The director of Sensible B.C. is mobilizing public support for 29 Vancouver cannabis dispensaries not licensed by the provincial government.
In an email to the group’s supporters, Dana Larsen points out that medical patients are finding it more difficult to access cannabis now than before weed was legalized last October.
He also claims that City of Vancouver officials are ‘pressuring many dispensaries to close’, adding that three Cannabis Culture locations have already shut down.
‘The need for medical cannabis dispensaries has not diminished,’ Larsen writes. ‘This is the wrong time for a crackdown!’
He’s hoping that 1,000 people email or phone Mayor Kennedy Stewart, Green councillor Adriane Carr, and NPA councillor Rebecca Bligh over the next two weeks. Larsen wants Sensible B.C. supporters to express their support for holding off on police raids and allowing dispensaries to sell medical cannabis.
‘Despite the risk, I have decided to keep my dispensaries open, as have several other dispensaries,’ Larsen reveals in his email. ‘City officials have been threatening to forcibly close our doors at the end of January. We’re not sure what’s going to happen.’
He emphasizes that he’s not against the legal licensing system. But he worries that there’s not enough legal cannabis to meet the demand.
‘They’re saying it could be three years until there’s enough licensed growers for the legal market to work! Patients can’t wait that long.’
In Larsen’s email to supporters, he also mentions that the town of Gibsons on the Sunshine Coast has allowed a dispensary to operate for another year even though it hasn’t been licensed by the province.
