Vancouver cracks down on unlicensed marijuana dispensaries

Vancouver city inspectors initiated a crackdown Friday on pot dispensaries operating without a licence.

Thestar.com
April 29, 2016
By Betsy Powell

After earning the distinction of becoming the first Canadian city to regulate storefront medical marijuana dispensaries, Vancouver city inspectors initiated a crackdown Friday on businesses operating without a licence.

Last year, Vancouver city council adopted a framework to regulate all retail pot businesses after shops started popping up across the city, as they now are in Toronto.

The city began issuing business licences - $1,000 for compassion clubs and $30,000 for medical marijuana stores - and required operators to comply with a list of regulations.

Pot shops, for instance, are only allowed to operate in commercial zones at least 300 metres from schools, neighbourhood houses, community centres and other marijuana-related businesses.

But the city refused to grant permits to 140 dispensaries because they didn't comply with rules such as being too close to schools or community centres, The Canadian Press reports. Operators were allowed to remain open and given six months to comply with the regulations. The deadline was Friday.

Those violating the rules will be forced to close or face fines.

Nonetheless, many will continue to operate without a licence because they feel they haven’t been given their due process, says Jaclynn Pehota, director of Outreach for the Cannabis Growers of Canada. The group represents between 16 and 20 of the 160 outlets in Vancouver.

“The problem that we’re facing here in Vancouver is that the board of variance (the appeal body) is booked up through November 2016, so people who are in the appeal process are still being forced to shut their doors.”

Toronto Councillors Paula Fletcher and Mary Fragedakis have suggested the city follow Vancouver’s lead to curb the “over-concentration” of pot businesses in one neighbourhood.

Pehota says what Toronto can learn from Vancouver is how not to proceed.

“The problem is the bylaw is extremely vague,” she told the Star in an interview from Vancouver.

"This is an abject failure in my opinion, in attempting to regulate cannabis businesses based on strictly land-use."

Pehota said there is "no easy answer here, no simple magic bullet,” she said. “As much as a mess as it is in Vancouver ... it was not intended to be this adversarial.”