Pubdate: Thu, 08 May 2014
Source: Metro (Vancouver, CN BC)
Copyright: 2014 Metro Canada
Contact:  http://www.metronews.ca/vancouver
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3775
Author: Emily Jackson
Page: 3

EAST VANCOUVER HOME TO NEW POT VENDING MACHINE

The machine. It takes bills and sells half an ounce of high-end
indica for $50

First, we got a crack pipe vending machine.

Now Vancouver can proudly claim to be the home of a marijuana vending
machine.

The B.C. Pain Society, a marijuana resource centre and dispensary that
opened three months ago at 2908 Commercial Dr., is advertising what it
says is the first marijuana vending machine in the city.

The machine, which has been doling out doses for three weeks, takes
bills and sells half an ounce of highend indica for $50. It even gives
change.

The dispensary also has a gumball vending machine where patients can
buy a capsule with marijuana in it, B.C. Pain Society director Chuck
Varabioff said Wednesday.

"The prize in this machine is a lot different than you'd get in a
shopping mall," he said.

Anyone who comes in with a plasticized dispensary card with photo ID
from most dispensaries in the city can access the vending machine,
Varabioff said. Without that, prospective clients need a doctor's
consent form. (The dispensary will refer them to a doctor if needed.)

Letting customers who know what they want purchase marijuana quickly
from a vending machine lets staff help people who have questions, he
said.

"Most people coming in here are sick, they're also on disability or
fixed income," he said. "When you phoned, I was helping two older
ladies with cancer who wanted to be educated on resins."

It's Varabioff's goal to get a marijuana vending machine into medical
clinics and retirement homes to better serve patients who are too sick
to travel to access their pain-relieving medication.

Marijuana sold from the dispensary is privately sourced from
operations in B.C. It does not follow federal regulations introduced
April 1 that require marijuana to be purchased from a licensed producer.

This isn't technically legal, but dispensaries operate in a murky
zone. The courts have supported their right to remain open to serve
patients.

In Vancouver, police tend to leave them alone.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Matt