Pubdate: Wed, 27 Apr 2016
Source: Globe and Mail (Canada)
Copyright: 2016 The Globe and Mail Company
Contact:  http://www.theglobeandmail.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/168
Author: Mike Hager
Page: S1

ILLEGAL DISPENSARIES COULD FACE COURT ACTION

As many as three-quarters of Vancouver's illegal cannabis
dispensaries have been ordered to close by Friday, though it's a
deadline many are expected to ignore, setting off a process of fines
and potential court actions that could take months to resolve.

When the country's first set of rules targeting pot shops takes
effect, the city is opting to ticket - not raid - dispensaries that
have been rejected in a continuing process to hand out a small number
of coveted business licences. Those tickets could start a drawn-out
battle that could last until after the federal government introduces
legislation to legalize recreationalmarijuana next year.

More than 100 illegal cannabis dispensaries opened throughout
Vancouver in recent years, prompting the city to introduce rules
designed to simultaneously regulate the storefronts while also curbing
their numbers. One rule said that dispensaries must be located at
least 300 metres from other stores, schools or community centres.

A process to award those licences has been under way since last
August. Currently, 20 have passed at least the first stage of the
licensing process, with the first business licence expected to be
granted next month. City staff are reviewing another 19 applications
for dispensaries that are too close to one another to decide which
might be able to remain open.

All of them are permitted to remain open in the meantime.

The rest - roughly 60 shops - could face bylaw officers by the weekend
if they remain open.

Ian Dawkins, executive director of Cannabis Growers of Canada, says he
expects about a third of those dispensaries to close voluntarily by
Friday, another third to switch to a more secretive model, and the
rest - those with deeper pockets - to fight the city in court.

"They're going to say ' screw it, we're keeping our doors open, if you
want to come at us, we've got lawyers,' " said Mr. Dawkins, whose
group represents more than 15 Vancouver dispensaries.

Andreea Toma, Vancouver's director of licensing, said starting
Saturday bylaw officers will fan out to canvass the city for those
shops operating in violation of the bylaw. Violators can face
immediate penalties up to $ 750 a day. After that, city lawyers could
go to court to seek larger fines of $ 10,000 or apply for an
injunction at B. C. Supreme Court, which could be enforced by police,
she said.

Chuck Varabioff, who owns the B. C. Pain Society, said he will not
close his store by Friday, even though it is 93 metres from a school
and does not meet the buffer zone requirement.

"I will have a stack of postdated cheques lined up on my desk and when
the city comes in I'll happily hand them 100 postdated cheques," he
said.

Ms. Toma said the 45 shops appealing to the city's board of variance,
an independent panel that can grant exemptions to city bylaws, will
have to shut down while they await decisions.

Kirk Tousaw, a lawyer who helped force the government to overhaul its
existing medicalmarijuana system in February, said it is fundamentally
unfair for the city to shut down a dozen of his Vancouver clients'
dispensaries as they wait for the board to hear their appeals.

"If you're in an administrative tribunal, as part of a process that
exists in the city, then enforcement action against those people in
the system is totally inappropriate," said Mr. Tousaw, who planned to
attend an emergency meeting of a large group of dispensary owners in
downtown Vancouver Tuesday evening.

Councillor Kerry Jang, governing Vision Vancouver's spokesman on
marijuana issues, said the city has the budget to deal with any
litigation that may arise from weeding out the majority of pot shops.
He added that he has no sympathy for those left out of a regulatory
process they voluntarily entered last year.

"We gave them six months, I repeat six months, to find an alternate
location that met the bylaw. I don't know what they have to complain
about," Mr. Jang said.

The cost of a business licence is $ 1,000 for compassion clubs, which
are non-profit businesses that must offer other therapies, and $
30,000 for medical marijuana stores.

Vancouver became the first city in Canada to adopt regulations for pot
stores, after the sector grew by 100 per cent a year from mid- 2013 to
mid- 2015. The city passed the bylaw last June, despite objections
from the Conservative federal government, which repeatedly asked
Vancouver police to "enforce the law" and shut down the roughly 100
dispensaries operating at that time.

Provincial politicians have been pushing for pot to be sold through
liquor stores or pharmacies - not dispensaries - once recreational use
is made legal next spring. Regardless of where recreational cannabis
is eventually distributed, the City of Vancouver has said face-to-
face sales of the drug must follow these rules.

Mr. Dawkins said he, and many in the currently illegal sector, see the
city's looming crackdown as heavy-handed and premature because "these
dispensaries that have been operating safely and quietly for a number
of years now."

- - With a report from The Canadian Press
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MAP posted-by: Matt