PRO-POT BILLBOARDS NEAR S.F. SCHOOL

Six-Foot Marijuana Leaf Appears On Bus Shelters

It may be illegal to advertise tobacco on billboards near schools, but in
San Francisco that prohibition doesn't apply to ads promoting other things
that are smoked.

Advertisements paid for by NORML, an organization promoting legalized
marijuana, are prominently displayed at Muni bus shelters near at least two
elementary schools -- Alamo and Sutro -- in the Richmond District.

The ads, showing a marijuana leaf, stand 6 feet tall and say: "Honk If You
Inhale."

It was enough to outrage at least one neighborhood resident, who called the
San Francisco School District and Supervisor Tom Ammiano yesterday to
complain that the ads should be removed immediately.

"Children are inevitably going to see (the ads), either on their way to or
from school" said Phil Ryan, a graduate student in English at San Francisco
State University. "I'm outraged."

A state law prohibits companies from advertising tobacco on billboards that
are within 1,000 feet of a school or playground.

NORML's bus-stop ads are within 200 feet of the two elementary schools. One
bus shelter ad is at 22nd Avenue and Clement Street, a short distance away
from Alamo Elementary, which is between Clement and California streets and
between 22nd and 23rd avenues. NORML's ad on 12th Avenue and California
Street is a short walk from Sutro, which is located on 235 12th Avenue.

Principals at those two schools were not available for comment last night.

Dale Gieringer, who heads NORML's San Francisco chapter, said that Ryan's
criticism is unfair.

"We're not telling kids to smoke pot," he said. "It's very definitely aimed
at adults."

The NORML ads near Alamo and Sutro elementary schools feature a green
marijuana leaf and urge passers-by to "please support the NORML Foundation."
They also say: "Stop Arresting Responsible Pot Smokers."

Gieringer said that NORML does not decide where to put its ads, that
officials at Outdoor Systems, which run the bus-stop ad program, decide. A
representative of Outdoor Systems was not available to comment last night.

Maggie Lynch, a Muni spokeswoman, said the transit organization had not
received any complaints about NORML's bus ads. The only complaints the Muni
has received in the past two months, she said, have been about bus stop ads
placed by a weekly newspaper that feature two men kissing.

"You can't discriminate (who buys advertising)," she said. "If you sell
advertising, people have a right to buy it."

About 30 NORML marijuana ads are in bus shelters around San Francisco. It is
unknown how many are near schools. Ryan said that the number does not matter
- -- that two is two too many.

He said he "isn't casting any aspersions at NORML. But I don't think they
should be advertising in this way. . . . I think people should be outraged."