The always-changing menu at The Medicinal Cannabis Dispensary’s Thurlow location.
Will the legal battle with the city affect The Medicinal Cannabis Dispensary’s mail order cannabis service?
No, not at all. In fact, there are plenty of mail-order and home delivery services that are picking up steam. Ultimately, any success they have in closing down storefront dispensaries will only be replaced by other forms of cannabis access that are harder to interfere with.
I think we will see a lot more mail order services in Canada and we’ll continue to see that grow because the fact is, whatever the substance, if you overtax it and treat it too harshly, there’s going to be a thriving underground market.
We have that with tobacco even though it’s been legal in Canada for a very long time! In Ontario, for instance, some studies said that up to half of the tobacco sold in the province is not legal because it’s taxed so high that it’s lucrative to sell untaxed tobacco, and I think we’re going to see the same thing with cannabis. These taxes, restrictions, and lack of access (and often low quality cannabis) will result in the legal market staying quite small and most people continuing to purchase from the black market.
I’m happy Canada is legalizing and going through this transition but unless they open things up and do a much better job making it accessible, I think we’ll have problems like lack of access, delays and stigma in Canada for years to come.
The Medicinal Cannabis Dispensary on Thurlow is home to many medical cannabis patients.
Given Vancouver has only licensed 3 dispensaries in the 3 months since legalization, do you feel that The Medicinal Cannabis Dispensary is better off for staying open?
I think we’re making the right decision to stay open, and we’ve actually been getting busier in the last few weeks because other dispensaries are closing and people are losing access, and we’re seeing an increase in people seeking cannabis from a safe source and we’re one of the only games in town for that.
While I’m glad that the city is licensing other shops and this is moving forward, it’s going to be a problem for quite a while and I’d rather the government focused on getting their act together in creating a reliable legal system for cannabis rather than focusing on shutting down people who are only doing what the government and Canada decided needs to be done, which is making cannabis available to adults who want them.
Until they can do a better job than what we’re doing, I think they should leave us alone.
It’s very interesting because in the city of Gibson, a small town off the Sunshine Coast, the city council has just issued a business license to a local dispensary called
S & M Medicinal Treats. The’re not licensed under federal or provincial law, but Gibsons gave them a permit to continue operating and providing medical cannabis because they see a need for it in Gibsons.
So Gibsons can offer a temporary permit to a dispensary there that’s not compliant with provincial or federal law, but a major city like Vancouver, which has actually had dispensaries for 20 years, can’t?
I’d love to see some temporary permits issued by Vancouver to dispensaries, especially ones focused on medical use.
What would change at your dispensary if you did get licensed?
I’m in an interesting situation because
The Medicinal Cannabis Dispensary has two locations, and the one in the West End on Thurlow could probably get a provincial permit and operate. It has a development permit and we were moving forward, and I guess I’ll apply, but I’m really torn because even if the province and city came in tomorrow and said we could have a legal dispensary, we’d have to stop selling all the products we’re selling now and order from the BC wholesale cannabis branch.
On one hand I’d be tempted but on the other hand, it would not only mean letting go of most of my staff and a huge reduction in the business we’re doing, I would have to turn away thousands of members and tell them, “You can come shop from me now, but I don’t know what kind of cannabis I’m going to have and more importantly, all these other products you’ve been relying on… maybe i’ll have them again in a few years when the government gets its act together.”
I’d have a very hard time telling my members with conditions like cancer, AIDS, or epilepsy that I couldn’t help them for a few years.
I want the permit and I want to operate within the legal system, but I don’t want to say goodbye to my members and turn them away if I don’t have to, and I’m not the only dispensary owner who’s feeling the challenge of wanting to comply and yet having a higher obligation to the members. Those two things are not compatible at this time unfortunately.
How else does your dispensary help the community?
There’s other things we do, too. My dispensary has long been donating cannabis to the
Overdose Prevention Society run by
Sarah Blyth on East Hastings. For over a year, we provided them with cannabis for free which they would either sell or give away to opioid users who needed cannabis.
We wouldn’t be able to do that under the legal system.
We also donate to the
Cannabis Substitution Project that Neil Magnuson runs out of the VANDU (
Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users) offices and he gives out cannabis donated by us and other dispensaries to people who could really use cannabis as a substitution to opioids.
All of these things are forbidden under the legal system.
It’s strange how on one hand, the city is so progressive when it comes to InSite and clean needle exchanges because they realize the value in harm-reduction, but when it comes to cannabis, the city is trying to shut down dispensaries providing an alternative to opiods.
I wouldn’t say that the city council is harshly anti-cannabis, and certainly many cities have been much more restrictive about dispensaries and cannabis access, but I do think Vancouver could be doing a lot more.
And you’re absolutely right, there is a hypocrisy there when we recognize and implement harm-reduction strategies, which I very much support, but to offer safe places for opioid and injection drug users while denying safe places for cannabis users and prohibiting smoking indoors and any kind of a lounge
And prohibiting us from getting a permit to use cannabis in a park for a public event and stigmatizing cannabis more than opioids, nevermind alcohol and tobacco, that’s a real hypocrisy and we really should be supporting cannabis giveaways and subsidized cannabis for opioid users to reduce overdose deaths and to stop people from having to choose from opioids or being in great pain. There are a lot of options and cannabis is one of them.
In the USA they’ve been finding that states with dispensaries have significantly lower overdose death rates and opioid use than states that restrict cannabis.
In the middle of an opioid crisis it’s the wrong time to be experimenting with shutting down dispensaries and taking these kinds of actions. They should be subsidizing and supporting cannabis for vulnerable communities.
The Medicinal Cannabis Dispensary on Hastings.
Anything else?
I hope that people who read this contact Vancouver Mayor
Kennedy Stewart, but be polite, these people are not our enemies. Our elected officials need to know that people want dispensaries to continue operating and don’t want to see a crackdown.
We need to know politicians that we’re paying attention and there will be repercussions if they come down too heavily.
We just need things to slow down, get some perspective, and let the legal system move forward a bit more before we start taking any drastic action.
There's a pretty fine line in there somewhere, lol!
