Pubdate: Thu, 17 Apr 2014
Source: Sacramento News & Review (CA)
Copyright: 2014 Chico Community Publishing, Inc.
Contact:  http://newsreview.com/sacto/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/540
Author: David Downs

MAD, MAN: IT'S 4/20 THIS WEEK-BUT SOME LEGAL MARIJUANA BUSINESSES AND 
ADVOCATES CAN'T BUY ADVERTISING TO PROMOTE IT

Even where weed is legal-like Colorado and Washington and the 21 
states that have embraced medical cannabis-marijuana businesses face 
unfair speech restriction

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 
website WeedMaps, was doing interviews last week, telling people how 
lawyers for CBS Outdoor pulled his ad in New York's Times Square 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 this writer.

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 10-second spot was approved to 
run on the CBS Super Screen on 42nd Street between Seventh and Eighth 
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. 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 NYC.

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. As of press time, the 
ad was still pending legal review.

The rejection is part of a 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. "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.

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 Cold Stone 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 Cold Stone to the building immediately to the left, you'll see a 
24-seven ad for 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, some 
say, given Google's long history of running pill ads from overseas entities.

In 2011, the U.S. attorney in San Diego, Laura Duffy, even threatened 
newspapers for taking medical-cannabis dispensary ads.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom