Why CBS Refused to Air This $5 Million Medical Marijuana Ad During the Super Bowl

John Vibes, Truth Theory
Waking Times

According to sports fans, this past Sunday’s Super Bowl was one of the most uneventful championship games in recent memory. The halftime show or the advertisements didn’t even create much excitement this year, leaving many fans disappointed.

Leading up to the event, it was also revealed that CBS, the channel broadcasting the game, rejected an advertisement that was essentially a public service announcement for cannabis legalization. Cannabis is legal for both medical and recreational purposes in Boston and Los Angeles, the hometowns of both teams participating in the game. However, CBS rejected the ad, and turned down a potential $5 million in advertising revenue.

Below is the rejected ad:

A cannabis investment firm called Acreage, was behind the ad, but Acreage president George Allen says that this was intended as a public service announcement, to show the benefits of cannabis and share testimonials about how it has saved lives. The commercial featured stories of many people who were helped by cannabis, including a child suffering from epilepsy and a man addicted to opiates.

Allen told Bloomberg the ad was meant to “create an advocacy campaign for constituents who are being lost in the dialogue.”

CBS responded to the proposal by saying that they do not accept ads on cannabis, and they do not know of any other channel that does.

“It’s hard to compete with the amount of attention something gets when it airs during the Super Bowl. We certainly thought there was a chance. You strike when the chance of your strike has the probability of success — this isn’t a doomed mission,” Allen said.

Athletes For Medical Marijuana

Support for medical marijuana is growing among NFL players and other athletes, who see it as a safe alternative to addictive opiates.

Last week, former football star Joe Montana announced a massive investment in Calvia, a California-based cannabis business. Montana is among an unspecified number of investors who are putting forward a total of $75 million to help grow the already thriving company. Montana says he believes in the healing properties of the plant that it is a potential solution for the opiate crisis as well.

NBA star John Salley recently bought a significant stake in PureCrop1, a plant-based pesticide company that is providing an alternative to the carcinogenic chemical pesticides sold by Monsanto. PureCrop1 is specifically designed for growing cannabis.

Sally’s involvement in PureCrop one compliments his other major investments, which include a vegan restaurant and the cannabis purity testing company GreenSpace.

The NFL released a report in July 2017, claiming that it was willing to study the use of medical cannabis for pain management. However, the results of that decision remain to be seen, and it appears that the NFL is still choosing to stay loyal to Big Pharma, at the expense of its players.

Yet, new medical benefits for cannabis are being discovered every day. A study performed by Tel Aviv University and Hebrew University researchers finds that the non-psychotropic component cannabinoid cannabidiol (CBD) helps heal bone fractures. They administered the compound to rats with mid-femoral fractures and found that it “markedly enhanced the healing process of the femora after just eight weeks.”

The team had found in earlier research that our bodies’ cannabinoid receptors stimulate bone formation and inhibit bone loss.

About the Author

John Vibes is an author and journalist who takes a special interest in the counter culture, and focuses solutions-oriented approaches to social problems. He is also a host of The Free Your Mind Conference and The Free Thought Project Podcast.

Credits: Acreage Holdings

**This article (Why CBS Refused to Air This $5 Million Medical Marijuana Ad During the Super Bowl) was originally featured at Truth Theory and is re-posted here with permission.**

Like Waking Times on Facebook. Follow Waking Times on Twitter.