UPDATE: Evergreen Cannabis, Vancouver’s first fully-licensed retail cannabis store, will not re-open this weekend as planned.
The shop posted on its Facebook page that "due to the holiday season impacting timelines at Vancouver City Hall, we will be delaying our grand (re)-opening until Saturday January 5th."
"Thank you for your patience and looking forward to seeing you in the new year!" the post says.
It's not too long to wait. Of course, the store was operational beforehand, but it didn’t have an official business license. As a result, the shop hadn’t been selling marijuana since Oct. 16; they destroyed all of their old product. Afterwards, it sold cannabis-related items such as vaporizers, pipes, rolling papers and other accessories, instead.
Vancouver Is Awesome spoke to Mike Babins, who co-owns the Vancouver store with his wife, about how his store is the first in the city to obtain an official business license.
“We did something really crazy — we actually followed all the rules,” says Babins. “When the government asked for something, we had it. We have carefully documented everything and our taxes were up to date.”
Babins added that the audit went back 20 years. In fact, he said that he was asked to do it in a separate room from his wife. Each of them were interviewed extensively about their financial histories, from transfers received from family many years ago, to very recent payments.
Before he stopped selling cannabis, the shop sold eight strains. Babins had to test the product himself, and he wanted to ensure the quality of his product thoroughly. Now, he plans on selling 20.
“There are 150 strains to choose from, but we plan to start with 20. I’ve tried the product myself and they are great — some of them are excellent. We will be selling it for $7 — $15 a gram — and we will continue to sell accessories, too.”
Located at 2868 West Fourth Ave., the shop will be open seven days a week from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. It will sell a variety of sativa, indica, hybrid and CBD dormant strains.
