Pubdate: Fri, 12 Jun 2015 Source: Vancouver 24hours (CN BC) Copyright: 2015 Vancouver 24 hrs. Contact: http://vancouver.24hrs.ca/letters Website: http://vancouver.24hrs.ca/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3837 Author: Stefania Seccia Page: 7 POT DEBATE PACKS HALL More than 160 speakers - mostly pot advocates - filled Vancouver council chambers Wednesday as the first public hearing kicked off into proposed regulations for medicinal marijuana shops. City council has proposed a special business licence category for marijuana related businesses, such as dispensaries, which include an annual $30,000 licensing fee, and that the nearly 100 dispensaries in Vancouver are a minimum of 300 metres away from community centres, schools and neighbourhood houses. David Malmo-Levine, pot activist and one of the registered speakers, said he's not against regulating marijuana shops, but that they shouldn't be separated into their own category. He said pot shops should be considered the same as any coffee shop or herbal medicine business. Jodie Emery, who only came to hear what people had to say, said the city's proposed regulations are "too extreme and unnecessary." "This is the first time a municipality has experimented with regulating marijuana dispensaries," she said. "It may be that they're being intentionally over restrictive." Isaac Oommen, with the oldest running medical marijuana dispensary in the city, which sits across from a school - the B.C. Compassion Club Society - said they've been asking the city to regulate dispensaries for years. "We're asking the city if we can be grandfathered in because there are certain regulations we can't meet," he said. Oommen said the$30,000 annual fee would reach deep inside the non-profit's pockets, since it pours any extra money made back into holistic services for its clients. "That regulation fee would take away from our other services," he said. Due to the number of registered speakers, the public hearing is expected to take several days. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom