Bill O’Reilly Thinks Medical Marijuana is a Sneaky Plot to Give People Medicine, Or Something

On the eve of their cable TV debut, Steve and Andrew DeAngelo of Harborside Health Center appeared on O’Reilly. He wasn’t very nice to them.

Bill O’Reilly’s indignant posturing is typical of the contemporary medical marijuana skeptic: I have no problem with medical use, but any plan for supplying patients is a fraud and anyone who grows or sells marijuana is a scumbag.

Apparently, it’s some sort of grand travesty that medical marijuana is widely available to many people with less-than-deadly diseases and disorders, but Bill forgot to explain why anyone should care if people with anxiety get to have marijuana. They shouldn’t have marijuana? I don’t understand what you want, sir.

Of course, O’Reilly is also impressed and/or incredulous about Harborside’s $20 million annual gross revenue, and he’s not alone in that regard unfortunately. But what, other than a towering exhibit in the efficacy of regulated cannabis commerce, are we supposed to see when we look at this? A whole hell of a lot of people have died in the drug trade over a whole hell of a lot less money and marijuana than this.

What we have here is the safest and most accountable kind of cannabis distribution that’s ever existed on the planet. Every day Harborside opens its doors, they’re keeping dozens of dealers off the street and stopping an incalculable amount of stupid crap from happening. The same can be said for many others in the medical cannabis industry as well, and if Bill O’Reilly is looking for villains in all of this, he won’t find them behind the counters of clean, regulated businesses.

Next time, instead of asking why people with anxiety can get cannabis in California, Bill O’Reilly should explore why federal law still treats cancer and AIDS patients as criminals.