City hall is putting a halt to the rapid expansion of Vancouver’s unregulated marijuana dispensaries by becoming the first jurisdiction in Canada to “normalize” pot shops and treat them as legitimate businesses.
Under proposed new rules, dispensaries would be able to operate on main thoroughfares away from schools, community centres and other dispensaries but would also face higher fees and more strident licensing compared to other businesses.
On Tuesday, council will consider the regulations, which include a $30,000 annual business licence, and which would weed out many of the estimated 80 to 90 pot shops in Vancouver. But the city will have to find them all first.
On the 600 block of East Hastings at one of five locations of the Eden Medicinal Society, no one would go on the record — but one young blond man wearing a latex glove said, “Outside of this store, it’s still an illegal business.”
And inside the store? His answer: “Oh, you’re tricky.”
An office manager put the number of Vancouver dispensaries at more than 130. “Good luck getting to them all in one day,” she said.
Two blocks east at the Medicinal Cannabis Dispensary, which has operated since 2008 and would be forced to move under the new regulations because it is less than 300 metres from the RayCam Community Centre, a staffer in dark glasses estimated there is at least one dispensary on every block from Clark to downtown — but not all of them are visible from the street.
According to city information, there are more than 80 dispensaries in Vancouver, 20 of which have opened in the last four months. In October 2012, the Courier counted 29 dispensaries in Vancouver. The growth followed changes to the federal medical marijuana laws, which the Conservative government is appealing in court, leaving advocates, health practitioners and retailers to operate in uncertainty.
The city’s plan to regulate the industry — without addressing the legality of the plant itself — was welcomed by a number of dispensaries and marijuana advocates, including Dana Larsen of the Medicinal Cannabis Dispensary, and Clint, the manager of the Healing Tree, who withheld his last name.
“It’s the cost of wanting to stay in the business,” said Clint. “If they’re going to implement it, then we’re just going to have to accept it. But that’s not really that unfair if they’re ready to work with us.”
Speaking on East Hastings Street outside one of two Healing Tree locations, he said stores that meet the requirements will be granted licences while less compliant dispensaries will be shuttered, meaning increased legitimacy for those still operating.
Speaking on East Hastings Street outside one of two Healing Tree locations during a busy afternoon when a doctor was at the dispensary, Clint said as many as six city administrators previously came to assess their Broadway location. He said stores that meet the requirements will be granted licences while less compliant dispensaries will be shuttered, meaning increased legitimacy for those still operating.
“You’ve got to remember [the city] is going to go, who’s going to run their books right, who is following our rules and not arguing? Who’s not said, ‘Get the eff out,’ and who’s cooperated? I’m extremely confident in the Healing Tree and how much we’ve cooperated,” he said. “We will conform to what we need to stay around to for 20 years.
Vision Vancouver Coun. Kerry Jang told the Courier Wednesday afternoon that complaints from the public to city hall have picked up greatly over the past year. The biggest concerned was the placement of dispensaries close to schools.
“That was the number one concern we’d heard from the general public,” Jang said. “This is to help address that problem.”
The first marijuana-related business — the B.C. Compassion Club — opened in Vancouver in 1997.
A person or investor, not a company, must apply for a development permit that includes a community notification process. A police information check is required for the applicant and all employees.
A marijuana-related business would be permitted in an commercial-retail district as long as it was not within 300 metres of a school or community centre, within 300 metres of another marijuana-related use, located in the Downtown Eastside other than sites on Hastings or Main Streets, and not in the Granville Entertainment District or on a minor street.
They can’t display wares and must refuse entry to minors.
Jang said the proposed new rules are based on examples taken from Washington and Colorado states, adding that marijuana-related businesses in Vancouver knowingly took a chance by setting up shop in the first place.
“We’re just trying to normalize the business practice here. We aren’t trying to regulate the product. That’s up to the federal government to do, but we’re trying to regulate the businesses like any other city would whether it’s hats or books or whatever,” he said.
While the proposed $30,000 business license fee is high, Jang said it’s meant to recover the cost of creating the regulations and enforcing them.
“We’re not profiting off marijuana. Let’s make that very clear,” he said.
The annual fee for a liquor store is $372. Restaurants and bars face maximum annual fee of $20,375, depending on their size.Clint of the Healing Tree said the fee was high but he and his investors will accept it.
“That’s a bit of a shocking number to us but it think they believe in their hearts that we’re more profitable than most businesses,” he said.
To shop at a dispensary, buyers need a membership that is obtained with a doctor’s prescription for medical marijuana.
By enforcing these Health Canada requirements, Clint said compliant dispensaries elevate the industry from drug dealing to health care.
“The people who are going to cooperate and set these new standards and who are like every other business, they’re going to stay and the ones that are doing flips out the back door and being shady and not following city rules, they’re going to get evaporated. Which is totally fine. We don’t want the thugs and the criminals here anymore," he said.
If council approves the report, Vision’s Jang said it will be referred to public hearing where residents and business owners will have the opportunity to provide feedback.
— with files from Naoibh O'Connor
