Pubdate: Fri, 26 Jun 2015
Source: Globe and Mail (Canada)
Copyright: 2015 The Globe and Mail Company
Contact:  http://www.theglobeandmail.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/168
Author: Mike Hager
Page: S1

VICTORIA LOOKS TO VANCOUVER FOR DISPENSARY GUIDELINES

Victoria's mayor says her city will look to emulate Vancouver's plan 
to regulate marijuana dispensaries despite warnings from the 
Conservative federal government that they are illegal and threaten 
public health.

Councillors in Vancouver approved a plan this week to create a new 
class of business licence for dispensaries, impose hefty licensing 
fees and keep them away from other operators, schools and community 
centres. Processing of the licences is expected to start in the coming months.

Municipalities across British Columbia are trying to figure out how 
to deal with medical marijuana dispensaries after about 135 sprouted 
in the province, including around 100 in Vancouver. The rest of the 
country is believed to have fewer than two dozen.

Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps said her staff are studying Vancouver's 
guidelines and will report to council in September about imposing 
similar regulations on the provincial capital's 19 dispensaries and 
compassion clubs.

"This is way outside of our jurisdiction. We should not have to be 
stepping into this, but the reality is these issues are showing up on 
our streets and in our communities, so we need to," Ms. Helps said. 
"I really hope that if it's a landmark moment for anything, it's a 
landmark for the federal government to act as a partner to cities, 
sit down with us and figure this out together."

Until then, she said, Victoria will look at crafting legislation 
similar to Vancouver's bylaw. Vancouver will charge an annual 
licensing fee of $30,000 for commercial dispensaries and $1,000 for 
non-profit compassion clubs, and outlaw them within 300 metres of 
schools, community centres and each other. Dispensaries and 
compassion clubs have two months to apply for licences. Dispensaries 
operate outside the federal government's medical marijuana program, 
which permits about 20 industrial-scale producers to sell the drug in 
its dried form directly to patients through the mail.

"Our staff don't have to reinvent the wheel, they can look at the 
policies that Vancouver is implementing and bring those to us here," 
Ms. Helps said.

A coalition of 33 local governments surrounding Vancouver voted last 
month to put a resolution forward at the Union of B.C. Municipalities 
annual convention this September asserting the right of local 
governments to regulate dispensaries. The group will present a 
similar motion to the Federation of Canadian Municipalities annual 
convention in 2016, after failing to meet a submission deadline for 
this year's event. Many are waiting to see how Vancouver implements 
and enforces its new bylaw before contemplating their own, said Rick 
Glumac, a first vice-president of the Lower Mainland Local Government 
Association and a city councillor from Port Moody.

"There's an interest, especially within the Lower Mainland, amongst 
municipalities to be able to regulate this industry municipally in 
the absence of any higher-level directions from the government," Mr. 
Glumac said.

While the provincial Health Minister has voiced support for 
Vancouver's push to regulate the dispensaries, his federal 
counterpart, Rona Ambrose, warned councillors not to go through with 
their plan and said she was "deeply disappointed" by the vote. She 
said the bylaw would make it easier for kids to smoke marijuana, that 
storefronts selling pot are illegal and she expected "the police to 
enforce the law." She has not said whether her department will intervene.

Vancouver police spokesman Constable Brian Montague said dispensaries 
selling cannabis products will remain a lower priority for the drug 
squad than criminals trafficking harder drugs like cocaine, 
methamphetamines, heroin and fentanyl. He said the department will 
investigate when it identifies a risk to the public, such as sales to 
minors, and has executed search warrants at nine locations over the past year.

"It is an effective tool for arrests, but it's not a solution to shut 
down an illegal business," Constable Montague said. It takes an 
"extremely long time" to analyze any cannabis products seized, and 
investigators must spend hours surveilling the location and doing 
undercover work to get charges approved in a dispensary bust and 
while respecting a suspect's legal and privacy rights, he said.

"It's important for the average person to realize it's not as simple 
a process as they may think."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom