San Diego Campaign to Protect Medical Cannabis Draws Wide Support
by STAFF on MARCH 11, 2011 – OB RAG
On March 28th, the San Diego city council will be voting on an ordinance that, if passed as written, will close down every medical cannabis facility in the city and would make it virtually impossible for them to reopen. In response, the San Diego chapter of Americans for Safe Access partnered with Canvass for a Cause to launch the “Stop the Ban” campaign in order to educate the public about the ordinance and to mobilize grassroots opposition.
Since beginning the campaign in February, “Stop the Ban” has garnered a long list of endorsements including The Drug Policy Alliance, Students for Sensible Drug Policy, Cal NORML, California Church IMPACT, the San Diego Renters’ Union, and many others.
Using Canvass for a Cause’s proven grassroots field organizing techniques, an organized patient outreach, and a traditional volunteer-based political campaign, the “Stop the Ban” campaign has collected over 2,000 letters to the city council from constituents who are urging them to amend the current ordinance to allow for reasonable access to medical cannabis for the patients who rely on it.
“We decided to make this campaign a letter-writing campaign because a handwritten letter is the gold standard of constituent communication for a councilperson and we knew that we could get massive amounts of people involved on this issue. We set out to send the city council more letters on this issue that they have ever received on any issue, to our knowledge we’ve already crossed that threshold.” said Ben Cisneros, a senior organizer on the campaign. “We can’t guarantee our campaign will be successful, but what we can guarantee is that if the city council approves this ordinance, they will have done so over the most unprecedented outpouring of public opposition to an ordinance in the history of San Diego.”
Cisneros continued, “If this ordinance passes as written – and it may – every collective in the city would close and it would be virtually impossible for any to reopen. A best case scenario would find San Diego with 3 to 5 collectives in the far flung industrial areas of the city. A realistic worst case would find the city council and planning commission enforcing a ban by not approving any of the process 4 permits that are required.”
You can help the campaign today by writing a handwritten letter to your city council person, volunteering at the campaign headquarters, or helping spread the word about the impending de-facto ban.
To get involved in the campaign or for more information on the largest effort organized in San Diego surrounding the medical marijuana issue, visit the Stop the Ban campaign website – www.stopthebansd.org – and a Facebook Page – www.facebook.com/stopthebansd
On March 28th the campaign will be holding a Rally and March that will start at the Federal Courthouse at noon and will lead directly into the city council meeting where everyone will testify against this overly restrictive ordinance that undermines the most vulnerable members of our community.
