I wish to express my gratitude for the “Our View” item in the Aug. 13 PNR, Time not on their side.
I am very grateful for Councillor Erin Bremner-Mitchell, who did her own homework on other municipalities that had decided to adjust their business licence bylaw to accommodate medical marijuana dispensaries and has been holding this issue before council with the importance it well deserved.
Clearly the staff of Sidney who rebuffed her request for further research and the councillors who changed their mind or continued to vote against changing this bylaw, have not had a loved one or family member for whom medical marijuana has been as vitally important and as essential as the prescriptions filled by our pharmacies.
Having worked as a health care professional for over 30 years, alongside folks whose lives with cancer, epilepsy and MS and others, have been significantly improved by marijuana, I am appalled at both the staff of Sidney’s response to her request and to the other councillors’ response to this issue as well.
May I remind them that they are commissioned to work towards the interests and well being of the people they serve, including those who suffer from extreme pain and debilitating illness.
By allowing the staff control on this issue, a business serving the vital needs of a number of our residents has to close and folks suffering from often severe pain and nausea have to travel to Victoria, whose council, it would seem, has more foresight and compassion, than Sidney’s.
I am wondering who they thought they were serving by revoking this business license.
No matter what else is decided for the Strategic Plan, medical marijuana dispensaries must be part of that plan. Delaying and/or denying this reality is costly to both our citizens who vitally need this and to a local business.
There is the law, and then the intent of the law.
I can only hope it is not too late to reverse this decision of council and bring back a business so needed in this community.
Mary Leslie, Sidney
