SAN DIEGO – Veterans and Church groups join campaign to oppose restrictive medical cannabis ordinance
San Diego – March 8th, 2011, veterans and church groups joined alongside LGBT activists, patients advocates, and concerned citizens today at a press conference in opposition to the ordinance governing medical cannabis facilities which the city council will consider on March 28th.
At a press release today California Church IMPACT and Veterans for a Safe San Diego released statements supporting the “Stop the Ban” campaign which opposes the current ordinance as too restrictive, harmful to patients and the community, and as a de facto ban.
In a release, California Church IMPACT, a group representing 1.5 million protestants in the state, stated “We support this campaign because re-zoning access to medical marijuana to limit its availability is unjustly harsh to people with genuine medical needs. If there are abuses in access, then deal with those. There is no kindness in making access to relief virtually impossible for those with cancer, glaucoma, and other serious ailments.”
Veterans for a Safe San Diego spokesperson Matt Riordin stated, “San Diego has more new Veterans living here than any other city in the US and many of them rely on medical cannabis to manage symptoms of PTSD, pain from combat injuries, and other ailments. This ordinance will close every medical cannabis facility in the city and make it virtually impossible for them to reopen to serve patients in the communities where they live.” He continued, “This ordinance is harmful to veterans and dangerous to communities.”
On March 28th, the city council will be voting on an ordinance regulating medical cannabis facilities in San Diego and, if passed as currently written, the ordinance would close down every facility now serving patients, would severely limit the amount of facilities that could reopen, and would give the city the political power to enforce a ban by not approving any of the process 4 permits the facilities would require.
“Stop the Ban” is a coalition campaign led by Canvass for a Cause and the San Diego Chapter of Americans for Safe Access which has been endorsed by over 20 local, state, and national organizations and is the largest grassroots effort on behalf of medical cannabis in the history of San Diego.
For more information about the campaign visit www.stopthebansd.org | www.facebook.com/stopthebansd
