TIMES UNION – SAVINO TO GOOGLE: RECONSIDER PROHIBITIONS ON MEDICAL MARIJUANA ADS
State Sen. Diane Savino, a Staten Island Democrat who co-sponsored legislation creating New York’s medical marijuana program, is calling on Google to reconsider its prohibition on advertisements for medical marijuana products.
In a letter sent last Thursday to Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Savino wrote that the Compassionate Care Act, the law that created the state-run medical marijuana program, “created a strong and tightly regulated model that takes every step possible to prevent any diversion or recreational use of medical cannabis.”
“I have great concerns with a policy that impedes patients’ ability to access information about a legal medical treatment,” Savino wrote of Google’s advertising policy, which prohibits advertisements for substances that “alter mental state for the purpose of recreation or otherwise induce ‘highs.’” “Patients and their caregivers need access to information about medical cannabis, and the denial of that access can only lead to additional pain and suffering. The inability of New York’s licensed medical cannabis companies to utilize Google’s advertising platform will prevent patients and health care providers from acquiring an understanding of a beneficial treatment option for severe and debilitating health conditions.”