VANCOUVER - The British Columbia Civil Liberties Association is applauding Vancouver city council for regulating medical marijuana dispensaries but is warning the new bylaws are too restrictive.
Policy director Micheal Vonn says patients will see their right to edible pot -- granted in a recent Supreme Court of Canada decision -- disappear with the city's ban on brownies and cookies from storefronts.
She also says the city's requirement that dispensaries be at least 300 metres from schools, community centres and each other promotes an unfair stigma.
Council voted 8-3 on Wednesday to create a two-tiered system that imposes a $1,000 licence fee on non-profit compassion clubs and a $30,000 fee on for-profit pot shops.
Vonn is praising the lower fee for compassion clubs but says the higher fee for other dispensaries still appears to be more than what the city would need to recover costs.
She says she appreciates that the city stepped into a "regulatory vacuum," but the new rules will limit access for some patients.
