SOME TV STATIONS REFUSE TO AIR MARIJUANA-TAX ADVERTISEMENT

The Commercial Produced by a Pro-Marijuana Advocacy Group Will Appear
About 200 Times Across California in the Next Week, but Not on KTLA or KABC.

Advocates for legalizing marijuana have released a new television
advertisement calling for the drug to be decriminalized and taxed to
help solve California's budget crunch.

But the controversial topic of pot and taxes has proven too hot for
several broadcast affiliates to handle, according to the Marijuana
Policy Project, the national pro-pot group that is sponsoring the ad campaign.

KTLA-TV Channel 5 and KABC-TV Channel 7 in Los Angeles were among
stations citing concerns about the ad's content and refusing to put
it on the air, said Bruce Mirken, a spokesman for the marijuana advocacy group.

Calls to KTLA and KABC seeking comment were not immediately returned.

The advertisement features what the group calls "an actual California
marijuana consumer," Nadene Herndon of Fair Oaks in suburban
Sacramento County. Herndon is shown alone on camera talking about
proposed budget cuts to schools, police and state parks, then
suggests that Sacramento politicians "are ignoring millions of
Californians who want to pay taxes. We're marijuana consumers."

Despite the rejections by some stations, Mirken estimates that the ad
will run about 200 times in the next week or so.

Attitudes toward recreational marijuana use have been softening in
the decade since California voters approved pot for medical use,
according to the advocacy group.

Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco) this year introduced a bill
that would essentially put marijuana in the same regulatory framework
as alcohol. It has yet to be reviewed by the Legislature.