The Victoria Cannabis Buyers Club (VCBC), a 25-year-old nonprofit society that serves more than 8,000 medical cannabis patients, is facing a new threat.

The club has been the subject of multiple raids in recent years, but B.C. authorities are now targeting the building’s landlord in an attempt to permanently close the doors of the institution.

Despite support from the mayor and local city council to allow the society to continue to operate, an exemption can only be granted by the B.C. cabinet.

“We want to convince the government that it’s in their best interest to grant us a temporary exemption so that we can continue our work and work with the government towards becoming fully compliant with the law,” club founder Ted Smith told CTV News last January.

In its press release, the club laid out a four-pronged strategy to keep its doors open, including applying pressure to the B.C. cabinet to grant the club a temporary exemption.

Additional measures include filing a court injunction to suspend the threat against the landlord, daily protests and sending an exemption application to Health Canada by the end of February.

The club offers a range of products to its members, including flowers, edibles, topicals and though it’s currently closed due to the pandemic, there is also an on-site safe consumption lounge.

Compassionate pricing at the club allows patients to access medical cannabis products with higher potency and more affordable prices.

A 75 milligram edible from VCBC is $2.50, for example. Edibles from licenced retailers are capped at 10 milligrams and often run upwards of $10.

Multiple studies have found that increasing access to medical cannabis is associated with declines in prescription drug activity.

An upcoming study published in Applied Health Economics and Health Policy has found that, in Canada, legalizing cannabis has led to a “marked decline” in the volume of opioids prescribed.