LUNGREN ATTACKS FREE SPEECH AND FREE ENTERPRISE

Lungren Tells Trading Card Manufacturer to Get Off the Pot

California Attorney General Dan Lungren doesn't want Barry Bonds and Mark McGwire on a shelf next to Cannabis Indica and Bowl 0' Buds.

In fact, the state's top cop and 20 other leading law enforcement officials nationwide don't want any marijuana trading cards sold by a Bay Area company on store shelves.

Last week, Lungren sent In-Line Classic Trading Cards, which has sold about 15 million marijuana trading cards since 1995, a letter demanding the company "act responsibly."

"Cease production" because the cards cite "pro-marijuana dogma in a medium directed at children," Lungren told card producer Kingsley Barnham. Lungren accused the company of using a "slick, full color card to glamorize marijuana" and called it an overtly cynical attempt to promote marijuana use to children while turning a profit for yourself."

The company advertises on a Web site and lists 44 outlets across California where the cards are available. It claims to have sold 15 million Inline Hemp Cards since 1995, when the cards first were marketed.

Tuesday, several telephone numbers for the company's San Francisco and Oakland offices either were busy all day or disconnected. Officials couldn't be reached for comment.

The text on one of the trading cards reads: "We hope we haven't made Lungren mad. That could be dangerous in California."

Inline Trading Cards manufactures trading cards celebrating everything from motorcycles to tattoos. The hemp cards are similar to traditional trading cards except for the photo of a marijuana plant on the front and text about hemp history and pot politics on the back.

The Skunk Kush card reminds a reader that "we cannot tell a lie George Washington) grew it." Along with a picture of gooey, black Ferrari Hashish is a history of "Brownie Mary Rathbun," a San Francisco nurse who was one of the first champions of medicinal marijuana.

Other cards list recipes for Hemp Butter or tell the reader that Jamaica "is a land steeped in the practice and tradition of cannabis" where men smoke the drug and women drink it in a tea.

One store that stocks the cards is Comic Relief in Berkeley, where employee Maria Harrell said Tuesday that Lungren's action "is completely in-appropriate."

"It is a constitutional right. This is considered free press," she said. "If an adult wants to collect marijuana cards, let them."