Four Vancouver cannabis dispensaries that enjoy support from the community can pursue a coveted business licence despite operating closer to schools and community centres than allowed, says the independent panel that can grant exemptions to the city’s new bylaw.
But three other dispensaries are suing the city, arguing the five members on the Board of Variance unfairly rejected their appeals – under pressure from city staff – to operate within the 300-metre buffer zones.
On Wednesday, while thousands of cannabis users were celebrating at Vancouver’s Sunset Beach 4/20 party, B.C. Compassion Club Society founder Hilary Black was speaking at a hearing along with several patients and the non-profit’s long-time lawyer and prominent cannabis activist John Conroy.
Ms. Black, who started the non-profit dispensary in 1997, said the board recognized that her 6,000-member organization would have to shut down if it was required to move to a new location, further away from the two private schools that opened after Canada’s oldest dispensary was founded.
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