Pubdate: Wed, 09 Apr 2014
Source: East Bay Express (CA)
Copyright: 2014 East Bay Express
Contact: http://posting.eastbayexpress.com/ebx/SubmitLetter/Page
Website: http://www.eastbayexpress.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1131
Author: David Downs

POT-RELATED SPEECH STILL BEING MUZZLED

CBS yanked WeedMaps' Times Square billboard and Google, Facebook,
Yahoo are still banning dispensary listings - because free speech
still doesn't apply to legal weed.

Even though polls show that most Americans support the legalization of
marijuana, corporate America continues to censor pot-related speech.
Legal reformers are banned from issue-advocacy advertising; major
websites such as Google, Facebook, and Yahoo prohibit the listing of
legal marijuana businesses; and normal folks face even tougher
reprisals for speaking out at work, at school, or in the community.

Justin Hartfield, founder of the nation's leading marijuana locator
site WeedMaps.com, is doing interviews this week telling people how
lawyers for CBS Outdoor pulled his Times Square ad from rotation after
the billboard company took his $50,000 and told him the ad launched on
April 1. "It was surprising, but not shocking, just because this has
totally happened to us in the past," Hartfield told me.

WeedMaps' 26-by-20-foot electronic billboard would have been the Big
Apple's first mainstream weed ad. Designed to increase awareness of
reform and mobilize the community, the ten-second spot was approved to
run on the CBS Super Screen on 42nd Street between 7th and 8th
avenues, 18 hours a day for 61 days.

It was to read: "High, NYC" and was to feature a link to WeedMaps' New
York City marijuana resource site (WeedMaps.com/nyc). The website
itself details the obvious: New York City's illegal, but highly
evolved weed scene; the state of the failed law; ways to contact
politicians; plus a stoner's guide to the Big Apple.

Because CBS is a private business, it can reject ads from whomever it
wants, but the fact that WeedMaps cannot state the obvious to New
Yorkers speaks volumes about the state of denial in this country.
"More people get high in New York City than any other city,"
WeedMaps.com/nyc states. "It's just more difficult for New Yorkers to
be open about it."

WeedMaps submitted its ad proposal in late January and received
multiple levels of approval by Toronto-based Neutron Media, which
sells CBS Outdoor's billboard spaces, Hartfield said. In fact, Neutron
Media had first approached officials at National Organization for the
Reform of Marijuana Laws and offered them the billboard - but they
couldn't afford it, so officials from NORML called the folks at WeedMaps.

"I thought it would be a good opportunity to do something similar to
what NORML would do anyway, but also kind of branding WeedMaps, so I
decided to take them up on it," Hartfield said.

"So everything is all good and we go live with our press release,"
Hartfield said. "I'm looking at the live webcam and don't see the ad
running. We sent an email to Neutron, and they said, 'Yeah, it's been
live since 6 a.m. We'll send you the proof.' And then we never heard
back until the following day, Wednesday, when they said it's now
pending review by CBS legal."

As of press time, the ad was still pending legal review. The rejection
is part of a broad, disturbing pattern: Weed reform advocates often
cannot engage in the same speech as drug warriors or gun lobbyists.

In 2010, the Marijuana Policy Project tried to run pro-cannabis ads in
California in the run-up to Proposition 19, a statewide measure that
sought to legalize and regulate pot. But broadcasters rejected the
ads, said Aaron Smith, now head of the National Cannabis Industry
Association (NCIA). "The ad had nothing to do with saying marijuana is
a good thing," said Smith. "That's what burns me."

In March, Comcast rejected an informational ad about medical marijuana
that was scheduled to broadcast in Long Island, New York,
Massachusetts, and Chicago, USA Today reported.

Whether it's the airwaves, outdoor spaces, or the internet, pot
activists often aren't allowed to engage in free speech. For example,
Facebook routinely bans Smith from paying to "promote" news stories
about the NCIA - even reports from the Wall Street Journal. Facebook
promotions are vital to reaching the group's base, he said.

Hartfield finds the double standards galling. "The ad is right above
the Coldstone Creamery," he said of his proposed billboard in Times
Square. "And you could argue that there are a lot of families going
there and 'What message is that sending?' Well, if you look up above
the Coldstone to the building immediately to the left, you'll see a
24-7 ad for [the beer] Stella Artois."

Even where weed is legal - like Colorado and Washington and the 21
states that have embraced medical cannabis - marijuana businesses face
unfair speech restrictions. Google, Yahoo, Bing, Facebook, and Twitter
ban any ads promoting "illegal drugs" - which is truly ironic, given
Google's long history of running pill ads from overseas entities.

In 2011, the US Attorney in San Diego, Laura Duffy, even threatened
newspapers for taking medical cannabis dispensary ads. Since the
crackdown, many of those ads have disappeared from alt-weeklies, along
with the cannabis reporting they paid for.

And then there's the low-level, toxic thought-policing going on in
schools, workplaces, and the halls of power. Lieutenant Governor Gavin
Newsom routinely excoriates politicians he knows who only support
legalization in private.

And the subject of my March 12 Legalization Nation column -
38-year-old Mika Hamilton from San Francisco - told us her son got
suspended from an East Bay public school for saying cannabis was a
medicine during an anti-drug lecture. "They said he was glorifying
drugs. ... I just took him home. I didn't want to make trouble. ... He
was really upset. I had to explain to him that some people - they just
don't know."  
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MAP posted-by: Jo-D