Facebook has recently been under fire about their decision to refuse to trot ads with marijuana leaves on it. Recently, Reddit also received lots of flack from their community when word got out that the site was also banning pot legalization ads. You would think the fight to legalize Cannabis would be supported by a site that contains several pro-marijuana sub-categories such as Trees, Marijuana, Cannabis and Prop19.

Sit tight, herb-smokin Redditors. This isn’t the ultimate betrayal.

The decision to ban the ads actually came from the website’s publishing company, Conde Nast. According to Reddit, they didn’t want to ban just the images of a marijuana leaf, but of all marijuana legalization advertising.

The ads were from the Just Say Now campaign, hoping to gain support to legalize Cannabis this November in California. Proposition 19, if approved by voters, will legalize various marijuana-related activities, allow local governments to regulate these activities, permit local governments (but not the state government) to impose and collect marijuana-related fees and taxes, and authorize various criminal and civil penalties. Tax Cannabis 2010 is the official advocacy group for the initiative.

First, a quick run-down of what Proposition 19 will entail. It will anyone over 21 years old or older to possess, cultivate, or transport marijuana for personal use. Local governments will be able to regulate and tax commercial production and sale of marijuana to people 21 years old or older.

BUT WHAT ABOUT THE CHILLIN?!

Don’t worry, Prop 19 will also prohibit people from possessing marijuana on school grounds, using it in public, smoking it while minors are present, or providing it to anyone who can’t legally drink yet. Also, it will maintain current prohibitions against driving while impaired.

Sounds great, right? Apparently, it sounded pretty spiffy to the people over at Reddit because they released this statement:

The reddit admins were just blindsided with news that, apparently, we’re not allowed to take advertising money from sites that support California’s Prop 19 (like this one, for example). There’s a lot of rabble flying around, and we wanted to make some points:

1. This was a decision made at the highest levels of Conde Nast.
2. reddit itself strongly disagrees with it, and frankly thinks it’s ridiculous that we’re turning away advertising money.
3. We’re trying to convince Corporate that they’re making the wrong decision here, and we encourage the community to create a petition, so that your anger is organized in a way that will produce results.
4. We’re trying to get an official response from Corporate that we can post here.

Please bear with us.

Edit: We have a statement from Corporate: “As a corporation, Conde Nast does not want to benefit financially from this particular issue.”

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Edit 2: Since we’re not allowed to benefit financially, reddit is now running the ads for free. Of course, if you turned AdBlock on, you won’t be able to see them.  Here’s how to properly create an AdBlock exception for reddit.

Since Conde Nast blatantly said it didn’t want any profit from the marijuana ads, Reddit has decided to run Prop 19 Support ads for free! I can’t express how happy I am that Reddit is doing the right thing.

Not only did Reddit take the controversial matter into their own hands, the community made sure to show their support for the beloved forbidden flower.

If you live in California and plan on voting November 2nd, I urge you to vote Yes on Prop 19.