{"id":21334,"date":"2015-12-18T09:04:05","date_gmt":"2015-12-18T17:04:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/postal-service-says-mailing-marijuana-ads-is-illegal\/"},"modified":"2015-12-18T09:04:05","modified_gmt":"2015-12-18T17:04:05","slug":"postal-service-says-mailing-marijuana-ads-is-illegal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/postal-service-says-mailing-marijuana-ads-is-illegal\/","title":{"rendered":"Postal Service says mailing marijuana ads is illegal"},"content":{"rendered":"

PORTLAND, Ore.<\/strong> \u2014 The U.S. Postal Service says it\u2019s illegal to mail materials containing advertising for marijuana products, even in states that have legalized the federally controlled substance.<\/p>\n

The policy statement released this week comes in response to a letter from Oregon\u2019s Congressional delegation asking the service to clarify its policy on the issue.<\/p>\n

In November, a memo distributed in the Portland postal district said it was unlawful for newspaper outlets to run marijuana ads and use the U.S. mail for delivery.<\/p>\n

The memo caused confusion among publishers whose newspapers have published ads for dispensaries and manufacturers in the region.<\/p>\n

\u201cAdvertisements for the sale of marijuana are non-mailable,\u201d Thomas Marshall, executive vice president and general counsel of the Postal Service, wrote in a letter to the delegation. That\u2019s because under the federal Controlled Substances Act marijuana\u2019s sale is prohibited, he said. That same law also prohibits placing written ads for controlled substances like marijuana in newspapers, magazines or other publications.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese provisions express Congress\u2019s judgment that the mail should not be used as a means of transmitting advertisements for the sale of marijuana, even if that sale is allowed under state law,\u201d Marshall wrote.<\/p>\n

Marshall says the Postal Service has released a national policy, which also spells out that local postal officials can\u2019t refuse mail that contains pot ads, but they must report it; the matter must then be turned over to law enforcement agencies who can decide if an investigation is warranted.<\/p>\n

In a joint statement, Reps. Earl Blumenauer and Suzanne Bonamici and Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley called the agency\u2019s stance uncompromising and said they want federal authorities to respect decisions made by Oregonians, who last year voted to legalize recreational marijuana for adult use. Oregon voters legalized medical marijuana in 1998.<\/p>\n

Medical marijuana dispensaries have multiplied in Oregon and many now also offer recreational pot. The industry uses billboards, websites and newspaper ads to showcase their products in a highly competitive market.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately,\u201d said the joint statement, \u201cthe outdated federal approach to marijuana as described in the response from the Postal Service undermines and threatens news publications that choose to accept advertising from legal marijuana businesses in Oregon and other states where voters also have freely decided to legalize marijuana.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association said the Postal Service policy could rob newspapers of revenue. The group has advised its members not to run marijuana ads if they use the postal service for some delivery.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis national policy from the USPS definitely prevents some of our members advertising opportunities,\u201d said executive director Laurie Hieb. But, she added, \u201cThis is new advertising and none of them currently rely on it to stay in business.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some outlets \u2014 like two dozen newspapers in the Pamplin Media Group \u2014 have already decided not to run pot ads, but for a completely different reason: because they don\u2019t promote health.<\/p>\n

In addition to Oregon, the policy also impacts the states of Washington, Colorado and Alaska, where voters legalized recreational marijuana in recent years, as well as other states where medical marijuana is legal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PORTLAND, Ore. \u2014 The U.S. Postal Service says it\u2019s illegal to mail materials containing advertising for marijuana products<\/a>, even in states that have legalized the federally controlled substance. The policy statement released this week comes in response to a letter from Oregon\u2019s Congressional delegation asking the service to clarify its policy on the issue. In […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[230],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-21334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-state-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21334"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21334\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21334"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=21334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}