Comcast to Air First Television Ads for Medical Marijuana

MarijuanaDoctors.com might not
have the most inspired name, but the website is set to make U.S.
television history
with the first medical marijuana-related TV ad. The 1-minute
spot—slated to air on Massachusetts Comcast channels come
April—compares buying drugs illegally to buying sushi off the
street and urges potential patients to visit MarijuanaDoctors.com to
find pot prescribing physicians.

Jessie Quintero Johnson, a University of Massachusetts-Boston
health communication professor, viewed the ad positively. “This is
a great example of the producer of the ad trying to create an
association with credibility,” she told The Patriot
Ledger. 

Medical marijuana is still relatively
new for Massachusetts. Though voters approved it in 2012, state
regulators just issued
the first permits for medical marijuana dispensaries in
late January 2014. The first of these dispensaries are expected to
open this summer or fall. 

In what is perhaps the first and only likable thing I’ve ever
heard about Comcast, MarijuanaDoctors.com CEO Jason Draizin said
the cable conglomerate was “happy to do business” with him, even as
other companies balked at the idea. Draizin bought 200
ads, which
will also air in New Jersey and the greater Chicago area. A
Comcast spokeswoman said that the ads would only air between 10
p.m. and 5 a.m. on cable channels without children’s
programming.