PTC Urges CA Voters to Reject Prop 64, Allowing Marijuana to be Advertised on Primetime Broadcast TV

Written by PTC | Published November 4, 2016

The Los Angeles-based Parents Television Council is urging California voters to reject Proposition 64, a ballot measure designed to legalize recreational marijuana use in the state, but that would also allow recreational marijuana to be advertised in broadcast, cable, radio, print and digital communications where at least 71.6% of the audience is expected to be 21 years of age or older. “Supporters of Proposition 64 insist that the ballot measure’s wording would prohibit the marketing of marijuana to children, but that is a bald-faced lie. In fact, the measure’s wording allows recreational marijuana to be advertised at any time of the day and on almost any television program, whether on broadcast or on cable. The statutory age threshold is contemptible, as the broadcast networks’ average viewer is well into the 50s – and even the average age of a Disney Channel viewer is 41.3 years. Our nation rightly prohibits the marketing of tobacco products on television so as to protect children, and the marketing of marijuana should be held to no lesser of a standard,” said Tim Winter, president of the PTC. “If the ballot initiative’s purpose, as advocated by a number of heavy-hitter celebrities, is to address criminal justice and health issues, then Californians should stop the measure on November 8^th and instead craft a measure that specifically achieves those goals. Marijuana should not be advertised to children, and this measure opens the floodgates that would be impossible to close.”