March 30th, 2023
The fight for an acceptable medical cannabis program continues as the Community Safety Unit (CSU) raids the Victoria Cannabis Buyers Club (VCBC) on March 23, 2023, for the third time since cannabis was legalized in 2018. The past raids occurred in November 2019, and then again in June 2020. This third raid follows the fine of $6.5 million dollars that the province imposed on us last year from the first two raids, along with threats to our landlords on Johnson St and now on Quadra St.
We are still in operation, and we are open everyday. In response to this third raid and the seizure of our medicine and cash on site, we need our supporters to please write to our new Premiere Mr. David Eby (premier@gov.bc.ca). We want our community to request that he meet with representatives from the VCBC to hear our story. All we are asking is that he learn about our mission and why we are fighting so hard for an accessible medical cannabis system.
British Columbia is undergoing exceptional challenges when it comes to the lack of accessible healthcare as well as the ongoing opioid epidemic. We want to be a part of the solution and we want to work with the province to address gaps in service and the opioid epidemic with new tools. Now is the time to bring Mr. Eby up to speed on the VCBC’s decades of harm reduction work and the significance of the services we provide to patients in need.
The CSU raided the VCBC because we are in non-compliance with the Cannabis Act. Cannabis is recreationally regulated by the province and enforced by the CSU. Medical cannabis is regulated by Health Canada, a federal authority. We are being fined and raided because we do not have a recreational license because we are a medical store.
Medical storefronts are illegal across Canada. All patients are expected to get an authorization for cannabis for medical purposes from their doctor, and then they must purchase their medicine online with a credit card from a Licensed Producer. The exceptional amount of barriers to accessing legal medical cannabis are unjust and our store fills a gap in the healthcare system. We are also in contravention of the Act for providing cannabis over the 10mg limit, to patients who need up to hundreds of miligrams of THC per day to manage their chronic pain without the use of opiates and especially those fighting cancer.
Donations to recover any losses from the raid are greatly appreciated. Just buying medicine from us makes a huge difference, if you are able we have a refer a friend program as well. Any money we can gather will help us to make sure the medicine continues to flow.
Please send donations via e-transfer to savethevcbc@gmail.com
The staff and board of the VCBC could not be more committed to the patients we serve. It is such an honour to work with such an outstanding team to serve our community.
Thank you all for your support during these trying times.
VCBC Management
