In an e-mail to the group, a KNTV account executive said the station's standards department had rejected the ad.

Marijuana Policy Project spokesman Bruce Mirken said the ad was meant to promote conversation about the issues, not to encourage pot use.

"It was consciously unsensational," Mirken said. "It's time to talk about this, and we feel very frustrated that some of these stations have taken it upon themselves to stifle the discussion."

In a phone interview, Herndon said that before filming the ad, she had not told very many people about her marijuana use. But she said her concern over the state's fiscal crisis and her support of medical marijuana led her to go public.

"I came out of the closet with this ad," she said.

Herndon said she worked as a policy analyst for several state social services departments during a 38-year career.

She said she was approached to star in the ad while her husband was taking classes at Oaksterdam University, an Oakland trade school that trains students to grow medical marijuana.