Vancouver finally gets its first private licensed cannabis store

Evergreen Cannabis Society owners received good news on Christmas Eve when they learned they will become the first licensed private cannabis retailer in Vancouver under B.C.’s new provincial cannabis laws.

The cannabis store is located at 2868 West 4th Ave. in Vancouver’s Kitsilano neighborhood. Co-founder Mike Babins said he is “very, very excited” over the legal opening coming up on Saturday morning, according to CBC Canada.

According to Babins, it has taken the company four years to get to this point and he credits strict adherence to the rules and regulations as the reason they were awarded the first license.

“We did this crazy, crazy, crazy thing: we followed the rules. We were completely open with them, we paid our taxes from day one. We tracked everything we ever purchased, we tested everything we purchased when we were a medicinal dispensary,” he said.

“You were able to trace everything we did,” he added, reports Global News.

The recreational use of cannabis is illegal in the Jewish state, but for the past 10 years its therapeutic use has not only been permitted but also encouraged

Jack Guez, AFP

Provincial licensing is strict
Of the 374 pot shops that have paid fees and submitted applications, just 217 of them have advanced to local governments or First Nations for a recommendation. Just four have been granted licenses.

According to the Provincial list, updated on December 24, besides Evergreen, Tamarack Cannabis and Earth’s Own Naturals in Kimberly and Weed Mart in Pouce Coupe received licenses. Then, there is the B.C. Cannabis Store in Kamloops.

Several dozen other cannabis businesses have earned development permits from the city, one of the first steps in the licensing process.

Marijuana

Cannabis Culture (CC BY 2.0)

Vancouver’s illegal pot shops
Vancouver still has its problem with unlicensed cannabis shops, despite the City back in early October endorsing a new policy that would bar any applicant currently operating an illegal pot shop.

Under the new policy, “operators of illegal pot shops would be permitted to run a legal shop if they close their store prior to Nov. 19, at which time the city will begin accepting applications. The situation prompted the city to launch a court case to get rid of some 53 of the illegal pot shops in September

In early December, the B.C. Supreme Court ruled in favor of the city of Vancouver, affirming its power to use “all the tools at the city’s disposal” to conduct enforcement on unlicensed operators. As of today, Vancouver has done nothing to enforce the law for the nearly 40 pot shops who don’t have a license or aren’t in the licensing process,