Vernon city looks to create a 500 metre buffer between cannabis retail stores

One Vernon city councillor believes the city is “headed in the right direction” by looking to establish a prohibition on retail cannabis stores within 500 metres of other retail cannabis stores.

During their meeting on Monday, council was presented with a report reviewing retail cannabis licensing regulations that discusses plans for future cannabis stores looking to set up shop in the city.

Currently, Vernon has 13 retail cannabis stores operating within the city.

“The proximity buffers would encourage the distribution of retail cannabis stores throughout the city,” said Matt Faucher, city planner.

Changing financial times and a drop in the price of cannabis have allegedly caused a major development to cease operation.

The Nelson Cannabis Collective has reportedly halted the advancement of its multi-million dollar project to create a processing facility for cannabis in the Railtown area of Nelson.

A few months into construction, the 45 Government Road facility is far from complete but financing secured for the four-storey building is not enough.

There has been no confirmation if the project will continue or if the building will be completed for other purposes.

Bob Woolsey granted conditional discharge, will have 5 counts stricken from his record

It’s taken over three years, but Bob Woolsey has finally had his five marijuana-trafficking convictions stricken from his record.

The senior citizen was arrested by the Mission RCMP in 2015, after he sold pot to undercover police officers out of his medical marijuana dispensary in Deroche. He was sentenced in April, 2018, to time served and given a $250 fine for each of the five counts.

At the time of his conviction, he called the charges “frivolous.” Less than a year later, marijuana would be legalized.

Nelson Cannabis Collective says it will pivot to leasing out its still-under construction building

It was supposed to be the first cannabis processing facility located in a North American city. Now, only months before it was set to open, the Nelson Cannabis Collective says it has to back out of the industry without ever having grown a plant.

The company announced Thursday that unexpected cost increases, supply chain issues and cheap prices per gram for cannabis had forced it to cancel its plans even as construction continues on its 29,000 square foot, four-storey building in Nelson.

Cannabis Collective says Community Safety Unit not policing unlicensed retailers, and neither is RCMP

The Okanagan Cannabis Collective charges that B.C.'s Community Safety Unit is "unable or unwilling to enforce" the Cannabis Control and Licensing Act – and the RCMP doesn't see it as its responsibility.

The collective of licensed cannabis retailers has been fighting for a "level playing field" with unregulated outlets on First Nation land and says the market is oversaturated as private retailers must also compete with an ever-growing number of government-run BC Cannabis stores.

Cannabis contamination concerns raised by Okanagan collective

The owner of a Vernon cannabis shop and spokesperson for a group of licensed retailers says concern is growing about contamination of unlicensed product from the illicit market.

Sarah Ballantyne of SpiritLeaf is spokesperson for the Okanagan Cannabis Collective, which represents 20-plus legal cannabis stores.

The organization has been campaigning for "a level playing field" with unlicensed dispensaries, which don't pay licence fees, PST or the vape tax.

But, on top of financial considerations, the collective is raising the alarm about pesticide contamination of unlicensed product, along with cross-contamination with other substances in potentially dangerous combinations.

Before being let go, there had been months of back-and-forth on issues such as scheduling, health benefits and pay, resulting in the move to unionize.

A budtender in Victoria, B.C. is back on the job after being fired three weeks ago, which the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) argues was the employer’s response to unionization efforts at the retail store.

Licensed to a Vancouver company, the goal is to employ technology that converts liquid solution to a gel to commercialize products in the form of a nasal spray.

Australia’s University of Queensland (U.Q.) and Canada’s PreveCeutical Medical Inc. have teamed up for what is being called a revolutionary change in how patients will take medical cannabis: a liquid that converts to a gel.

The Sol-Gel technology is thanks to the work of a team of researchers, led by Dr. Harendra Parekh, at the U.Q.’s School of Pharmacy, which explains the liquid solution converts to a gel upon contacting “internal membranes of the human body, such as the nose.”