The fate of how pot shops in the City of North Vancouver will be regulated remains hazy this week after council voted to put off making a decision.
City council was set to vote Monday on whether to temporarily ban pot shops, before coming up with regulations that will govern where and how marijuana stores can operate in the future.
But after a public hearing in which a crowd of existing weed store owners, employees and customers asked for the pot shops to remain open, council voted to defer the decision until getting legal advice.
Neil Magnuson, a member of LEAP – which advocates for drug legalization – told council Monday that banning pot shops is the wrong starting point.
“A lot of people like (marijuana) in North Vancouver,” he said, adding the role of government should be to facilitate business rather than restrict it “as if it was plutonium and addictive and dangerous.”
“Adults deserve easy, dignified access,” he said, adding, “We have hundreds of recreational alcohol outlets all over your city.”
The issue of regulating pot shops is a delicate one for the city, in which five marijuana stores have been operating without business licences and in contravention of federal laws for several years. The city recently voted to crack down on the pot shops. So far, however, no legal suits have actually been filed.
Under new federal laws that will come into force this summer, the province will control who gets a licence to run a retail outlet for recreational marijuana. But anyone applying for a licence must have the support of local government, and municipalities will control where pot shops can set up within their borders and set limits on the number of shops.
Medical marijuana will remain available only by mail order.
But those who spoke at the public hearing made it clear they see little distinction between the two.
“Cannabis is my medicine,” said Robynne Edwards, a manager at Weeds and former nurse who was diagnosed with lupus.
Spencer Ratzloff told council he uses weed to help with pain from a car accident he suffered 10 years ago. “I can either get it through a legal system of getting it,” he said. “Or I can go to a store that’s right next to my house.”
Ratzloff said most people he knows are looking for specific strains of pot and aren’t going to go through Health Canada.
Don Briere, founder of the Weeds franchise of pot shops in B.C., told council the distinction is arbitrary anyway.
“If people have a hard day and they go home and have a beer, wouldn’t you describe that as medication?” he asked.
One city resident said it shouldn’t matter why people want to consume marijuana. “It feels like people in power . . . are looking at it from the bottom of their beer glasses,” he said. “I’m an adult. I choose this substance over and above other substances.”
He said marijuana shops aren’t doing any harm. “We are not degenerates. We’re not high. We’re not impaired.”
Briere said Weeds stores are paying taxes and providing decent-paying jobs for employees.
Shane Escher, owner of the Lotusland Cannabis Club on Second Street said his store has been operating for two years and sells to 650 customers daily.
Rob Davis, an owner of the Lotusland chain of stores, said the company employs 25 people in North Vancouver.
He asked council to consider issuing existing pot shops temporary-use permits instead of forcing them to close.
Many of the pot shop owners and employees voiced alarm that the city might shut down their operations.
Council members were at pains Monday night to stress they aren’t against the sale of marijuana.
“This is not a moral issue,” said Coun. Craig Keating. Keating said the issue is whether to allow those who have jumped the gun on legalization to remain in business while the city sorts out how to regulate weed shops.
Keating said if an existing private liquor store decided to open a pot shop ahead of legalization, for instance, they would likely risk losing their provincial liquor licence.
Coun. Rod Clark said he was “the only one on council” who did not support a crackdown on existing pot shops, adding it’s so close to legalization now, it’s ridiculous to go after them.
Mayor Darrell Mussatto said he supports marijuana legalization but said regulations need to be in place for retail sales “to ensure young people do not have access to it.”
Bert Hick, a consultant in West Vancouver, compared the regulatory flux around marijuana to the way rules about liquor sales changed when he worked for the B.C. government’s liquor control department in the 1980s. Hick said he remembers the day then-premier Bill Bennett signed an order in council allowing bars to open on Sundays for the first time during Expo 86 – which later became permanent – and when the first private beer and wine stores were opened.
“Citizens are going to have access to marijuana. It’s happening,” he said. “Regulate it and be in control of it. Put into place the guidelines you want to have . . . so there is certainty in the community.”
But council members decided they need to have further in-camera discussions on legal issues before deciding how to proceed.
Pot shop regulations are expected to come back for debate at the next regular council meeting or soon after.
