Pubdate: Thu, 08 May 2014
Source: National Post (Canada)
Copyright: 2014 Canwest Publishing Inc.
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/wEtbT4yU
Website: http://www.nationalpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/286
Author: Tristin Hopper
Page: A2

POT VENDING MACHINE LIKELY ILLEGAL

VANCOUVER * Just five weeks after Ottawa outlawed B.C.'s cottage
industry of cannabis dispensaries, one of them has just opened
Canada's first marijuana vending machine.

"Half an ounce for $50, which is unthinkable in the city," said local
hip hop artist Ray Gill, speaking Monday in a YouTube video promoting
the new machine. "It's like they're just giving it away!"

The machine is operated by the B.C. Pain Society, a recently opened
medical marijuana dispensary located a few blocks from the heart of
Vancouver's hip Commercial Drive district.

Society director Chuck Varabioff worked in vending machines before he
went into medical marijuana, so the machine was a natural marriage, he
said.

"It's safe, it's secure and your product does not get contaminated,"
said Mr. Varabioff.

"Most other dispensaries in town, you don't know what that product is
getting contaminated with - which is a big issue for sick people."

Mr. Varabioff 's creation, decorated in a pot leaf motif, contains a
cross-section of popular pot strains, from Cotton Candy to Lemon Haze
to MK Ultra.

For $20 the customer gets a "sealed, tamper-proof " bag containing
ounce (enough an for eighth about of half an a dozen joints). And, as
indicated in the video by Mr. Gill, half-ounce bags go for $50.

Two re-purposed gumball machines also offer smaller quantities of
marijuana at $4 and $6 increments.

The machines, like the various marijuana products offered at the
Society's nearby retail counter, are only open to licensed medical
marijuana users.

A waist-high fence separates the machines from the location's public
area, and to enter the fenced-off zone customers must flash a card
confirming that they have received a doctor's prescription for the
drug.

Within the space of 20 minutes on a Wednesday afternoon, three
customers came in to use the new machine: A woman who appeared to be
in her early twenties, a woman with a slight limp and an older man in
a dress shirt.

"It's a convenience thing for regular customers to come in and say 'I
know what I want, I can avoid the lineup, come right up to the
machine, put my $20 in, grab my baggie and go; bada bing, bada boom,
done,' " said Justin Johnson, a licensed medical marijuana user who
uses the drug to treat lower back pain.

Another perk: the B.C. Pain Society does not keep tabs on how much
product its customers are buying.

"We're not interested in what they're buying; that's up to them," said
a clerk. "Whereas Health Canada growers, they keep track."

The B.C. Pain Society does not disclose the exact source of its
marijuana, other than to say that it comes from the Vancouver area, is
inspected in-house and does not come from drug traffickers.

"All of our product is sourced from confidential sources," said Mr.
Varabioff. "That's pretty much all I can say about that."

According to Health Canada, the B.C. Pain Society's whole setup is
illegal. As per legislation that came into force on April 1, Canada's
only source for legal medical marijuana is a small network of
large-scale, for-profit growers certified by the health agency.

But the B.C. Pain Society, like all of the other dispensaries in the
Vancouver area, keeps its doors open thanks to what many proprietors
openly call a "legal grey area."

The Vancouver Police's official stance is that while medical marijuana
dispensaries are indeed illegal, raiding them is far from its top priority.

In a March press release, the Vancouver Police Drug Unit said it would
continue to focus on targeting "violent gang members" and other
operations that pose a "danger to the public."

"For the most part, medical marijuana dispensaries operating today in
Vancouver do not meet these criteria," it said, noting that they were
just as illegal before the rule change.

The B.C. Pain Society vending machine is only the latest unorthodox
vending machine to show up in Vancouver.

Last October, a Waves coffee shop became the site of the world's first
bitcoin ATM. A few months later, it emerged that a crack pipe vending
machine had been operating at a harm reduction facility run by the
Portland Hotel Society, a Downtown Eastside non profit since roiled by
spending scandals.

And while the B.C. Pain Society's marijuana vending machine is a
Canadian first, it narrowly lost the global title to Colorado, a state
that legalized recreational marijuana in 2012.

Zazzz, an identity-verifying vending machine selling pot products, was
rolled out in the state last month.
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MAP posted-by: Matt