Facebook Shuts Down NJ Dispensary Pages

Where’s Sean Parker, the former president of Facebook, the billionaire behind a marijuana legalization effort in California, when you need him?

Facebook shut down the pages of at least three medical marijuana dispensaries in New Jersey on Tuesday, and possibly a few more in other states, according to NJ.com. The affected New Jersey dispensaries are Breakwater Wellness and Treatment Center in Cranbury, Compassionate Sciences Alternative Treatment Center in Bellmawr, and Garden State Dispensary in Woodbridge.

The two other New Jersey dispensaries, Greenleaf Compassion Center in Montclair and Compassionate Care Foundation in Egg Harbor Township, also have Facebook pages but were unaffected by the closure as of Wednesday afternoon.

Officials with Breakwater and Compassionate Sciences told the news outlet that when they tried to open their Facebook pages on Tuesday, they were greeted with an electronic message that said: “We remove any promotion or encouragement of drug use.”

Dispensary owners said the closures hurt them and their patients. New Jersey’s five open dispensaries each have websites, according to NJ.com, but the state’s medical marijuana law restricts what they can advertise on them. So instead, they post available strains, prices, and other information on their Facebook pages.