On Monday night the Denver, Colorado City Council voted 13 to 0 to show support for a  ban on outdoor medical marijuana advertising within the city. The vote came after a public hearing on the issue.

The council is expected to decide on the ban next week, which seems like a foregone conclusion barring something huge to change the council’s mind.

As we have reported before, one of the supporters of the ban is the Medical Marijuana Industry Group, a medical marijuana advocacy group. They hope dispensaries will be seen as more neighborhood-friendly without gaudy billboards and sign-spinners out on the street. But as I said back in May:

While there is certainly something to be said for practicality and compromise in the realm of marijuana law reform, at some point we are going to have to stop pretending that marijuana is on the same level as alcohol and tobacco. All current evidence shows that marijuana is MUCH safer than either tobacco or alcohol. And while the alcohol industry in particular is a good example of the regulations that will likely govern marijuana in its early days of legalization, pandering to the propaganda that marijuana is a dangerous substance does a disservice to everyone and will do us little good in the long run.

But what about the image of medical marijuana dispensaries? It’s true that, while medical marijuana has large support nationwide – at least in polling – there is a certain stigma attached to dispensaries. The question becomes: can medical marijuana survive in the long run if we cave in to the stigma instead of fight it?

- Joe Klare

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