ITG

Medical marijuana advocates take bill fight to TV ads; stymied by TV affiliates who won't air them
09/17/09 | New York Daily News | Glenn Bain



ALBANY - Just say yes!

That's the message a national pro-pot group is taking to New York's airwaves with a pair of commercials urging state lawmakers to pass a medical marijuana bill.

"We figured it was time to bring some attention to this," said Bruce Mirken, spokesman for the Marijuana Policy Project.

Each of the ads features a chronic pain sufferer touting the benefits of toking up.

Legislation sponsored by Assemblyman Richard Gottfried and Sen. Thomas Duane, both Manhattan Democrats, would make it legal for people with serious medical conditions to score limited amounts of marijuana from state-certified distributors or grow it themselves.

The bill has passed the Assembly but gone up in smoke in the Senate, where it is unlikely to win approval anytime soon.

The group is running the ads on WNBC-TV and local cable stations, hoping to woo key senators. The ads are also running upstate.The city's ABC, CBS and Fox affiliates harshed the group's buzz by declining to run the ads, Mirken added.

__________________

It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul.