IB to Delay Vote on Ballot Initiative for 2 Years; City Manager Threatens Federal Prosecution

Wednesday, July 18th, the Imperial Beach City Council has scheduled an 8 p.m. vote on placing the Safe Access Ordinance of Imperial Beach on the ballot after a successful signature gathering effort by Canvass for a Cause and San Diego Americans for Safe Access.

The signature drive resulted in over ten percent of registered IB voters signing the petition to place the initiative on the November ballot in less then half the time allotted by California election law.

Unfortunately, Mayor Jim Janney is intent on delaying the vote and will of Imperial Beach voters. Mayor Janney wants to place the initiative on the November 2014 instead of the 2012 ballot leaving qualified patients without safe access for at least two years.

At Wednesday’s meeting, instead of voting to place the initiative on the November ballot the Mayor will ask for an impact report and will insist the city take the entire thirty days period allotted by law to complete the report. This would require the completed report be presented back to Council at the Aug. 15 meeting, five days after the deadline issued by the county’s registrar of voters to place all initiatives on the November ballot. This five day delay would force the vote to be delayed until the next general election in 2014.

Aside from thwarting the will of the voters, a two-year delay would leave patients in the city with the current ban passed by Mayor Janney last year. The ban not only defines large-scale dispensaries as those with more than three members but it also prohibits more than three patients from cultivating medicine in their own homes anywhere in the city, a right expressly given to patients in Proposition 215.

To help the Mayor confuse the voters and City Council, City Manager Gary Brown wrote a staff report in preparation for Wednesday’s meeting. In the report which can easily be classified as “Reefer Madness on Steroids”, Brown claims that if the ordinance were to pass, city staff would be prosecuted for being in violation of federal drug laws for issuing business licenses to medical cannabis dispensing collectives.  A claim that "doesn't pass the smell test," according to a recent from Thomas Jefferson School of Law.

According to Professor Kreit; "Officials across California and in other states, like Colorado, have been issuing permits and licenses to medical marijuana collectives for years. The federal government has never prosecuted any state or local officials in connection with these laws."

At the July 18 meeting it will be City Council’s one and only chance to vote to place the initiative on the November ballot without delaying the will of the voters. Please come out to the meeting on Wednesday and help us urge the Mayor and City Council to respect the will of the voters and to allow the voters to decide this November.

If you are not able to make the meeting, please call the City Manager Brown at 619-423-8303 and urge him to tell City Council that IB voters deserve a voice this November.

WHAT: 
WHEN: 7/18/2012 – 6:00pm (City Council meeting starts at 6, with this agenda item to be heard at 8pm sharp!)
WHERE: 

For more information contact safeaccessib@gmail.com
RSVP for the event on Facebook: http://on.fb.me/NekX0k