I seen The Province news paper the other day.. Swat teams raided a lot of dispensaries around the Vancouver area.
Today i see in my area of BC 5 dispensaries have shut down now..
This sucks just as we're making progress with things we go in reverse.
http://www.castanet.net/news/Vernon/153503/Dispensaries-stop-salesFive medical marijuana dispensaries have stopped selling product to clients, at least temporarily, following police warnings they are operating outside of the law, according to a press release.
“Vernon dispensaries will have no product on site and will not be conducting retail sales. The activities we were warned about will stop,” said Imre Kovacs, owner of The Herbal Health Centre (THHC), and acting spokesperson for the group.
“We will implement an open-house policy and staff will be on hand to answer questions and concerns from patients about accessing their medicine. The public will be able to enter the facilities and talk with staff,” Kovacs said.
Dispensary owners complain of “confusion” over the anticipated legalization of cannabis by the new federal government, following a campaign pledge by Justin Trudeau to legalize recreation use of the drug.
Kovacs calls for a moratorium on any further RCMP intervention in the industry until the new government formalizes plans for the legalization of the product.
“The current actions of the RCMP are not helping the situation and are putting medical patient cannabis users in a state of tension and threatening the survival of dispensaries,” Kovacs said.
“We realize evolving transparent laws and regulations will take time and we support the notion that this must happen to arrive at sensible and workable laws that will regulate cannabis for medical and social purposes."
The City of Vernon and RCMP “were fully aware of our business intentions months and years in advance of us opening and we understood that we were operating under a non-enforcement policy with their tacit approval.
“We have complied with all the direction and feedback we received from these officials and have operated openly, transparently and responsibly.”
Kovacs said the dispensaries serve a membership of about 10,000 patients.
“We have a responsibility to look after their health needs,” he said.
The part owner of MMJ Total Health dispensary, Jeff Gaudette, confirmed the halt in sales is expected to be temporary.
“We're seeing how it goes this week,” said Gaudette, speaking from Vancouver where he has been in meetings on the issue.
He said a lawyer had been hired.
“We're always operating on the defence,” Gaudette added.
He said the five facilities did not want to be called dispensaries anymore and would rather be referred to as patient access centres or patient providers.
