PORTLAND — The U.S. Postal Service office in Portland delivered some potentially bad news last week to Northwest newspapers: If news outlets run ads for the region’s booming marijuana industry, they might be violating federal law.
The Friday memo pointed out it was illegal “to place an ad in any publication with the purpose of seeking or offering illegally to receive, buy, or distribute a Schedule I controlled substance,” according to a copy sent to the editor-publisher of the Chinook Observer in Long Beach, Washington. “If an advertisement advocates the purchase of clinical marijuana through a Medical Marijuana Dispensary, it does not comply with” the law.
The memo quickly caused confusion and concern among publishers whose newspapers have published ads for dispensaries and manufacturers in the region’s now two legal cannabis industries, medical and recreational marijuana.
