A television news commentator known for his extreme points of view and outrageous assertions, Bill O’Reilly, was flat wrong when he wrote a nationally published opinion piece about California’s medical marijuana laws (“Medical MJ for Teens,” SF Chronicle, Mar. 23). State law specifically requires parental approval for minors under 18 to get medical marijuana. None of the state’s medical “clinics” or dispensaries (which number in the hundreds, not “thousands” as O’Reilly wildly alleges) allow sales to minors.

As for San Francisco’s cannabis dispensaries, the zoning problems had nothing to do with “drug addicts,” as O’Reilly claimed. The problem all along has been the federal government’s refusal to provide for licensed pharmaceutical outlets, which compelled Mayor Gavin Newsom to seek alternative local dispensary regulations.

I would invite O’Reilly and anyone else in need of accurate info on medical marijuana in California to visit our website, CAnorml.org.
* Director, California NORML; Co-sponsor, Proposition 215 (California’s medical marijuana initiative), Member, Oakland Cannabis Oversight Committee.