Pubdate: Wed, 22 Mar 2017
Source: Globe and Mail (Canada)
Copyright: 2017 The Globe and Mail Company
Contact:  http://www.theglobeandmail.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/168
Author: Mike Hager
Page: S1

VICTORIA AT CENTRE OF NEW POT-SHOP AMBIGUITY

The majority of Victoria's illegal pot shops have applied for the
city's special new business licence, but more than a dozen not engaged
in the process could soon face court-ordered injunctions aimed at
shutting them down.

At the same time, the local health authority says a recent anonymous
complaint about the cleanliness of one of these dispensaries has led
to it outlawing the controversial sale of baked goods and candies in
these stores, an issue that a city bylaw created last year purposely
did not address.

The situation in British Columbia's capital, which, like Vancouver
before it, has decided to regulate - not raid - its roughly 40 illegal
shops, underscores the current confusion surrounding the grey market
for a drug that Ottawa has promised to officially legalize.

Ashley Abraham applied to get a regular business licence for her Green
Ceiling vapour lounge about a year ago, long before the new dispensary
bylaw was passed. Last October, she had her application formally denied.

Since then, the city has handed her seven fines totalling $3,500 for
operating outside its new framework.

"I'm working outside the system, but I genuinely wish I could work
within it," she said.

Though she doesn't sell cannabis at her location, people can buy a
range of products at the dispensary next door and come into Green
Ceiling to consume them, which is currently illegal.

Ottawa is expected to table legislation this spring that will legalize
and regulate recreational marijuana over the next two years. Last
December, a federal government-sponsored task force recommended
against allowing liquor stores to sell cannabis and suggested Ottawa
let the provinces decide where it can be sold.

While the stores are still illegal under federal law, they have
proliferated in cities such as Vancouver and Victoria, where local
politicians argue their rules can eventually be adapted to any
national framework regulating the storefront sale of the drug.

All dispensaries and compassion clubs across Canada still operate
outside the federal government's medical-marijuana program, which
permits about 30 industrial-scale growers to sell dried flowers and
bottles of cannabis oil directly to patients through the mail.

Soon, Victoria will begin a crackdown on the 16 pot shops that didn't
bother to apply to be certified through its new licensing regime,
Mayor Lisa Helps told the Victoria Times Colonist earlier this week.

Using Vancouver as an example, that process could take months. Earlier
this year, The Globe and Mail reported almost half of the stores
continued to operate outside Vancouver's new bylaw despite some of
them being subject to daily fines.

It could still be months before a B.C. Provincial Court judge decides
whether to grant injunctions that the city has filed against 27 of the
worst offenders.

Alex Robb, a spokesperson for the Trees Dispensary chain, said every
other Victoria pot-shop owner he has talked to has applied for a new
licence, but he said the process is not cheap - noting his company
plans to spend more than $100,000 on architect fees and the entire
licensing process in order to get its four locations approved by the
city.

"I'm not complaining about the city charging onerous fees, I also
appreciate that this is a highly cost-intensive process for the city
to undergo," he said.

Some dispensaries, however, are complaining about the Vancouver Island
Health Authority recently notifying a local pot shop that it would
soon enforce a ban on any baked goods, which will affect every
community in its jurisdiction. Victoria has looked the other way while
most of its pot shops have continued to sell cannabis cookies and
candies, a practice dispensaries in Vancouver agreed to discontinue en
masse after complaints from the health authority there that these
products were too attractive to kids.

Ingestible oils, capsules and pills are still allowed under the bylaws
of both these cities.

Shannon Marshall, head spokesperson for the Vancouver Island Health
Authority, said the agency decided to start cracking down on the sales
of these certain types of "edibles" after receiving its first
complaint from the public regarding the food sold at a dispensary.

"Baked goods are generally of lower risk than many other foods for
food-borne illness; however the lack of oversight or quality control
on cannabinoid concentrations can result in health impacts," she said
in an e-mailed statement.
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MAP posted-by: Matt