New York Times Runs Full-Page Pro-Marijuana Ad in Sunday Edition

[eridani]

http://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/25140-new-york-times-runs-full-page-pro-marijuana-ad-in-sunday-edition

The New York Times featured a full-page ad in support of marijuana in its Sunday edition; the ad follows a series of editorials in the paper issuing calls to repeal the federal ban on medical and recreational use of marijuana — arguing it inflicted “great harm on society just to prohibit a substance far less dangerous than alcohol.”

Sunday’s ad promoting the website Leafly.com, which helps users locate medical marijuana dispensaries and choose strains, shows a woman jogging past a brownstone near a professionally dressed man with a paper under his arm.

“Ian chose an indica cannabis strain to relieve his MS symptoms,” the ad said. “While fighting cancer, Molly preferred a sativa cannabis.”

Chief executive of Seattle-based Privateer Holdings, Brendan Kennedy, which placed the ad, said the decision to depict working people was intentional, “This product and this industry are still depicted as sub-culture or counter culture. That’s just not the reality.”

New York legalized medical marijuana last month, and in 2012, Washington and Colorado became the first two states to legalize marijuana for recreational use.

An April poll by Pew Research showed that the majority of Americans, at 54 percent, support marijuana legalization — marking a significant change in public opinion since 1969 when Pew first asked the question and only 12 percent favored legalization.