Marijuana is starting to go mainstream. The New York Times will be running what is believed to its first full-page advertisement for a company that’s promoting the consumption of a drug. It was just last week that the newspaper came out in favor for the decriminalization of marijuana.
The advertisement if for Leafly, a website that calls itself the world’s largest information resource for marijuana, and what other people call “Yelp for pot”. The advertisement comes shortly after New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the Compassionate Care Act into law early last month.
The act paved the way for patients who are suffering from cancer, AIDS, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, and various other conditions to have access to marijuana for medical purposes. New York is the 23rd state to legalize medical marijuana. Only two states, Colorado and Washington, have legalized the drug for recreational use as well.
Governor Cuomo’s decision is what prompted the New York Times to call for the people in Washington DC to abolish the laws that were introduced in the 1930s which made marijuana illegal. The newspaper claims that these laws were “passed in an atmosphere of hysteria during the 1930s and that was firmly rooted in prejudices against Mexican immigrants and African-Americans”.
Leafly is being backed by Privateer Holdings, a private equity firm that has been investing in the legal marijuana industry. Privateer Holdings also backs the world’s largest federally legal marijuana growing facility, Tilray, which is based in British Columbia, Canada.
“We are at the tipping point,” said Christian Groh, Privateer’s chief operating officer. “In the US I think we are moving towards the end of prohibition.”
Groh claims that similar debates are happening across the globe and says that he expects significant strides towards greater legalization in the United States in the next couple of years. Hroh says that he expects the industry to develop in a manner that’s similar to the alcohol industry, with similar regulations and amounts of advertising.
Read more about the story at Forbes.
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