Port Coquitlam is bringing down sweeping regulations to ensure retailers in the city don't sell pot — at least until the federal government regulates it.
Last night, after a public hearing that drew no speakers, city council unanimously voted to give three readings to a zoning bylaw change that would ban weed — as well as bongs and pipes used for smoking marijuana — from being kept or sold at dispensaries, compassion clubs and "all other premises."
The proposed regulation, which council has yet to formally endorse, wouldn't apply to the sale of medical marijuana at licensed pharmacies, designated homes and medical marijuana production facilities.
As well, council gave final readings to the city's controlled substance nuisance bylaw — and changed three more pieces of legislation — to impose fines on marijuana sellers and growers to pay for city services to dismantle their pot shops.
And council introduced a business bylaw amendment that would allow the municipality to refuse a business licence to a company in contravention of provincial and federal marijuana laws — a proposal a few city councillors found "rhetorical."
But Paula Jones, PoCo's manager of bylaw services, told council at its Tuesday meeting that the city has received legal advice to tighten up the legislation in order for it to be "explicit" about illegal operations.
PoCo council's moves are in response to two recreational marijuana businesses that opened last year (Cannabis Culture, which is overseen by Jodie Emery, closed last month because of the municipal crackdown).
They also come the same month Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters in Victoria that recreational pot dispensaries remain illegal despite new federal legislation coming into effect this summer that would allow the soft drug to be sold and consumed.
And they come a month after a BC Supreme Court judge ruled that municipalities have the right to regulate marijuana dispensaries and cities have the right to deny them business licences as well as implement bylaws banning the sale of pot.
In that court ruling, the city of Abbotsford sought to shut down a dispensary; however, the operator argued the city was in violation of the Constitution by restricting access to medical marijuana. He also argued the city was stepping out of its jurisdiction because weed is controlled by the federal government.
jcleugh@tricitynews.com
