City and County anti-medical marijuana ordinances being shot down by referendums in California

East Bay Express does a profile of the director of San Diego NORML and president of the California Cannabis Coalition Craig Beresh. He’s helping medical marijuana professionals turn back city bans on dispensaries and collectives.

His name is Craig Beresh, and he’s director of San Diego NORML and president of the California Cannabis Coalition. Beresh is at the center of a series of voter uprisings that are turning the tables on medical marijuana’s foes in the battleground counties of inland and Southern California. This fall, medical marijuana activists organized by Beresh have begun wielding a powerful tool to crush bans on dispensaries: the referendum petition drive.

One such drive is underway to overturn a local ban on pot clubs in Kern County. Other drives have already halted San Diego’s promised crackdown on clubs as well as an ordinance in Butte County.

Beresh said the will of the people can easily override dumb marijuana laws enacted by politicians, and any county or city in the state can raise similar challenges. More referendums are to come in Fresno and possibly the Bay Area. It’s the latest in a fifteen-year battle for safe access to medical cannabis in the state.

It’s a great profile of how groups and individuals can ban together and fight prohibition by taking the argument to the people via the ballot box. Politicians won’t change on their own, they’re too scared…and stupid. [East Bay Express]