‘Doonesbury’ Strips on Lungren, Prop. 215

The comic strip “Doonesbury” has featured Prop. 215 on California’s November ballot, supposedly aimed at legalization of marijuana for medicinal purposes. I am quite familiar with both the ideology of “Doonesbury’s” creator, Garry Trudeau, and his style of humor. I have even been known to chuckle at a “Doonesbury” strip. Today, however, no one should be laughing.

The debate over legalization of marijuana for any purpose is a serious one with lifetime consequences for potentially millions of people, especially children and teenagers.

The entire premise of these “Doonesbury” strips is based on misinformation in an attempt to lend credibility to the Cannabis Buyers Club and, by extension, to the Prop. 215 campaign. Trudeau would have us believe that the Cannabis Buyers Club in San Francisco merely provided the illegal drug to AIDS patients and elderly cancer patients. Nothing could be further from the truth. The factual evidence shows that the Cannabis Buyers Club:

Sold marijuana to teenagers, to adults without doctors’ notes, to people with obviously fake doctors’ notes using phony doctors’ names, in some cases written on scrap paper; allowed small children inside the club where they were exposed for lengthy periods of time to secondhand marijuana smoke; sold marijuana to people whose stated ailments included vaginal yeast infections, insomnia, sore backs and colitis; sold marijuana in amounts as large as two pounds at one time, greatly exceeding the club’s own “rules,” which limit purchases to no more “than is required for personal use--usually not more than 1/4 ounce.”

Humor and satire are, on balance, a healthy part of the political debate. But it is possible for the line to be crossed, and that is what has occurred here.

DANIEL E. LUNGREN

Attorney General

Sacramento

* Re “Lungren vs. Zonker” (Capitol Journal, Oct. 7):

Brian Lungren, the brother and advisor of Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren, tells us to take seriously his brother’s attack on a “Doonesbury” cartoon character. “Zonker’s a real person in our society,” he says. “He is not fictitious. And we should put Zonker behind bars.”

Californians can sleep better now. The Brothers Lungren assure us that the California Department of Justice will keep us safe from dangerous ‘toons.

STUART TIMMONS

Los Angeles