Marijuana leaf ads on Olympia buses raise ire
Monday, August 11th, 2008 at 11:44 am | By: Radical Russ
Local News | Marijuana leaf ads on Olympia buses raise ire | Seattle Times Newspaper
OLYMPIA — Some riders and at least one driver are complaining about an advertisement featuring a marijuana leaf on some transit buses in Olympia.The Olympia Hempfest ad accepted by Intercity Transit has an image of a marijuana leaf and the slogan, “Equal Rights are for Everybody.”
A lawyer for the transit agency, Tom Bjorgen, says the ads could have been rejected if they were viewed as encouraging people to smoke pot.
However, Bjorgen says a reasonable reader would more likely see the ads as a political statement for legalization of marijuana.
Olympia Hempfest founder Jeremy Miller says Intercity Transit was paid about $3,000 to place the ads on the sides of 12 buses for four weeks.
I’m surprised Miller was able to get the ads placed on the buses in the first place. Numerous drug reform organizations have tried many times in the past to get simple reform-oriented ads in public places, but are constantly shot down with the old “we don’t want to encourage drug use” mantra.
That’s one of the difficulties in our battle. We want to educate the public that marijuana policy is harmful and that is interpreted as a pro-drug message (see our story on the Rick Steves video). We can’t talk about marijuana because it is illegal and we can’t change the legality of it because we’re not allowed to talk about it.
Topics: Olympia, Olympia Hempfest, Washington
