Vancouver now has legal pot shops; customers say this changes how they plan to buy weed

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – People can now go to an actual brick-and-mortar pot shop in Vancouver. As they waited for the doors to open at one of the city’s first cannabis stores Saturday morning, customers said this is the way legal marijuana needs to be rolled out.

More than a dozen people were lined up near W. 4th Ave and MacDonald St, waiting for Evergreen Cannabis Society to officially open its doors.

Curtis Pearson and his brother were one of the first people in line. He was able to purchase one of the first grams sold at Evergreen, for about $12. He says that’s a fair price, adding he’ll be back later this weekend.

“All these legal stores, once they start seeing how they do and once they expand, I feel like maybe eventually then the streets will start to die down,” he says.

RELATED: Vancouver’s first provincially approved pot shop opening this weekend

He says having only one legal pot shop province-wide following legalization was not enough. Now that new legal shops are opening, he says it will be easier for people to buy the drugs legally.

“The only legal market was out in Kamloops, and not everyone was able to travel there, and everyone was kind of buying their stuff illegally or from not-legal dispensaries,” he says.

John Berfello was another of the first to make a purchase. He says with the current regulations there is a chance people will still turn to the black market for cannabis, but that could change.

“The black market will probably go more underground again when it comes to concentrates and being able to help patients, but we’re going to start seeing a change over the next couple years,” he says. “The government is going to have change in order to basically supply the legal market.”

The first and only provincially-run BC Cannabis Store opened its doors on Oct. 17, 2019.

Owner not concerned about competition with illegal dispensaries

Evergreen co-owner Mike Babins opened one of Vancouver’s first two legal pot shops on Saturday, and says he’s not worried about illegal stores competiting with him.

He says the faster they are able to transition to the legal market, the better.

“I’m sure there was this issue when alcohol prohibition ended, but today do you go to the liquor store or some guy making bathroom hooch?” Babins says.

RELATED: Some Vancouver dispensaries closing; many people say legalization won’t change much

The first and only provincially-run BC Cannabis Store opened its doors on Oct. 17, 2019. B.C. has lagged behind other provinces in approving stores to sell non-medical cannabis legally.

Those licenses must be approved by the province before business owners can get a license from municipal governments.

B.C. has referred 232 applications but only issued six licenses so far. There are 65 licensed retailers in Alberta and 20 in New Brunswick, but Ontario won’t have any until April.

City Cannabis at 7289 Fraser Street also opened on Saturday and is planning to open a second location at 610 Robson in the near future.

More pot shops applying to sell cannabis legally

Vancouver has issued development permits to 56 retail outlets, but those that have not applied for a provincial licence are subject to provincial and municipal enforcement.

Since May 2016, the city has applied for 53 injunctions against illegal dispensaries, some of which agreed to a test case that was heard in September 2018 before the B.C. Supreme Court and were ordered to shut down on Dec. 13.

Since the court case, the city said it has since identified about 20 retail shops that are operating without permits and has filed or is preparing to file injunction applications against them.