Just over a year after marijuana was federally legalized, every unlicensed cannabis dispensary in Kamloops has now closed down according to city staff.
Business license inspector Dave Jones says the last store holding out – Boomer’s Bud – shut down after another recent visit from the province’s Community Safety Unit.
“Boomer’s Bud, or ‘Weeds’ at the time, decided to stay in operation. It was in September again when the CSU’s unit came back into Kamloops and made a second visit to that store, and again obviously took product and encouraged that owner to close the store. So as of the end of September, Kamloops had no illegal dispensaries.”
Jones says there were 13 unlicensed dispensaries in Kamloops at this time last year.
He says those stores felt they had a lot to offer to their patients in terms of medical cannabis, but says the penalties were stiff for staying open, which were double the value of any product seized.
“For example, if the store buys the product and then the province comes in and takes $200,000 dollars worth of valued product, their penalty is $400,000 dollars. There’s not too many companies that can absorb that kind of penalty, so I think they’ve chosen that in their best interest, they will close their doors.”
Boomer’s Bud and the Canadian Safe Cannabis Society first had product seized in the summer by the province’s newly-formed CSU unit.