Free joints and cookies are being handed out at Healthy Lifestyle dispensary on Commercial Dr. in Vancouver May 1, 2015.John Lehmann/The Globe and Mail
Many people strolling bohemian Commercial Drive simply smirked as they saw the dispensary's sidewalk sandwich board advertising its "grand reopening" with the offer of a free joint or pot cookie.
Some climbed the stairs, passed the prominent "No Minors" sign and stepped inside Health Lifestyle's second-floor shop, where friendly staff were busy restocking the shelves Friday afternoon with glass bongs and a variety of buds, butters and edibles. The dispensary planned to hand out a free joint or cookie to any member over this weekend to celebrate reopening after a Feb. 5 police raid.
Dispensaries giving away product like this are pushing the unwritten limits of what constitutes an unacceptable risk to public safety, Vancouver Police spokesman Constable Brian Montague said.
"What they're doing is illegal anyway, but what I will say is with things like this activity, you run the risk of unwanted police attention," Constable Montague said.
Three years ago, roughly 20 dispensaries dotted Vancouver's streets. Now, more than 80 dispensaries face the prospect of the city limiting where they can set up shop and charging them a licensing fee of $30,000. On Tuesday, city council voted to proceed to public hearings on its regulatory plans, which the Conservative federal government has strongly opposed, calling for a shutdown of the dispensaries.
However, even under the proposed regulatory framework, the VPD will still have to investigate public-safety complaints against the shops, something Constable Montague said doesn't happen that often but usually involves risks to minors.
Police took the unusual step of executing the search warrant against Health Lifestyle three months ago after complaints that the dispensary was selling magic mushrooms and marijuana to local high-school students, Constable Montague said.
He said the only clear set of rules for the illegal dispensaries to abide by is the Canadian Criminal Code, but there are a few "no brainers" that will attract police attention, such as selling to minors, links to organized crime, a fire hazard in the building or setting up shop under residential units.
In the past year and a half, the VPD has raided eight other dispensaries, with the "youth factor" playing a part in all the investigations, Constable Montague said. (Only Jim's Weed Lounge on East Hastings Street has remained closed.)
"Kids are getting violently ill because it usually revolves around edibles," he said. "And if you look at the problems that they're having in the States where these stores are legal, they're having issues and they're trying to determine regulations around edibles because they're problematic. From a police perspective, providing products to 14-, 15- and 16-year-olds that send them to hospital is a real concern for us."
On Wednesday, police raided a Weeds Glass and Gifts dispensary in Kitsilano after a 15-year-old allegedly ate some edibles bought at the store and had to be sent to hospital, the constable said.
Don Briere, who owns part of each of the 11 Weeds Glass and Gifts franchises across Vancouver, said police seized around $2,000 worth of cannabis product and all the cash in the till, but the store was back operating the next day. He said no employee has been charged yet, but if police do find that someone sold to minors, "boom, he's fired."
Mr. Briere, a recreational cannabis crusader who was jailed for running one of the province's largest networks of illegal grow operations in the nineties, said he respected the VPD's duty to investigate the complaint, but questioned why a liquor store doesn't get raided after a minor gets alcohol poisoning.
Back at Health Lifestyle, non-members could get their free joint or cookie after a five-minute sign-up process that involved declaring how cannabis helped treat a medical condition and included promising not to sell the product or use it with alcohol. As staff helped customers buy a variety of products and paraphernalia, a uniformed security guard with handcuffs stood by the entrance.
Mike Hager