Stricken by Stripe
Medical Marijuana Memory Blog #31
Enjoy this blog on audio.
We have all seen a movie with a scene in which a drunken character is thrown out of a bar, and the character gathers himself up righteously and slurs, “I’ve been thrown out of better places than this!” These days, I’ve been feeling like that drunk.
I have been battling with Stripe, the major online credit card processor. I received an email informing me that my account was in danger of being suspended because it violated Stripe’s Restricted-items policies. It offered me a chance to disprove their assertion by supplying additional information. So, I dutifully clicked on the link and set forth to defend my honor. I was asked to upload pictures of the inventory items in my Medical Marijuana Memorabilia Store. I complied, uploading pictures of tee shirts, books, and containers, noting that the containers were old and empty.
I received a prompt reply—too prompt, if you ask me— saying they looked at my account and that it would be suspended on May 9th because of “Cannabis-related items.” I was offered a chance to appeal.
Not alone
Before visiting the Stripe appeal page, I posted about this on LinkedIn and asked my social media colleagues for workarounds. I knew this happened to others and that Stripe wasn’t the only company to assume such an archaic policy. A decade ago, Facebook tried to close my account after I had posted an article about a research paper. I was branded as “cannabis promoting” and threatened with expulsion. Facebook backed off when I noted the “cannabis promoting” post linked to a research paper at the National Library of Medicine (PUBMED).
My LinkedIn friends were quick to offer words of support but not much encouragement that I would prevail. Several commented, “Welcome to the club.” Conversely, these well-intended comments triggered an intense frustration in me, and a part of my brain, with its vast store of medical cannabis history, cynically replied, “Hell, I founded the club.” This is a bit presumptuous, of course. Billy Joel made it clear that “We Didn’t Start the Fire.” None of us is the first when it comes to censorship.
But there was a reason for my presumptuous, cynical thought. Back in 1980-1981, when Robert and I were launching the Alliance for Cannabis Therapeutics (ACT), the first non-profit devoted to medical cannabis, we received a small grant from the Playboy Foundation. We decided to use some of the grant money to place an ad in Mother Jones, the progressive magazine that was founded in 1976, the same year the medical cannabis movement. We reasoned that readers of Mother Jones were our allies. To our utter amazement, our ad was declined. It was deemed as “promoting an illegal act.” To this day, I have trouble reading anything from Mother Jones.
Advertisement refused by Mother Jones
So, you can appreciate my cynicism. Here we are, 48 years on, and this sort of crap is still happening. I know I shouldn’t be surprised, but I am.
Of course, I appealed, but to no avail.
Stay calm and carry on
A Canadian friend wrote that Stripe had done the same thing to her company. It is a nursing organization that educates about the medical uses of cannabis in a country that has federally legalized medical cannabis! Yet Stripe deems this “restricted.”
Stripe did indeed close down my account. Unfortunately, Substack.com also uses Stripe to process subscribers. So, I created a new account in Stripe that was only for Substack. I took great pains to explain that this account was only for the subscribers I get writing blogs on Substack. That account was closed faster than the other one. There is something truly insidious about this: freedom of speech and all. But there are only so many battles one can wage.
My workaround will probably be my Patreon account which I abandoned when I found Substack. I’ll continue to post on Substack because I love the diversity it brings to my writing efforts. I’m working on a pleasant way to route potential subscribers to Patreon. Until then, I will continue to fume at Stripe. We didn’t start the fire, but is it any wonder that it keeps on burning? ❧