Skip to content

Port Coquitlam looks at banning recreational pot sales, paraphernalia

The city's smart growth and community safety committees to meet on Thursday to discuss bylaw changes.
pot

Port Coquitlam wants to ban the sale of recreational weed in the city before the federal government legalizes it later this year.

In a report to two city committees that will meet on Thursday, city staff recommend that council "prohibit the sale and distribution of marijuana products and related paraphernalia" before the federal legislation takes effect.

The proposal comes as the city grapples with two pot shops — neither of which have business licences — and as city staff receive inquiries from entrepreneurs wanting to set up vape shops, which they see as "a precursor to eventual retail sales of marijuana products."

Mayor Greg Moore stressed recreational pot remains illegal under the federal Controlled Drugs and Substance Act and "any paraphernalia sold is only promoting an illegal substance," he told The Tri-City News today (Tuesday). "They're all leading towards illegal activity."

But Jodie Emery, spokesperson for Cannabis Culture, which has a storefront at Shaughnessy Street and Lougheed Highway, called the specific bylaw changes for paraphernalia "ridiculous."

Emery said the Cannabis Culture shop in PoCo plans to close soon as the landlord is clamping down because of pressure from city hall. "This is a very sad time for the city of Port Coquitlam and I feel sorry for the citizens there who have to live under such a regressive local government," she said.

Countered Moore, "They're operating illegally. They're in violation of city laws, federal laws, of their lease agreement. These are not upstanding people. They're willing to break the law at every corner and we don't want those types of people in our community."

This month, the city of Richmond also brought forward zoning plans to prevent pot dispensaries from operating in that municipality.

In other B.C. communities, however, councils are taking a more relaxed approach as the feds start to build a regulatory framework for the sale and distribution of recreational pot.

In Vancouver, council voted to regulate and licence dispensaries in 2015; as of December, eight marijuana storefronts had business licences and 11 more were being processed. Victoria city council also voted last September to follow Vancouver's lead.

jcleugh@tricitynews.com