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Yesterday (May 7), Victoria city council received a report from staff that recommended a crackdown on the provincial capital’s growing number of medicinal marijuana dispensaries.

In a vote of seven to one, councillors opted to reject that suggestion. Instead, they requested staff draft new business and zoning bylaws that would regulate the over-the-counter sales of marijuana.

In a telephone interview, Mayor Lisa Helps said Victoria is now on a path similar to that of Vancouver, which on April 28 saw city council send a proposed legal framework for marijuana sales to a public hearing.

"It was a very thorough conversation and the direction that we went is similar to what Vancouver is doing," she told the Straight.

Helps said that for her, a decision in favour of regulation over prohibition largely came down to two factors.

The first was the support of the Victoria Police Service. At the council meeting, police inspector Scott McGregor said the department was not opposed to regulating dispensaries. “From the police perspective, it’s going to send a message to the businesses that are out there that they are not going to be able to operate with impunity,” he said.

Helps said that was a turning point.

“The police inspector said the police have no objection to the city regulating these dispensaries,” she recounted. “For me, that was significant.”

The second, Helps continued, was an identified need to address a problem created by a lack of action from higher levels of government.

“There is a legal grey area,” she maintained. “There is a grey area, and it is between federal legislation and what the courts are willing to prosecute. That is a grey area. So municipalities are left to come up with solutions and that is what we are doing.”

Helps emphasized that the rules councillors have requested from staff will not simply permit the sale of marijuana. They will also control who stores are selling to—banning minors, for example—and, ideally, bring some control over the sale of marijuana strains with excessively high THC levels that might exceed what is safe.

“There was certainly frustration around the council table,” Helps explained. “As one councillor aptly put it, we are using our very limited bylaw tools to plug holes in federal regulations.”

Vancouver’s proposed rules consist of a new category of business licence, revised bylaws, and zoning amendments all specifically designed for the sale of marijuana. Helps acknowledged the federal government vocally opposed that plan.

She noted Victoria councillors received a copy of an April 23 letter Health Minister Rona Ambrose sent to Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson, warning the city not to move ahead with its proposed regulatory framework. But Helps argued attitudes on marijuana are changing in ways that requires governments to act.

“It is already happening,” she said. “We can pretend it is not, but it is. So how do we manage it in a way that is responsible and safe?”