Cannabis advertising continues to be a hot issue.  Oklahoma prohibits medical marijuana advertising which:

• promotes overconsumption of marijuana
• represents the curative or therapeutic effect of marijuana
• includes children, objects, cartoons, characters or a design which is appealing to people under the age of 18.

Now Oklahoma State Senator Mark Allen has introduced SB 1257 to ban medical marijuana advertising on billboards.  The language is unambiguous: “Medical marijuana shall not be advertised on any billboard in this state.”

The ACLU is involved, claiming that a marijuana billboard ban violates free speech.  The ACLU’s state executive director says: “A billboard is speech.  Using a billboard, whether that’s to communicate a political message or to communicate a commercial message is speech and the constitution says that you can regulate that in very narrow circumstances.”

Insider’s take:  A wiser approach might be to restrict the places where medical marijuana advertising can appear.  Many states prohibit advertising near schools, houses of worship, bus stops and places where children congregate.   That’s what the San Diego city council did last week.

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