By Eugene Davidovich
Incumbent City Council member Brian Pat Bilbray today, issued an official endorsement in support of Proposition S a voter initiative slated to appear on the November 6th ballot in the City.
“With my sister having to use medical marijuana to treat her stage three melanoma this issue is very emotional and personal for me and my family. If the federal government is not going to take it up upon themselves to start regulating, allow the FDA to actually look at it so it can be put in pharmacies, then it is up to the states to do exactly what they have done,” said Bilbray.
If passed Prop S would repeal the city’s current prohibition on medical marijuana dispensaries and replace it with strict zoning and operational requirements that would allow for a limited number of patient collectives and cooperatives to open in industrial and commercial zones of the city. Those that open would have to meet all operational and zoning requirements laid out in the measure including video cameras, centrally monitored alarm systems, overnight security, as well as strict non-profit operation.
“Fact of the matter is, it does work, patients do need it I have seen it firsthand. Patients deserve the right to safe local access in Imperial Beach. It’s time to end the rhetoric and let reason, science, and evidence drive our public policies. I will be voting Yes on S and encourage all my constituents to do the same,” Bilbray held.
Bilbray’s endorsement joins an expanding and bipartisan list of endorsements which include City Council candidate Erika Lowery, Democratic Party of San Diego County, Green Party of San Diego County, the County’s Libertarian Party, as well as the San Diego and Imperial Counties Labor Council AFL-CIO.
Next Tuesday, voters will decide whether to allow the continued criminalization of the most vulnerable citizens in Imperial Beach to continue through the draconian ban, or protect the sick and dying through strict zoning and operational requirements in Proposition S.
Advocates are confident that once presented with a choice, voters will do the right thing and choose Safe Access instead of a ban, resolving this issue in IB once and for all, and allow qualified patients safe, local, reliable access to a medicine that in many cases is their one and only alternative.
More Information:
YES on S Website: www.safeaccessib.org
Yes on S Facebook: www.Facebook.com/YesOnS2012
Read Prop S – https://www.safeaccessib.org/read-the-initiative/
