'It's attacking our most vulnerable': Pa

‘It’s attacking our most vulnerable’: Patients react to Herb’s Healing Center closure

May 21, 2019 | 7:15 PM

A medical marijuana store that serves roughly 2800 patients will now close as of 6 p.m. Tuesday, May 21.

Russ Stevenson, the owner of Herb’s Healing Center, says he was approached by the Community Safety Unit and was told to shut down or a face a $5 million fine.

Last January, Stevenson and the City of Vernon entered into an agreement so that he could get a special use permit to operate from the date marijuana is legalized until he receives his license, but Stevenson has not received provincial approval.

“They had given us a certain period of time that the license had to be on the wall. The problem with that is we can’t control the speed government works. So we have no way of saying, yes it is going to be on the wall in three weeks,” said Stevenson.

‘It helped him with a quality of life that he would of never had’

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A local family says Herb’s Healing Center helped give their terminally ill family member a chance at life.

Julia Berschley’s son battled a vicious form of cancer for 10 years.

He passed away last December, but Berschley remains adamant that pot is what helped him live for so long.

“With Herb’s being here it helped him with a quality of life that he would of never had along with his treatments,” she said.

20-year-old Bryce Kennedy spent half his life watching his father battle cancer.

“With Herb’s Healing Center being so close and within access range from both Hospice House and our home, we were able to bring him here repeatedly, during his end of life time, and give him time out of Hospice House,” said Kennedy.

The family says they have tried different dispensaries both online and in store but the quality is not the same.

“These gold-foiled bags were all full of pan leaf and stick and stem and just garbage, it was like smoking the worst part of the plant,” said Kennedy about one online dispensary they ordered from.

The decision to close Herb’s Healing Center has patients and Stevenson himself upset that legalization is catering to recreational users as opposed to those who use cannabis for a medical purpose.

“Why are we attacking our most vulnerable people? My dad was disabled physically like he could not get out and do things, there is no way he could make the drive to The Green Mile or to Kamloops,”said Kennedy.

Stevenson wants the government to make medical marijuana licenses a priority as opposed to those geared for recreation.

“People have prescriptions from doctors for this product and we are making them the ones who are restricted. How about we restrict the recreational people and we do everything that is needed for the medical people?” he said.

Until changes are made to the licensing system, Stevenson says he has also applied for his recreational license and may sell again in the future, even though he does not want to sell “the moldy crap” from the provincial government.