Pubdate: Thu, 23 Apr 2015
Source: Calgary Herald (CN AB)
Copyright: 2015 Postmedia Network
Contact:  http://www.calgaryherald.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/66
Author: Jeff Lee
Page: A15
Cited: http://www.scribd.com/doc/262756357/Pot-Proposal#scribd

VANCOUVER PLOTS MEDICAL POT RULES

Proposal would make city first in Canada to license dispensaries

Up to now, there has been a lack of clear and transparent regulatory
framework from the federal government.

Vancouver is about to become the first city in Canada to regulate the
business of selling marijuana.

Even though the drug is technically available only to people with
federally issued medical marijuana cards, the city will permit the
operation of dispensaries under a proposed framework that rigidly sets
out who can operate businesses and under what conditions.

The plan, which will go to city council Tuesday, ignores the legality
of marijuana and instead tries to deal with the astronomical growth of
unlicensed dispensaries over the last few years. As of mid- April,
city officials count more than 80 such shops, a fourfold increase
since 2012, when the federal government changed the rules for how
medical marijuana users obtain the drug.

"The city has no jurisdiction to regulate the sale of marijuana, but
it does have clear jurisdiction to regulate how and where businesses
operate in our city," said a news release issued by city staff
Wednesday. "Up to now, there has been a lack of clear and transparent
regulatory framework from the federal government."

Under staff's proposal, the city will levy a $ 30,000 annual
administration fee. Business licences will also cost up to $ 5,000 per
year, depending on square footage. And they will all have to re- apply
annually. The city is also going to stringently limit where the shops
can go; they can't be within 300 metres of schools, community centres
and each other. And in an effort to rid certain neighbourhoods of
established shops, the city is banning them from side streets.

In the city's Downtown Eastside, where many of the shops are now
located, they'll only be able to open along Hastings and Main streets.

Coun. Kerry Jang said the city was forced into this decision because
of what he called Ottawa's "prohibitionist approach."

"It is because the federal medical marijuana laws are absolutely
unworkable. Here is a case in which you had people who used to grow
their own and do their own thing, and we had no complaints and only a
few shops in Vancouver," Jang said.

"All of the sudden we're told to destroy their plants, they've got to
buy it by mail, they have to smoke it and not eat it. So quite
frankly, the federal government's own laws, this prohibitionist
approach, has created the vacuum these medical pot shops are filling."

The surge in shops has caused headaches for both police and city
regulators. The Vancouver Police Department issued an edict last year
that it would not enforce Ottawa's drug laws as they relate to the
shops, unless they posed either a risk to youth or were engaged in or
operated by organized crime.

City manager Penny Ballem said while the city does not have
jurisdiction over the legality of marijuana, it does have powers under
its zoning and business licence regulations to control the shops.
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