It's deadline day for owners of Vancouver's unlicensed marijuana dispensaries, but many say they plan to defy the city's orders to shut down.

The city ordered all unlicensed shops to close by Friday, and warned that any stores still open over the weekend will face fines.

Officials said inspectors will begin taking enforcement action this weekend against unlicensed pot shops, including handing out tickets and taking “appropriate legal action.” City fines start at around $250 for each bylaw infraction, but court-imposed fines can reach up to $10,000.

A handful of people gathered at City Hall in protest of the deadline, with some telling CTV News that they planned to stay open despite the threat of legal action.

"We'll just take it one day at a time. We really want to stay open and help our patients," dispensary owner Tina Koller said. Koller's dispensary was denied a license because it was too close to a school, she said.

Bruce Myers, a protester who smokes medical marijuana to ease his chronic back pain, said that shop closures would force users to turn to other sources.

"They have the quality of medicine that I need, and without them, I'll have to go to the black market."

According to Vancouver, a whopping 162 of the 176 applications for pot business licences failed. Most were denied because of a rule barring dispensaries from operating within 300 metres of each other, or of schools, community centres and youth facilities.

"We don't want an explosion all over the place where they're close to schools and where young people congregate," Vancouver Coun. Kerry Jang said.

The city says it has approved development permits for seven businesses under its new regulations, and others are currently under review.

With a report from CTV Vancouver's Ben Miljure