The Karuna Health Foundation has filed a development application for its weed shop at 3636 West 4th Avenue.
The store is one of two Vancouver locations by the business, the other being at 4510 Victoria Street, which has a development permit from the city.
Karuna directors Bonnie Johnstone and Sacha Canow submitted a letter to the city as part of the application for the West Side store called the Metta Lounge.
In the letter, the two emphasized the good conduct of the business and its staff as one of the reasons why the store, which has been operating for some time, should get a permit.
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They cited the cleanliness of the premises.
“We dispose of our garbage weekly. We chose to rent a waste garbage bin from ‘Progressive Waste Removal’ company that is locked at all times,” according to Johnstone and Canow. “We also recycle but because we do not want to attract any bottle collectors, we chose to gather the recyclables and we bring them home once a week…”
Moreover, “All other products are also disposed of off site. We feel any scattered garbage from any neighbor…we will get the blame because we are a ‘potshop’, so we are consistently cleaning the entire back lane alley way and littered debris from the abandoned buildings.”
With respect to smoking, Johnstone and Canow wrote that this not allowed.
“If a member or even a person walking past our building smoking, we have kindly asked them to move,” the two retailers wrote. “We don’t like how we get the blame if a neighboring business allows their patrons to smoke beside our building. But we have discussed with fellow businesses and we all agreed no smoking should be done anywhere around the businesses and therefore should go around the block to have a cigarette.”
They also said that members of the weed dispensary have been “banned for even just smoking cigarettes around the front door”.
Johnstone and Canow also said that employees do not hang around after business hours.
“It is mandatory that all staff leave together at closing time and must be away from the premises no later than 9pm ever,” their letter stated.
The city is accepting comments from the public about the development application until May 10, 2019.
