Montel Williams Calls Anti-Medical Marijuana Ad Racist

Talk show host Montel Williams, a supporter of medicinal marijuana, was in Little Rock on Thursday and he accused opponents of the measure of creating an ad he claims is “racist.”

Williams spoke at a news conference at the State Capitol in support of Issue No. 5, the medical marijuana proposal.

From John Lyon with our content partner, the Arkansas News Bureau:

“Offensive is really an understatement,” Williams said of the ad by opponents. “It’s the most egregiously racist, false statement you’ve ever seen in your life. They have people sitting in a picture holding guns, talking about medical marijuana, and of course they happen to be of different colors to make sure that your are irritated and angry as you can be.”

Jerry Cox, president of the Christian conservative Family Council, defended the ad.

“I didn’t get into counting how many white people or black people we had in the ad,” he said. “I think we had one African American, I think we had about four or five white people in there. Sure, he wanted to seize on that, but that’s not the message we’re sending. We’re sending the message that this harmful act is going to impact every family in this state if it passes.”

You can read Lyon’s full story here.

The medical marijuana proposal, which will be on the November ballot, would allow for up to 30 nonprofit dispensaries in Arkansas. Local cities and counties could choose to ban them.

Marijuana would only be available to people with a prescription for certain health conditions, including cancer, glaucoma, Hepatitis C, HIV/AIDs, Alzheimer’s disease and several other conditions. The proposal allows for a patient to have up to 2.5 ounces of usable marijuana without the threat of prosecution.