RICHMOND, B.C., ONE OF THE CITIES THAT’S TAKING A HARD LINE.
Southern suburb taking hard line on retail sales
Dina Morgan has been using cannabis for most of her adult life — both recreationally and, she says, for the treatment of PTSD and anxiety.
Whenever she gets low on stock, Morgan, who lives near Steveston village in Richmond, B.C., has to drive north across the Fraser River to Vancouver. That’s because her city council has prohibited marijuana dispensaries and has vowed to keep any form of retail cannabis stores — public or private — from opening after legalization takes effect.
“I’d love to jump into Steveston and not have to worry about schlepping through traffic. It’s very inconvenient,” she said.
Despite being next door to cannabis-friendly Vancouver, Richmond has taken a rigid — some say archaic — stance when it comes to pot access. Whichever way the municipal elections go this Saturday, that stance does not appear likely to change; debate on the issue has been fairly muted during the campaign.
The city isn’t the only municipality putting up a fight against legal marijuana. In Ontario, Richmond Hill and Markham have both voiced their opposition to dispensaries, and the Progressive Conservative government has given municipalities until Jan. 22 to opt out of the retail pot system. Meanwhile, in Taber, Alta. — which had previously banned spitting, swearing and loitering — the council narrowly passed a bylaw to allow cannabis stores late last month.
For a time, there was one business allegedly selling marijuana products without a licence across the street from Richmond city hall. But the WeeMedical Wellness Center shut down after the RCMP raided the business twice in early 2017. During the second search, police said they found baked goods and other edibles concealed in an ATM machine in the store.
Not only has the city outlawed any form of retail cannabis, it will also only let one cannabis production facility operate in the city — and only on industrial, not agricultural, land.
“Their decision was primarily driven by concerns about the unknowns related to the impacts of legalization, including lack of clarity around many regulatory and enforcement issues and no confirmation on how municipalities will be compensated for the extra costs we will incur as a result,” said city spokesman Ted Townsend.
“Certainly, community values were considered and many councillors were clear that they did not want to see the type of proliferation of dispensaries/stores that has taken place in other communities pre-legalization.”
Over the past year, city councillors have shown little appetite to soften their stance.
“It’s a medically known fact marijuana is a drug and is harmful to any individual who consumes it .... So let’s not beat around the bush,” Coun. Bill McNulty said during one council meeting.
McNulty recalled how in his early years as a secondary-school counsellor, he lost several students to drug-related deaths.
“I don’t want to see one child in Richmond or any other part of the country be lost because they were smoking pot and got behind the car,” he said.
“I want to see Richmond remain a clean city.”
At the same meeting, Coun. Derek Dang expressed concern that cannabis was a gateway drug, despite a lack of research to support that claim.
“I’m just concerned, you start with (marijuana) and you end up with kids — we have kids dying of fentanyl. It’s a step-by-step process,” Dang said.
“We’re of the generation that had the Furry Freak Brothers or Cheech and Chong who made it look like it was entertaining. But it’s one of those things that, over prolonged use, it does affect a person’s ability to actually think lucidly and to react in a proper way.”
Richmond resident John Rose, a human geographer at Kwantlen Polytechnic University, said the council’s prohibition of retail cannabis is not surprising when you consider the demographics of the city.
More than half the population is ethnically Chinese. While no group is monolithic and there are bound to be exceptions, “my observations from living in Richmond for 20 years are that on social policy the views of ethnic Chinese residents tend to skew to the conservative end,” he wrote in an email.
“Couple what I think is a comparatively widespread position on cannabis legalization among Richmond’s ethnic Chinese residents with shared views among (select) factions of non-ethnic Chinese residents, and you have a degree of public sentiment that political leaders ignore at their own peril.”
Still, a few candidates running for city council have decided to buck the trend and take a pro-retail cannabis stance. The first to go public was Jason Tarnow, a criminal lawyer.
“I don’t think it’s political suicide,” he said. “Legalization is coming whether you like it or not.”
Tarnow told the Post many on the current council have taken to “fear mongering” and have ignored the fact that tax revenue generated from regulated cannabis stores can be pumped back into city infrastructure and programs.
Hanging on to 1940s era “reefer madness” will only allow neighbourhood drug dealers to continue to thrive, he added.
Since Tarnow went public with his favourable stance on retail cannabis, about a dozen other candidates have joined him, according to The Richmond News. Almost all incumbents, including Mayor Malcolm Brodie, however, remain opposed.
Morgan said she hopes the election will bring about a change in direction. Since the federal government announced it was moving forward with legalization, Morgan has been drawing up plans to open her own edibles store that would offer products in a range of potencies from “small” to “medium” to “whoa, baby.”
She said she envisions hiring dozens of local people to run her production and retail operations. There’s no reason the vast swaths of agricultural land in the city can’t accommodate food and cannabis production, she said.
“They need to hear more from the other side .... It’s beyond frustrating,” she said, adding that she’s prepared to move to another city if she has to.
Fellow Richmond resident and daily cannabis user Marc Longstaffe agrees. “It’s not 1950 anymore,” he said.
Longstaffe said he’s looked into the option of purchasing cannabis online, but is worried the paper trail from such transactions could open him up to scrutiny by U.S. authorities at the border.
At least one of Canada’s big licensed producers, Aurora Cannabis, has been trying to appeal directly to city councillors to re-think their opposition.
Dang forwarded an email he received recently from Bryan MacLeod, the company’s government relations manager.
Allowing regulated retail cannabis stores can help reduce “grey market” cannabis, help keep cannabis away from minors and provide jobs and local revenue, MacLeod wrote.
Dang was not moved. “Everyone is entitled to their opinion,” he said. “I don’t need to agree.”
I WANT TO SEE RICHMOND REMAIN A CLEAN CITY.