Pubdate: Thu, 25 Jun 2015
Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC)
Copyright: 2015 Postmedia Network Inc.
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/477
Author: Jeff Lee
Page: A1

VANCOUVER TO WEED OUT ILLEGAL MARIJUANA DISPENSARIES

Council Makes 'Historic' Move Toward Regulation

Vancouver changed the landscape of Canada's cannabis culture on 
Wednesday, becoming the first city in Canada to regulate illegal 
marijuana dispensaries.

The action, which will see a two-tiered licensing system aimed at 
weeding out for-profit dispensaries in favour of nonprofit compassion 
clubs, comes as the federal government continues to reject calls to 
loosen its drug policies.

 From Wednesday, dispensary owners have 60 days to apply for a 
licence and will have to qualify under tight criteria, including 
criminal record checks and limits on where their shops can be located.

Prominent on the map of no-go places for dispensaries are the 
Downtown Eastside, Chinatown and Granville entertainment district, as 
well as anywhere near schools, community centres and other public 
gathering places. An astonishing proliferation of pot shops sprung up 
in a legal vacuum created by an ongoing court challenge to the new 
federal government rules on medical marijuana. But in trying to 
wrestle down the issue, the city appears to have won few friends.

Shortly after council passed a bylaw that would close as many as 
two-thirds of the estimated 100 now in operation, it was assailed by 
both federal Health Minister Rona Ambrose and pot shop owners who say 
they will fight the new regulations.

Even the operators of some of the city's oldest compassion clubs were 
unhappy because some are caught inside a 300-metre proximity rule 
that bars shops near schools, community centres and other public places.

In a tip of the hat to the work compassion clubs do, however, city 
council lowered its proposed $30,000 annual licence fee to $1,000 for 
non-profits that also offer services such as nutritional counselling, 
acupuncture and massage therapy. The city did not relent on its ban 
on the sale of edible products, saying it doesn't want children to be 
lured into buying cookies and candies laced with marijuana. Still, it 
said sealed oils and tinctures can be sold to people who could make 
their own edible products at home.

Under the rules, clubs will likely qualify for licenses more easily 
than so-called profit shops that don't provide such services, as long 
as they are registered societies.

"A compassion club has to provide wraparound services. It has to have 
a membership, annual general meetings, as well as be a non-profit," 
said Coun. Kerry Jang, who sponsored the motion calling for 
regulation. "Most profit shops don't do anything; they just are a storefront."

The new bylaw governs where dispensaries can operate. Applicants also 
must be owners, not corporations, and are not allowed to apply for or 
operate more than five dispensaries. They will also be subject to 
police criminal records checks.

Jang said existing dispensaries that do not meet the city rules, 
including those already within proximity to schools, will have to close.

Dispensaries also can't be located within 300 metres of each other. 
The city will use a demerit points system to thin out existing 
overlapping dispensaries. For example, for-profit shops that offer no 
additional patient-based services will be given 10 demerit points. If 
the place has had complaints from more than one person in the last 12 
months, that's another two demerit points. If the shop has done work 
without a permit, that's three points. And if it has a history of 
poor business practices, they get tacked with another four points. 
The dispensary with the fewest demerit points wins, as long as it 
still complies with other city rules and bylaws.

The city says it will take a robust approach to closing shops that 
violate the new ordinance or operate without a licence. It said it 
will apply the same bylaw enforcement procedures it uses for other 
businesses, but is prepared to also issue fines of up to $10,000 
daily for those that refuse to comply and take scofflaws to court.

That is separate from any enforcement action the police have said 
they will take if they find a shop selling to children or is involved 
in organized crime.

Mayor Gregor Robertson defended the council's historic decision, 
saying the city was forced into regulating the shops with its 
business licence bylaw because Ottawa has stridently refused to amend 
its drug policies.

"We are faced with a tough situation, a complicated situation, 
because the federal government has failed to act on regulating 
medical marijuana appropriately," he told reporters. "We will be 
looking forward to some more sane policy out of Ottawa to deal with 
the gaps that currently exist."

Jamie Shaw of B.C. Compassion Club Society, Vancouver's oldest 
dispensary, which would now be forced to move, called the new 
regulations a "historic move."

"It's actually great that they're encouraging some dispensaries to be 
a little bit more patient-focused and patient-centred while still not 
actually outlawing more recreational-minded ones," she said.

Shaw said she is hopeful the chief licensing inspector will refer her 
dispensary to council so she can make a case to keep it in the same 
location, near an elementary school.

However, Jang said such approval would be tough to give. The city 
doesn't want to give any leeway to any shop within a 300-metre 
proximity of schools and community centres, arguing there are plenty 
of other suitable locations.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom