City Of Denver Cultivates Medical Marijuana Advertisement Ban
by Big Buddha
As the old saying goes… “if you can’t stand the heat… get out of the kitchen” and that’s exactly what the Denver City Council did Monday evening when they elected to ban all outdoor medical marijuana advertisement within the city limits.
What exactly does this mean for initiative 502, or any other collectives that advertise for varying reasons? Under the new ban no dispensaries will be allowed to post billboards, put up posters, advertise on any bus benches, leave any flyer’s… and last but not least — absolutely no street corner sign for twirlers.
In Monday night’s vote, which took less than 60 seconds — the Denver city Council threw the medical marijuana industry under the bus, and back into the dark ages – with their unfortunate unanimous citywide ban. As there were a few different options on the table for the Denver city Council to consider, just after the out right ban of all outdoor advertisement, the city Council went on to also vote down an alternative plan. That plan was meant to allow mmj collectives to advertise, albeit on a much more limited scale.
After a protracted and heated public debate last week – it was made quite clear that Monday’s vote was merely a formality. As the medical marijuana proponents demonstrated a huge gap in their rationale over the proposed citywide ban and understanding the city Council’s strong support for it.
While some within the Denver medical marijuana community were upset that “the medical marijuana industry group” decided to show support for the citywide ban, it was done a means of showing the local businesses community that they would try to conform as a means of being more responsible and compliant with the community’s request.
“We are glad to see that the ordinance passed,” the group’s executive director, Mike Elliott, said after the vote. “We believe it finds the right balance between protecting the interests of both the city and the medical-marijuana community.” source
Others were not so tolerant. The primary example would be “the cannabis business alliance” who had a slightly more standoffish attitude on the topic. The primary concern of the CBA was at this citywide ban would have a devastating effect on the already existing marijuana collectives and their ability to create promotional material such as hats with collectives names on them, or T-shirts given away as a marketing item. After the city Council reached out to the CBA and were assured that those type of promotional items would not be disallowed, the CBA’s spokesperson stated that they felt much better about it.
“While we’re not pleased with the outcome, we’re confident that the rules have been clearly established,” she said.
As it is currently written the Denver city ban would not disallow any of the collectives from running ads in magazines, newspapers or advertising online.
Source: Marijuana.com
