Langford launches new bid to block marijuana dispensary
The City of Langford has filed a civil injunction to once again shut down Green Tree Medical Dispensary, continuing an effort to block pot shops looking to gain a foothold in the municipality.
“We have filed the civil action on behalf of the City of Langford and the legal action has commenced,” Troy DeSouza, a lawyer at Dominion GovLaw LLP, told the Times Colonist on Tuesday.
DeSouza said bylaw enforcement officers plan to serve the injunction to the dispensary today.
The business has 21 days to respond and if it contests the injunction, the matter could end up before the courts.
If the court finds the business is in breach of Langford’s bylaws, it will make an order to cease operations. “Our position is that the bylaws apply equally to all businesses and that this is simply a business that needs to be regulated,” De Souza said.
Langford bylaw enforcement officers have already issued a stop-work order that could see the business fined $200 a day for operating without a business licence.
Employee Harley Thompson told the Times Colonist that the dispensary will pay the fine as a cost of doing business.
Langford Mayor Stew Young said a business that openly flouts the law is not going to fly in his community.
“Obviously they’re ignoring the stop-work order. They believe they’re entitled to do what they do in our city and that’s not an action that will be very successful for them,” Young said Tuesday.
He said the federal government should quickly put in place interim regulations, such as giving pharmacies the ability to sell medical marijuana, until the drug is fully legalized. Young said the Health Canada system of having licensed marijuana growers send cannabis in the mail is not working, which is why dispensaries have set up to fill the vacuum.
“That’s why the storefronts are proliferating because there's money to be made,” Young said. “We just don’t want a free-for-all with every single street corner in Langford having a pot shop on it.”
Green Tree, at 108-688 Granderson Rd., was shut down by West Shore RCMP on Jan. 17, the day after it opened. Mounties seized an undisclosed amount of marijuana but no charges have been laid.
The dispensary is one block from the West Shore RCMP detachment, across from a park and within blocks of several schools.
“They picked the wrong location,” Young said.
West Shore RCMP tried to enter the store on Saturday, Thompson said, but he locked the doors and asked if officers had a warrant. The officers said they would be back with one.
The City of Victoria has moved to regulate the capital’s 35 marijuana dispensaries, charging $7,500 for rezoning and $5,000 for a business licence. None of the stores has successfully completed the business licence application.
Young said he’s “frustrated” that municipalities like Victora and Vancouver charge inflated fees for pot shops to obtain a business licence, which he said amounts to a bribe for operating an illegal business.
A business licence in Langford costs $100 and Young said that should apply regardless of the type of operation. “You only give business licences to legitimate businesses,” he said.