Rejection of marijuana ballot a comedown for domain owners


3 Nov 2010

It’s certain to feel like a bad trip for internet landgrabbers that acquired marijuana-related domain names as California rejects its marijuana ballot.

California voters have rejected the introduction of legal marijuana in a recent vote (Proposition 19), leaving thousands of domain landgrabbers who snapped up drug-related domain names in the hope of a positive outcome at a loose end.

Domain names such as icecreammarijuana.com and marijuanapastry.com had been taken up and intended for trading and purchasing the drug once legalised, but all are now redundant.

Had the vote been passed it would have been the first US state to legalise the narcotic, even though 14 states have legalised medicinal use of the drug.

California also recently rejected Proposition 23, which proposed a series of measures that would contravene progress in green technology and practices across the state.