City Takes Action On Pot Shops

The City of Vernon is taking action against storefront marijuana retailers.

Council has asked staff to develop a bylaw that, if passed, won’t allow the shops to operate, but Mayor Akbal Mund says the owners will be able to apply for a temporary use permit.

“The idea will be to issue temporary permits so we can get in and look at any safety issues, through fire inspection and Interior Health, whatever we need to do until the government actually comes up with the rules (by next July).”

Councillor Catherine Lord says the stores would be able to apply for a temporary permit to open again.

“It has to go through a public hearing for that and then we would grant a temporary use permit just until July when the actual legislation comes out, and then we’ll have some concrete regulations to work with” says Lord.

Lord doesn’t think the change will have much impact on the stores customers.

“A lot of people use marijuana for medical purposes where they don’t actually want to smoke it, but they want some other form. People use it for sleeping, all sorts of things,” Lord tells Kiss FM.

Lord says Vernon has about 12 cannabis dispensaries.

Councillor Scott Anderson says the temporary permits would be issued on a case by case basis.

“We know it’s going to be legalized, so on a practical level, it retains all the control of shutting them down without actually necessarily shutting them all down.”

Mund says he doesn’t know when the bylaw could be passed, but he says it could be a few months.

Meantime, the city is supporting UBCM’s role to speak on behalf of municipalities when it comes to the province regulating marijuana.

Mund says they want to make sure cities get a share of the tax revenues because cities will be dealing with most of the fall-out.

The City is also concerned that allowing people to grow up to four pot plants per home will have on neighbors especially in apartments.