One year later, city cannabis regulations remain a point of contention

Cannabis activists, dispensaries at odds with city council over regulatory bylaws

Nearly a year ago Vancouver became the first city in Canada to regulate the sale of medical cannabis in dispensaries. A vote from the city council in July last year set in motion a process of developing and enforcing a strict set of bylaws that allow qualifying Vancouver pot shops to operate legally at the municipal level.

One year later and these bylaws have been agreed on by the council and implemented but not everyone is happy. Strict regulations on location (no closer than 300 meters from schools and community centres) are forcing 90 per cent of the city’s dispensaries to shut down. Unable to meet these regulations, many dispensaries have already closed while others remain open in defiance of the bylaws.

Other points of contention include the council’s decision to ban the sale of edible cannabis products and the use of cannabis on site at dispensaries.

Councilor Kerry Jang, the ‘architect’ behind the regulatory framework, is confident in his set of bylaws as they currently stand. “People realise Vancouver’s policy is that there is a place for marijuana dispensaries in our city,” says Jang “The guys who were complaining were so used to making money without any oversight and all of a sudden they couldn’t!”

Dispensary advocates are calling for a rewrite of the bylaws, arguing that in their current form the regulations are too tight to be considered reasonable. Among them is Dana Larsen, dispensary owner and head of cannabis advocacy group Sensible BC. Larsen suggests that the tightness of the regulations is due to pressure from Conservative federal government that still held a majority government while the bylaws were being written.

“As a result of that tension they created very restrictive bylaws to try to find a middle ground and placate the federal government,” says Larsen. “I think it’s disappointing that city council seems really wedded to these rules that they wrote.”

A Nanos poll commissioned by Sensible BC suggests that Vancouverites largely agree that the bylaws as currently written are too strict. The poll finds that sixty per cent of Vancouverites think that dispensary regulations should not be more restrictive than current liquor store regulations, as Sensible BC argues they currently are.

“Vancouver is ready for a much more open and accessible cannabis system than the city is trying to impose,” says Larsen.

Councillor Jang, however, takes issue with some of the wording of this poll.

“The questions were loaded and slanted in such a way that it was quite ridiculous,” says Jang.

Jang sees little merit in any of the complaints. In fact, the city councilor had some pointed words for cannabis activists unhappy with the new system.

“These guys who wanted to be treated like any other business, and that’s what they told us, all of a sudden are ‘aw man, I don’t wanna be treated like anybody else because there’s rules and I don’t like them!’” says Jang with a laugh. “Hey, well, too bad. Time to grow up and treat yourself like an actual business.”

Larsen and Jang are not in total disagreement. Both parties understand that legalisation of cannabis is an inevitable force and that these municipal bylaws remain important even as the Federal Liberal government prepares to lay out its own plan for legalisation at a national level.

“Federally we’re on the verge of legalization,” says Larsen, “and what happens in Vancouver and other cities is going to set a templet for what legislation is going to look like.”

“The discussion is not about whether or not people should have access,” says Jang. “That ship has sailed.”