Facebook is Deleting Medical Marijuana Dispensary Pages

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Medical marijuana is declared legal in 23 states including New Jersey, however, social media giant Facebook may have a different a stand on this. Three of New Jersey's five medical marijuana dispensaries have had their business pages taken down by Facebook.

Home pages run by Garden State in Woodbridge, Compassionate Sciences Alternative Treatment Center in Bellmawr and Breakwater Treatment and Wellness in Cranbury had their pages deleted by Facebook this week, reports CBS Local. Apparently, Facebook has also taken down pages of other medical marijuana suppliers across the country.

A similar incident was also reported last year when Facebook took down the page for Harborside Health Center in Oakland, California; the page has since been restored and reportedly running.

According to Fast Company, the Compassionate Sciences and the Breakwater Treatment found their pages deleted on Tuesday, without any prior notice or warning. Instead, they were greeted with the following message:

"We remove any promotion or encouragement of drug use."

"Your page is currently not visible on Facebook. It looks like content on your page does not follow the Facebook Community Terms and Standards."

Facebook's advertising policy bans the promotion of selling drugs including tobacco and guns. Also, it seems that medical marijuana pages were not spared even though they have been legally allowed to operate in New Jersey since 2011, reports CBS Local.

The unexpected move stunned many dispensary owners, reports NJ. As a result, it has also angered many patients who were relying mostly on the pages for any information about the latest strains that can help alleviate devastating symptoms of their disease.

However, a spokeswoman for Facebook, Arielle Aryah, said in an email on Wednesday to The Associated Press that the pages were removed because of the violations of the Community Standards guidelines, reports CBS Local.

According to Fast Company, the Community Standards page specifies that prohibition of illegal drug sales has been put into place to stop any attempt by unauthorized dealers to purchase, sell or trade prescription drugs, marijuana or firearms. Facebook reportedly only deleted the pages of select business which poses the question why the company only targeted those dispensaries.

Michael Nelson, the general manager of the Compassionate Sciences Alternative Treatment Center, told the news site that the social network is incredibly important in communicating updates to medical marijuana patients. Since the state limits what dispensaries can say on their website, the companies rely mostly on social networks to post strain names which will give people information for their research. They also rely on these pages for any updates on supply.

CBS Local reported that more than 5.500 patients have registered for medical marijuana in New Jersey and more than 300 doctors have participated.

These can lead for dispensaries owners to look for other means to serve patients if Facebook continues its policy.

To know the health benefits of marijuana, check out the video below: