You’ll forgive us if we’re feeling a bit hazy. Despite tacitly allowing illegal pot shops for years, the City of North Vancouver has now been struck by a bout of prohibition-era prudishness, saying no to four out of six potential pot shops.
The aptly named 1st Cannabis on the 200 block of West First Street is likely the only one we’ll see open in 2019. BC Cannabis will be allowed to open a store at Park & Tilford – they just have to build it.
Unbeknownst to anyone, no stores will be allowed to front Lonsdale Avenue because the provincial/federal rule requiring opaque windows isn’t compatible with council’s plans to make Lonsdale feel like a “high street” – no pun intended.
We love the high street concept but if opacity was a deal-breaker, council should have been transparent about it before cashing the would-be proprietors’ $4,000 application cheques and sending them through the months-long rezoning process.
On other applications, councillors offered no issue with legalization – and then let old stigmas guide them to nay votes.
Sadly, the city is still the leader on the North Shore. The District of North Van is only just getting around to forming its rules – although they appear to be leaning away from a micro-managed approval process. And, ever the laggards, West Van council has banned cannabis sales and has no plans to revisit the issue in fall or early 2020.
We remind all of them cannabis is legal and, in time, we’ll think no more of pot shops than we do breweries or wine stores.
Let’s not suffer more reefer madness.
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