Medical marijuana might be legal in California. But those advertising medicinal weed are still often treated like outlaws, especially online, where juggernaut search engine Google isn't too friendly to bud businesses.

Ah, but ever the clever entrepreneurs, some marijuana supporters have come up with an alternative:

Cheeba.com, which bills itself as the “industry's very first marijuana-based search engine.”

So, you on-board, L.A. pot shops? According to a statement from Cheeba's parent, the Medical Cannabis Network:

While ad networks like Google AdSense seem to flat out ban companies from reaching out the cannabis community, Cheeba is stepping in to give the green light for 420-friendly online advertising.

Jason Draizin, CEO of the network:

MCN was created to fill the gaps in the marijuana industry, and what we've been seeing over the years is that cannabis-based businesses are continually denied services from online ad networks. Not only does this prevent cannabis companies from utilizing the Internet to grow their businesses, but it also blocks companies from reaching out to the very real medical marijuana community. We launched Cheeba to step up and fulfill those needs.

The search engine aims to supply the display ads other places won't.

The big question is: Will stoners really remember to go to Cheeba for their weed-search needs?

[@dennisjromero/djromero@laweekly.com]

Advertising disclosure: We may receive compensation for some of the links in our stories. Thank you for supporting LA Weekly and our advertisers.