Is it high time for a Revelstoke cannabis dispensary?

Cannabis sativa, otherwise known as marijuana. It’s the pungent smell emanating from Jay’s backpack when he opens it to see what’s left of his supply. Just a few nuggets of bright green bud remain from the half-ounce he purchased from a Nelson, B.C. dispensary just a few weeks earlier. He’s upset, not because this particularly good kind is hard to find, but because he can’t seem to find any marijuana at all here in Revelstoke.

Marijuana dispensaries have sprouted up all across B.C. in the last five years. There are roughly 75 concentrated around Vancouver, where city authorities and police have allowed them to operate largely without prosecution. It’s a similar story in Nelson, which has eight dispensaries serving a population of 10,000. Some of these retail dispensaries sell marijuana openly, to anyone over 19 years of age, with or without a doctor’s prescription. Given that a large part of Revelstoke’s economy relies on fun-seeking visitors, could a dispensary open here?

“If I could sell marijuana legally here in Revelstoke, I would.” says Dinah Collette, owner of the Spice O’ Life Emporium.

Spice o’ Life owner Dinah Colette at her Revelstoke shop, which sells a variety of smoking products. Photo: Eliisa Tennant/Revelstoke Mountaineer

Although Dinah’s shop specializes in adult products, including paraphernalia often associated with marijuana use, selling marijuana itself would be illegal under federal law in Canada. On their website, the Department of Justice bluntly notes: “Possessing and selling marijuana for non-medicinal purposes is still illegal everywhere in Canada.” Currently, the only way to access marijuana legally is to get a doctor’s prescription, purchase it from a licensed medical supplier, and receive it through the mail. Or drive out of town with your prescription.

“If a marijuana dispensary attempted to operate in Revelstoke we would be seeking warrants and tending to the location to seize items because they are illegal. From a law enforcement perspective, it‘s the same as cocaine, or heroin, or fentanyl,” says Staff-Sgt. Kurt Grabinsky, the top police officer at the local RCMP detachment. On three occasions, local proponents have queried the RCMP on this topic and been told “absolutely not.”

So how do dispensaries in other municipalities seem to clone themselves so rapidly with few repercussions? It’s basically a question of who is enforcing the law and to what extent. Both Vancouver and Nelson employ their own city police forces, rather than contracting the service to the RCMP, and that allows those municipalities to instruct police to prioritize more serious crimes and to essentially ignore marijuana retailers. In contrast, dispensaries in RCMP-contracted cities like Kelowna and Vernon operate under a constant legal threat and have been shut down in the past. Undaunted, many reopen just days after a bust.

The shaky legal ground on which dispensaries operate may solidify if the Trudeau administration follows through on their 2015 campaign pledge to decriminalize marijuana completely. On April 20, 2016 the administration announced that proposed legislation changes would be ready in one year. This is a welcome announcement for activists like Dana Larsen and Marc Emery who have long sought an end to the prohibition of the cultivation and sale of marijuana, as well as amnesty for those convicted of marijuana offences.

But don’t expect to see a local joint cashing in on the Revelstoke market anytime soon — a business license from the City of Revelstoke may not be forthcoming.

“The city does not have a process and requirements for a business that wants to sell marijuana for recreational use,” explains City of Revelstoke Chief Administrative Officer Allan Chabot.

Most municipalities have a a number of concerns about getting into the business of regulating retail cannabis shops. Unlike most retail products that are regulated by federal and provincial agencies, marijuana and its associated derivatives can vary greatly in potency and purity. In other words, you don’t know exactly what you’re getting and that’s a major safety concern for municipalities.

Furthermore, there may be philosophical opposition from local residents. Jill Zacharias, Revelstoke’s Social Development Coordinator, points out that the city strives to reduce substance abuse through community outreach, and that proposed tax-generators such as casinos have met strong opposition here.

But without legal dispensaries, the default option for many marijuana users is the black market. To many, the benefits of dispensaries are clear: a safer alternative to black market sources, and taxable revenue taken out of the pockets of organized crime.

Until such time when this legal impasse is sorted out, Jay will have to find an alternate source. Luckily for him, just a few minutes of internet investigation reveals numerous online marijuana retailers willing to sell and ship up to two ounces with only a proof of age. It’s a shockingly simple way for dispensaries to sidestep many of the issues faced by brick-and-mortar shops and, given the claims made by many websites that neither they nor their clients have ever faced prosecution, it seems quite effective. With just a few clicks, Jay’s order is on its way, scheduled to arrive via Canada Post in two days.

Trying to make sense of this hazy issue is enough to make your head spin, and it’s going to take some time to hash things out.

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Update: As this story went to press, a B.C. Supreme court judge issued a ruling that said municipalities do have the right to regulate marijuana dispensaries.

The case centred on an Abbotsford dispensary’s legal challenge against the local municipality, which had tried to shut it down.

Lawyers for the dispensary argued the city’s actions violated the constitutional rights of medical marijuana users.

In a ruling, the judge said that although cannabis is regulated by the federal government, that doesn’t mean that a lower authority like a municipality can’t also regulate it.

The decision ads some more smoke to an already hazy situation.

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This story originally appeared in the March edition of the Revelstoke Mountaineer Magazine.

Correction: In our story, Is it high time for a Revlstoke cannabis dispensary? (March, 2016), we wrongly attributed a statement to City of Revelstoke staff. The statement said the city had concerns about regulating potency and purity. In fact, that statement expressed one general concern municipalities have about regulating cannabis dispensaries, and should not have been attributed to city staff. We regret the error. The story posted to the revelstokemountaineer.com website was posted with corrections.