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Compassion club licensed in Gibsons, second dispensary denied in Sechelt

Medical marijuana

The Town of Gibsons has issued a business licence for a compassion club, but the operators say no cannabis products will be sold on site — at least for now.

“We do plan to eventually become a dispensary, but you know the controversy surrounding that,” Rainforest Compassion Club co-owner Rod McEwan said Tuesday.

McEwan and his wife Denise — both retired educators — plan to open the store this Saturday, March 21 at Unit 3, 703 Gibsons Way.

The store, initially at least, will sell natural health products and help people to fill out forms so they can obtain medical marijuana legally from a licensed producer.

“We’re a non-profit society and have a retail side so I can pay the rent,” McEwan said.

At this point, he said, the couple is not sure how quickly they will proceed with the dispensary side of the operation, but will be “holding on by our teeth” until they can sell cannabis products.

“We’d like to do it now, but we don’t want to do it without a lot of support,” he said. “The town is supportive, but the RCMP is not. Our plan is to be poised for it when it becomes legally OK. We really want to bring it to the people. We’re just hoping it will become possible before we go bankrupt.”

McEwan, a former school principal from Carberry, Man., said his father was an RCMP officer and he believes “cops are our friends,” but have been tasked with enforcing unjust laws when it comes to medical marijuana.

Currently, patients can go to one of about 60 dispensaries in Vancouver to obtain cannabis products, underscoring the absurdity of the situation on the Coast, he added.

“We shouldn’t have to run to Vancouver and pay 80 bucks for the ferry just to get it. It doubles the cost of the medicine.”

In the District of Sechelt, meanwhile, a second proposed dispensary has been denied a business licence.

S&M Medicinal Sweet Shoppe, based in Selma Park, had applied for a home-based business licence on Jan. 12 — one month before the District denied the original business licence application for Weeds Gifts and Glass on Wharf Avenue.

Co-owner Michelle Sikora said she and her husband Doug applied for the home-based licence after picking out a storefront location in Sechelt and being told by the real estate agent that they needed a business licence before it could be rented to them. Once the home-based licence was approved for the business, Sikora said, the plan was to move it into a retail outlet.

“My husband and I have been trying to work with the District,” she said, noting they had two meetings with Mayor Bruce Milne. “We were trying to do the respectful thing, going through proper channels. We had the ball rolling … and everything was looking good.”

Last week, however, the District told the couple that their application was denied. In a letter the couple received Monday, corporate services director Margi Nicholas said she was declining the request because “retail distribution of marijuana products is not a lawful business.” The decision was made, Nicholas wrote, “after careful review of your application, including consultation with the RCMP and Vancouver Coastal Health.”

Operating for two years on a mail-order basis, S&M produces organic, cannabis-infused edibles — teas, tinctures, oils and baked goods — and does not charge patients for their products, relying instead on donations.

“Right now we’re helping six cancer patients,” Sikora said. “We’re helping a dozen people for sleeping conditions. We’ve got a lot of senior citizens who use our products for arthritis and Alzheimer’s. We also do medicinal doggie treats.

“I’m all for having people make their own medicine, but if they can’t, we want them to have a reliable source.”

The couple is also currently organizing a March 28 fundraiser for the family of Carey Kush, a father of two who is battling a rare form of gastrointestinal cancer.

Under Health Canada medical marijuana regulations, patients are only allowed to access dried marijuana, but Sikora said edibles and other products have become a grey area in the province since the B.C. Court of Appeal and B.C. Supreme Court found the regulations violated the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Those rulings were handed down in the case of Owen Smith, a former baker at the Victoria Cannabis Buyers Club, who was charged in 2009. The federal government appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada and the case was scheduled to be heard this Friday, March 20.

The Sikoras said Wednesday they plan to reapply to the District for a home-based business licence for non-medicinal products that contain no cannabis extracts.

Weeds Glass and Gifts has also reapplied for a business licence, but only for the retail portion of its store, saying it would operate its dispensary as a society. Contacted Wednesday, Nicholas said the application was still being processed.

Interim CAO Bill Beamish said the District “will have to look at the whole picture” in its review of the Weeds application.

“What they can’t do is use [the business licence] as a proxy for other activities … that would not be licensable,” Beamish said.

Gibsons CAO Mani Machado said the McEwans originally approached the Town for a business licence for a dispensary.

“We had concerns with that and had discussions with the RCMP,” Machado said.

The couple withdrew their first application and resubmitted it for a retail store under the name of Rainforest Healing Society, he said. The licence was processed on Feb. 20 and the McEwans subsequently requested to change the name in the application to Rainforest Compassion Club, which the Town has accepted.

“Our understanding is they were just going to try to do the retail business,” Machado said. “We have to take what people are saying at face value.”

Early last month, in response to the impending Weeds opening in Sechelt, the Sunshine Coast RCMP said enforcement action would be taken if a marijuana dispensary opens within the detachment area, as it would be an illegal activity.

Since opening, Weeds has been registering members, but has not brought dried marijuana or cannabis products into its store for retail sale.

The company has 11 dispensaries operating in Vancouver.