Pubdate: Fri, 29 Apr 2016
Source: Metro (Vancouver, CN BC)
Copyright: 2016 Metro Canada
Contact:  http://www.metronews.ca/vancouver
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3775
Author: Neal Hall
Page: 3

DISPENSARY DEFIES CLOSURE

Old marijuana shop is not in compliance with new rules

One of Vancouver's oldest medical-marijuana dispensaries is vowing to
defy the order to lock up shop by midnight Friday after being refused
under the city's new regulatory regime.

"We're not going to close," said Dana Larsen, the founding director of
The Medicinal Marijuana Dispensary.

"We've not been approved yet," he added, pointing out that the non-
profit society operates two dispensaries - one at 880 East Hastings,
which opened in 2007, and another at 1182 Thurlow at Davie, opened in
2010.

Both were rejected under the city's new regulations for pot
dispensaries.

"We were the third one in the city and the first to call ourselves a
dispensary," Larsen said.

The new regulations, adopted in June last year, require dispensaries
to be at least 300 metres from schools, community centres, youth
facilities or another medical-marijuana shop.

The Thurlow location was found to be 270 metres from a learning
annex.

"The kids are all under 10 and they're not going to be out looking for
marijuana," Larsen said of the annex.

The Thurlow dispensary has an appeal before the Board of Variance on
May 3, so Larsen hopes the city won't try to close the shop before the
hearing.

"If they close down the dispensaries, all it will do is push pot back
underground to where it's not regulated and controlled - no age
limits, no taxes," Larsen said.

He may have to fight in court if the city gets tough with enforcement
measures, he added, predicting many of the dispensaries who have
appeals pending will defy the closure order.

"We're being treated twice as severely as alcohol," Larsen said,
adding it reminds him of the 1990s when the city tried to ban "bong
shops," which sell pipes and paraphernalia to smoke marijuana.

"They spent thousands trying to shut down the bong shops, which are
still there," said Larsen, 45, a marijuana activist and founder of the
BC Marijuana Party.

More than 100 dispensaries in Vancouver are facing enforcement action
starting Saturday.

The city's chief licensing inspector, Andreea Toma, said this week
that inspectors will initially hand out $ 250 tickets to non-
compliant shops.

Toma said the city can take legal action by seeking an injunction in
B. C. Supreme Court to shut down the stores.

Last October, the city refused 140 of the 176 preliminary development
permit applications for medical-marijuana-related-use ( MMRU)
businesses because they were not in permitted zones or did not meet
distancing regulations from schools, community centres, youth
facilities or another MMRU.

Stores already open at the time of refusal have been allowed to
operate for six months while they search for new sites. However, those
stores must close by Saturday if they haven't found a new location and
submitted a revised application.

Only seven have been issued development permits, with another 13
applications under review.

Melissa De Genova, a Vancouver councillor with the Non- Partisan
Association, said Thursday that the crackdown on non-compliant shops
is "a waste of time and money by the city."

Tickets with fines of $ 250 will just be the cost of doing business
for the marijuana dispensaries, she added. As she understood the
enforcement measures, tickets can only be handed out once a week.

"That's $ 1,000 a month, $12,000 a year. A licence costs $ 30,000 a
year," De Genova said, adding she was told that one shop is grossing
$3.4 million a year.
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MAP posted-by: Matt