The value of unpaid tickets issued to pot dispensaries in Vancouver has exceeded $1 million, according to city officials.
As of Aug. 7, bylaw officers had dished out 2,004 tickets totalling $1.2 million as part of the city’s crackdown on unlicensed marijuana dispensaries, spokesperson Jag Sandhu said in an email to CTV News. The city, however, says it has only collected $160,000 of that money. That means $1.04 million is still unpaid.
Coun. Kerry Jang, a strong advocate of the bylaw, says the uncollected money is largely the result of scofflaw dispensary owners who simply refuse pay the fines.
“It’s gotten to the point where we’ve had to file court injunctions,” he said. “The problem that we’ve had is that the courts haven’t made time to hear the injunctions.”
Jang said the city has filed 53 injunctions, some of which have gone more than a year without being heard in court.
The councillor said the city recently learned that the first case will likely be heard in September 2018.
“That’s good news in the sense that, finally, they’re giving some teeth to our bylaw, but at the same time, these people who continue…to defy the city bylaws are just accumulating evidence against themselves,” he said.
The real problem, however, is not the uncollected money, but the fact that unlicensed businesses continue to operate in the city, Jang said.
“They’re simply a tool with which to get people to comply,” he said. “For us, the real win is when these illegal pot shops close.”
Vancouver became the first Canadian city to regulate illegal dispensaries in 2015. Councillors voted in favour of regulations including that dispensaries must purchase a $30,000 license.
In late 2016, the city quadrupled its fine for running a dispensary without a license from $250 to $1,000.
The city received 176 applications, but has only granted 10 licenses so far. Most were rejected over a requirement barring them from operating within 300 metres of a school, community centre or another pot shop.
The federal government is set to introduce its plan to legalize recreational marijuana in 2018.
But Jang warned illegal pot shop owners who are holding out until then that they will not be free of the fines or court injunctions once pot is legalized.
According to a 2016 report by the federal task force on marijuana legalization, municipalities will be able to tailor policies to suit their own jurisdiction, including determining the location of pot shops and penalties for breaking local licensing rules.
“Marijuana does have a place in Vancouver…but it has to be sold according to some rules,” Jang said. “At the end of the day, it’s all about making sure these shops are safe and these pot shop owners simply don’t care about you.”
