Lower Mainland mayors are keeping a close eye on Vancouver’s plan to regulate the over-the-counter sale of medicinal marijuana.

Burnaby mayor Derek Corrigan told the Straight that in his city, the RCMP has been quick to act against anybody who’s tried to open a storefront dispensary. He said councillors are monitoring the situation in Vancouver, noting that attitudes are changing.

“When Washington and Colorado legalized marijuana, I think the dam was broken,” he explained. “There no longer is respect for laws against marijuana. That means there has to be a form of regulation.”

Legal repercussions from operating a Washington state facility unclear

Experts are uncertain whether it’s legal for Vancouver-based medical marijuana producer Aurora Cannabis to build a facility in Washington state that will cultivate recreational pot | Photo: Shutterstock

Nowadays, a checklist for travellers heading south through the Peace Arch border crossing might include deals on eggs, shoes and – while they can’t admit it to U.S. federal border guards – recreational marijuana.

And with a U.S. market that dwarfs that of his native Canada, Terry Booth doesn’t see why companies north of the border can’t capitalize on the legal weed available to consumers in states like Alaska, Washington and Colorado.

Vancouver city council is debating how to best control the over-the-counter sale of medicinal marijuana. A proposed regulatory framework will eventually bring dozens of illegal businesses out of the shadows.

Exactly how many dispensaries exist and where they are located has been something of a mystery.

The College of Physicians and Surgeons of British Columbia has released a new, updated version of their standard on Marijuana for Medical Purposes today.

Whonnockians lined the seats at City hall Monday afternoon at a committee of the whole meeting, where two local environmentalists presented a detailed report regarding the 40,000 square foot medical marijuana facility under construction in Whonnock.
Klaus and Betty von Hardenberg, who are a part of an organization known as the Thornhill Aquifer Protection Study (TAPS), posed a number of questions to council regarding the contentious greenhouse facility.
The most pressing of these questions: “how could this have happened, and why?”

VANCOUVER - Don Briere stands behind the counter at Weeds Glass and Gifts in downtown Vancouver, surrounded by shelves of multicoloured pipes and clear boxes overflowing with fragrant B.C. bud.

The affable 63-year-old owns 10 stores, making him the owner of the city's largest marijuana business chain, even though selling pot over the counter remains illegal in Canada.

When asked how a customer would buy cannabis, Briere says all one needs is photo ID and proof of a medical condition that might be alleviated by pot — for example, a prescription for pain medication or a bottle of antidepressants.

"We're making it easy for people to get ahold of a real medication that is natural and safe for you," he says proudly. "Every day we sign people up. Every day."

"I could't even eat this morning," said medical marijuana patient Anne Genovy as she sat in the front row of audience seats in Vancouver's Federal Court on Thursday. 

"My hands were shaking. The weed relaxes me, but not knowing where I'll get it (marijuana) from or if I'll be arrested is torture."

Genovy is one of an estimated more than 175,000 people with a doctor's recommendation to use marijuana as medicine.

Collectively, they wait to exhale as Federal Court Justice Michael Phelan weighs evidence in Allard V. Health Canada. At stake is the future of who will supply patient prescriptions and who is allowed to grow marijuana in Canada.

After a six week break the case has returned for summations.

VANCOUVER — Medical marijuana users’ fight to continue growing their own plants is now in the hands of a Federal Court judge after lawyers delivered their final arguments in Vancouver late last week.

New rules that force patients to purchase medical marijuana from licensed commercial growers ensure they are supplied with safe, good quality marijuana that is grown by industry producers who are subject to stringent standards and government oversight, federal lawyers told the court.

But lawyers for the plaintiffs argued the new rules are overly restrictive and by making marijuana unaffordable for their clients — all B.C. patients — the regulations infringe their rights to liberty and security under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

A who’s who of British Columbia’s medicinal marijuana industry is gathering in Vancouver on May 7.

The event, a forum hosted by Lift Cannabis Inc., features some of the most experienced suppliers from across Canada and promises to attract stakeholders from both the legal and illegal sides of the business.

David Brown, a spokesperson for Lift Cannabis, told the Straight the conversation was originally scheduled to focus on Canada’s official medicinal marijuana production and distribution system that exists under the Conservative government’s Marijuana for Medical Purposes Regulations (MMPR).

Cities and the people who live within them, should be able to have a say in where medical marijuana operations set up within their boundaries, says the mayor of Maple Ridge.

"It should be a formal requirement that Health Canada make the location of these potential sites known to the public and hold a public meeting and consider the comments of our citizens in determining if such a facility should be considered for licensing in our city," Nicole Read said in a release Friday.

The mayor wrote to federal Health Minister Rona Ambrose pointing out there's no formal public process relating to locations of medical marijuana facilities in Maple Ridge.