Deadline looms for 100-plus pot shops while 100s more line up to open

More than 100 Vancouver medical marijuana stores are required to close by this weekend, but there are more than 200 applicants waiting to seek the city's permission to open new pot shops.

And as the deadline to close or face the consequences approaches, many dispensaries plan to keep their doors open, according to Ian Dawkins, Executive Director of the Cannabis Growers of Canada, which represents between 15 and 20 shops in Vancouver, and more across the country.

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"At the end of the day, this is a very personal decision for people, whether you go forward with, basically, an act of civil disobedience, or whether you abandon your patients," said Dawkins, who estimates that about 30 Vancouver shops have some sort of legal status that will allow them to ignore the deadline.

Another 30 or so will continue to operate in protest, he said.

Last summer, Vancouver introduced bylaws aimed at regulating marijuana businesses, including a requirement that stores be at least 300 metres away from schools, community centres and other pot shops. 

More than 175 existing or planned businesses filed initial applications with the city, but to date only ten shops have made it to the final step of the three-stage licensing process.

About 140 of the original applicants were found to be non-compliant with the new bylaws and those with a storefront were ordered to close their doors by April 29, this coming Friday.

Some business have appealed to the board of variance but they still must close, pending their appeal decisions.

Vancouver Director of Licensing Andreea Toma said the city will have a three-pronged approach to enforcing the closure deadline.

"As of the 30th, we're putting boots on the ground to ensure that we start to enforce our regulations," Toma said. "We have our ticketing system ... that allows us to ticket against certain violations.

"That's $250 per violation per day." 

Some shops plan to stay open

"The next type of enforcement would be prosecutions where we move forward with legal actions to impose fines. The third part of the enforcement would be injunctions, where we're going right to the Supreme Court to file injunctions that would require the business to close." 

Vancity Weed, on Robson Street, is one dispensary planning to stay open for business despite the threats and lack of permit. 

Manager Ciro Golden said the shop, which is part of a three-store chain, hasn't received a letter from the city demanding it shut down.

"I'm hoping it's because we've followed the rules of what the city's told us to do," Golden said. "We haven't put up a fight or tried to say the city is wrong or anything like that.

 "We're willing to work with them. We're definitely under a process where we're hoping to be one of the dispensaries that will be able to stay open. We're just keeping out fingers crossed," he said.

Second wave of applications

According to the City of Vancouver website, a second intake of medical marijuana-related businesses is scheduled to take place sometime this year, although no specific date has been set. 

"Our intent was to deal with the initial interest and then move on and say 'now it's open to whoever is interested,'" said Toma, "There's nearly 230 [marijuana business applicants] that are wanting to come into the city."