billboards near Mile High Stadium before the first game of the 
Broncos' season on Sept. 5.

Now the group has spent $5,000 to rent several 60-foot-wide 
billboards in New Jersey, within easy driving distance of MetLife 
Stadium, where the Broncos will play the Seattle Seahawks in Super 
Bowl XLVIII on Sunday. Three of the billboards face Interstate 78 
near the New Jersey Turnpike toll plaza in Newark, Route 495 leading 
to the Lincoln Tunnel west of Routes 1 and 9 in North Bergen, and 
Interstate 80 near the turnpike in Hackensack. The others are on the 
Garden State Parkway near the Raritan toll plaza north of Sayreville.

The message is directed at the National Football League, just as it 
was in Denver, and is repeated in a petition the marijuana group 
plans to deliver to the N.F.L. on Wednesday. "Why are players 
punished for making the safer choice to use marijuana instead of 
alcohol?" asked Mason Tvert, a spokesman for the group. "In Colorado 
and Washington State, this is now a legal product, and the N.F.L. has 
no legitimate reason to be policing marijuana use by players."

Colorado became the first state to permit the sale and use of 
marijuana for recreational purposes when government-licensed shops 
opened on Jan. 1. Marijuana retailers will open in a few months in 
Washington State.

New Jersey legalized medical marijuana in 2010 when Jon S. Corzine 
was governor; last year, Gov. Chris Christie set rules that curbed 
the strength of marijuana that could be distributed and prohibited 
home deliveries, among other things.

And as for professional football, the N.F.L. commissioner, Roger 
Goodell, indicated last week that the league might reconsider its 
policy on marijuana for medicinal purposes, if research showed that 
it was a viable treatment for concussions.

There is also a lighter side to the discussion of marijuana and the 
Super Bowl. There have been many jokes about how Super Bowl XLVIII 
will be the "stoner bowl" because the Broncos and the Seahawks are 
from the two states that have moved to legalize marijuana. Bryan 
Weinman said that was the instigation for the website www.stonerbowl.org.

"It got hatched over a table of beers before the playoff games," said 
Mr. Weinman, who has been a nightclub D.J. in Denver.

He added that he and several friends "got to joking about what 
happens if Denver and Seattle ended up in the S.B., how many endless 
puns would be made by the average individual."

"We got the easy ones out of the way," he continued, "and it evolved 
into somebody saying, 'What would happen if we put some of this on a 
T-shirt?' "

And no, he said, they are not marijuana users themselves.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom