Pubdate: Fri, 22 Apr 2016
Source: Metro (Vancouver, CN BC)
Copyright: 2016 Metro Canada
Contact:  http://www.metronews.ca/vancouver
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3775
Author: Emily Jackson
Page: 6

DISPENSARY CAN STAY OPEN

Club has city permission despite school proximity

Vancouver's oldest marijuana dispensary and compassion club received
the city's blessing to stay open even though it doesn't meet the
strict distance requirements from schools under the new dispensary
regulation regime.

The city's Board of Variance voted unanimously Wednesday - the day of
4/20 marijuana legalizations protests and celebrations, no less - to
approve the B.C. Compassion Club Society's application to stay in the
location on Commercial Drive and 14th Avenue where it has been since
1997.

The club founder Hilary Black was happy and relieved the society gets
to stay put, as it operates a wellness centre and provides front-line
health care for people in the community dealing with addictions,
mental health issues and rare and complex chronic conditions.

"I was hopeful, and I had faith in the city's process, but on the
other hand I was terrified for our members," Black said Thursday. "It
would have had terrible consequences for our patients."

The society is located within 300 metres of two schools, which is
against the city's new and controversial rules that attempt to deal
with the massive expansion of not-so-legal dispensaries.

But both schools didn't oppose them, and more than 200 neighbours
signed a petition in favour of keeping it in the neighbourhood. One
neighbour who spoke in favour of the society said her 12-year-old
daughter walks in the neighbourhood alone and knows that the
compassion club is a safe place to go if she ever needs help.

The city adjusted its bylaws to encourage compassion clubs such as
this, so Black is happy they didn't reject them after the long process.

Practitioners at the wellness centre provide services including
acupuncture, massage, counselling and nutritionists at a discount to
help low-income patients.

"They are people who could easily be working for $150 an hour working
for $20 an hour so we can give this health care to people who are
falling through the cracks of the health-care system in Vancouver,"
Black said.

Black hopes the city takes into account community contributions when
it decides whether to allow other dispensaries that don't meet the
strict distance rules.

The city is planning to crack down on the approximately 100
dispensaries that didn't get approval under the scheme at the end of
April.
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MAP posted-by: Matt