Facebook is killing medical marijuana pages

Facebook is deleting pages for medical marijuana dispensaries in New Jersey and other states where they are legal, according to NJ.com.

Representatives of Breakwater Wellness and Treatment Center in Cranbury and Compassionate Sciences Alternative Treatment Center told NJ.com their pages had been shut down, and that when they attempted to log in they were greeted by the following message: "We remove any promotion or encouragement of drug use."

Medical marijuana dispensaries in places like New Jersey exist in a legal gray area, legal at the state level but illegal at the federal level, where marijuana is still considered a Schedule 1 drug. However the Obama administration has indicated that it will not seek to investigate dispensaries that follow state regulations.

Facebook is "incredibly important because the state limits what we can do on our website," Compassionate Sciences General Manager Michael Nelson told NJ.com. "It allows us to post strain names which allows people to do research. It allows the communication between the patients about what is working."

NJ.com spoke to five dispensaries in New Jersey who had seen their Facebook pages deleted, and found angry posts from self-described dispensary owners in other states on various internet forums.

Facebook's stance might not be only related to the legality of marijuana. In Facebook's advertising policy page, it indicates that the site also won't accept ads that "promote the sale of prescription pharmaceuticals."

Business Insider has reached out to Facebook for comment.