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EDITORIAL: Higher ground

In a textbook case of reduced reaction time, City of North Vancouver council voted in March to shut down every pot shop in the city – including one that just celebrated its third anniversary.
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In a textbook case of reduced reaction time, City of North Vancouver council voted in March to shut down every pot shop in the city – including one that just celebrated its third anniversary.

This week, in a meeting that didn’t attract a single outraged resident, council listened to a litany from pot-ponents before electing to ask for yet more legal advice before acting.

The collision between overzealous entrepreneurs who felt it was better to beg forgiveness, and a municipal government unmotivated to do much about the weed stores, has created a grey area in which nobody occupies the moral high ground.

When the first shop eluded a crackdown, four more stores moved in to grab a piece of the budding market. The city tried leveling $100 and $400 fines but the stores – perhaps because they’re hawking $11 cookies and more hybrids than the average car dealership – seemed unperturbed.

Now, with nationwide legalization a season away, council seems determined to open the blind eye they’ve been turning to the shops. A shutdown would’ve been sensible in 2015 but would almost certainly be pyrrhic in 2018.

Temporary use permits are likely the best method to save the city from a court battle, and serve the shops’ current customers.

Rather than nipping the pot shops in the bud, city staff’s time would be better spent drafting intelligent rules to govern marijuana outlets following legalization.

When the time comes to make permanent policy and have input into who should get a licence, the city may well show the same respect to the shops that jumped the queue that those shops showed to the city in recent years.

The fight for legalization is ending.

It’s time for our righteous crusaders to get down to being responsible businesses.

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