Common Sense For Drug Policy has a large selection of pro-marijuana print ads ready for publishing. These ads cover a broad spectrum of arguments and evidence supporting the legalization effort. If any of you would like to see one of these adds in your local paper I’m sure you could pay them to run it even though they are public service ads.They can be found at. http://www.csdp.org/publicservice/

MPP.org has several radio ads available as public service broadcasts. Gary Johnson the former Governor of New Mexico and The Libertarian candidate for President speaks about medical marijuana. Judge Jim Gray of the California Supreme Court speaks about  how marijuana prohibition does harm to society and individuals. Montel Williams, Angel Raich and Tom Robbins give testimony about medical marijuana. There are a few  other commercials, one about a quiz show, another about government research showing that marijuana does not cause cancer and a woman explaining how she would rather the profits from her marijuana use go to our government instead of organized crime to fund schools and roads. Also featured are a myriad of videos and a television commercial titled (It Shouldn’t be a Crime)  as part of California’s Voter Education Project.  http://www.mpp.org/media/radio-public-service-announcements.html

Norml.org and MPP.org have their own Youtube channel and Norml.org has audio podcasts available for your mobile devices. While I am sure I have just scratched the surface, of information and ads ready for broadcast or publishing, it is a place to start. I have a few ideas about commercials to put into video format but I am not there yet. These are ready to air products that we could put in front of our opposition now.

As I have discussed before I believe public opinion will play a large part in any consideration of the legalization of marijuana at the Federal level. The easiest and most effective way to accomplish that is through advertising, whether it is word of mouth, publications, people distributing flyers, or commercial advertising using television, internet and radio. Common Sense for Drug Policy and The Marijuana Policy Project run these ads as public service ads (not paid) and I would like to see them run more often and in more locations and seen by more people. The only way to accomplish that is to pay people to run the ads. I am not sure of the rules concerning paid advertisements from non-profit organizations trying to influence legislation, but some of the ads I have seen would be a great way to reach people who would not otherwise look at anything pro-marijuana. Most people don’t change the channel just because they hate the commercials so it would be a way to address people who have no interest in our movement and possibly change some minds. And as I mentioned before, advertising is expensive, but if we really want change, we are going to have to pry our wallets open and pay to have our voice heard. Please give generously and often to get these advertisements in front of the people who are opposed to marijuana or call your local newspaper and have them run it. Public opinion matters. The little bit of advertising I have done has already met resistance, with people refusing to run the ads, and I expect more resistance in the future. There are many who would silence our voice if they can and some even have federal funding, such as DrugFreeAmerica.org. So when you call or write your Congressmen and Senators and President, you might ask that they quit funding advertisements in opposition to freedom and stick to honest education about all drugs including alcohol and legalize marijuana.

Randy Johnson

itsmycountrytoo.org