Many cannabis dispensaries in Vancouver were recently told to close their doors by the end of the month, but one of them is promising to remain open still. The Medicinal Marijuana Dispensary will stay open in spite of regulations requiring them to shut down. Activist Dana Larsen, the founding direction of this dispensary, says “We’re not going to close.”
Larsen says that the dispensary was the first of it’s kind in Vancouver. “We were the third one in the city and the first to call ourselves a dispensary,” Dana said. His non-profit dispensaries were both rejected by the city’s new regulations. The Thurlow location was found to be within 300 metres of a learning center, and therefore posed a risk to children. Larsen defending this by saying “The kids are all under 10 and they’re not going to be out looking for marijuana.”
He is anticipating that he will have to fight the city in court over this issue. “We’re being treated twice as severely as alcohol,” Larsen noted. He mentions the side effects of closing this large number of dispensaries at once, “If they close down the dispensaries, all it will do is push pot back underground to where it’s not regulated and controlled – no age limits, no taxes.”
The dispensaries are to receive $250 fines initially, but the city will go to the courts to seek an injunction if they still refuse to close down. Many other dispensaries have appealed to the Board of Variance because of this issue.