Get the Top, Local stories delivered to your inbox! Click here to join the daily Vernon Matters newsletter.

Lumby To Move Slowly On Marijuana

Feb 13, 2018 | 7:18 AM

Lumby is one community that will canvas it’s residents before deciding on how to deal with recreational marijuana.

Mayor Kevin Acton says it’s good municipalities are going to have some control.

“We’re not going to have a big town hall meeting and have everybody come together and argue about how it’s going to work. But we certainly are going to go to the public and we’re going to do some surveys and we’re going to talk to some people.”

Acton says it doesn’t make sense to rush in when there are still a lot of unknowns.

He says Lumby will do its due diligence.

“We’d like to investigate Washington and  some of the other states that have done it and try not to repeat some of the mistakes they’ve made and see if we can come up with best practices before we even start.”

He says council will have another discussion next week on what it’s learned.

Acton thinks a go slow approach is best for anyone considering opening a marijuana dispensary.

He also has no idea where a dispensary could go in Lumby.

“We want to make sure that we listen to people. You know for example. one of the discussions we had is, you know, would we let it in our commercial section. Well, our downtown core is like 200 feet from our crossroads and high school.”

The province has said regulations for rural communities would come later.

It’s not clear if Lumby would come under those guidelines or regulations for larger communities.