Marijuana Billboards Going Up

Along with beer, liquor and fast-food roadside advertisements, California motorists will soon also view billboards promoting medical marijuana.

Thirty billboards are being pasted alongside roadways today in San Francisco and across the state. They feature an eight-year-old Chico girl whose father is serving ten years for federal marijuana cultivation charges.

The billboards, sponsored by a host of marijuana groups, read: “medical marijuana, compassion not federal prison.” They also show young Ashley Epis holding a sign that reads: “My Dad is not a criminal.” That photo of Ashley was taken at a rally outside the federal courthouse in Sacramento last year, where her father, Bryan Epis, was sentenced for growing cannabis for a medical marijuana club in Chico.