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For Immediate Release:
Tuesday August 6, 2024
Charter Denied: Compassion Club Ordered To Pay $3.2 Million.
Victoria, B.C.: A Compliance Order from the Province of B.C., has been issued to the Victoria Cannabis Buyers Club demanding the non-profit society pay a $3.2 million fine by September 6, 2024, though a similar fine against founder, Ted Smith, has been dropped. The fines stem from raids conducted by the B.C. Solicitor General and Public Safety’s enforcement agency, the Community Safety Unit, on the VCBC in November 2019 and July 2020. Lawyers Kirk Tousaw and Jack Lloyd will be challenging the Compliance Order, but that will not stop the CSU from having another written hearing to determine if the directors of the society will be held personally accountable for $3.2 million.
While legalization has been beneficial for the general public, those who fought for their right to use this medicine have been left with an inadequate medical cannabis program that has never allowed storefront access. Patients continue to rely on the VCBC because limits on THC in edible products, restrictions on smoking lounges, high prices and the lack of information regarding the potential medical uses of cannabis products in recreational stores, are unacceptable. For these reasons, the 28 year old VCBC has defied the CSU and reopened after every raid, including a third raid in March 2023 for which a fine has not been issued yet. Soon after that raid, Tousaw and Lloyd filed lawsuits and injunctions against both the provincial and federal governments, though no date for that hearing has been set.
In her decision, Deputy Director of the CSU, Meghan Oberg, acknowledges that, “I have no authority in this forum to evaluate the adequacy of the medical cannabis regime.”(section 83) This is because the province amended the Cannabis Control and Licensing Act in November 2022 to add section 95.1, which removed the ability of defendants to argue constitutional matters. Even though the fines were issued in January 2022 and appeals immediately filed, Deputy Director Oberg concluded that section 95.1 can still be applied to the hearing, effectively snubbing the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. (section 34) B.C. is the only province where defendants cannot use the Charter of Rights and Freedoms in their defence if facing a cannabis-related administrative penalty.
