Victoria Cannabis Buyers Club plans to challenge $3.2M fine for selling illegal pot
Club founder and executive director Ted Smith said in an interview the club “doesn’t have anything like” the $3,2 million to pay the fine.
The founder of the Victoria Cannabis Buyers Club says the organization plans to challenge a $3.2-million fine from B.C.’s Community Safety Unit for selling cannabis without a licence.
The deadline to apply for reconsideration of the compliance order from the unit is Sept. 6, although the safety unit director has the ability to extend the deadline.
Club founder and executive director Ted Smith said in an interview the club “doesn’t have anything like” the $3.2 million to pay the fine.
It started in April 2019, when the Community Safety Unit received information that the club did not have a provincial licence to sell cannabis at its store on Johnson Street, where it was based at the time.
Safety unit officers visited the store in November of that year, and again in July 2020, and seized cannabis each time.
The safety unit’s director issued penalties against the club and Smith in 2022 under the Cannabis Control and Licensing Act for selling cannabis contrary to the legislation.
The unit calculated the total retail value of the seized cannabis was $1.6 million. The director announced a plan to fine the club and Smith each slightly more than $3.2 million — double the value of the cannabis.
Smith and the club had the option of admitting the club had contravened the act and signing a waiver that would have reduced the fines to $1.6 million each, but declined to do so.
The club and Smith requested a hearing into the fines, where Smith argued that the club provided high-quality medical cannabis at affordable prices.
He maintains that under current regulations, legal cannabis does not meet the needs of people who rely on medical marijuana, pointing to limits on THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) in edible products, high prices and lack of information in recreational cannabis stores about its medical use.
After that hearing, however, Meghan Oberg, deputy director of the safety unit, determined that the club had sold cannabis in contravention of the act, and was operating an active and substantial illegal cannabis retail store.
Oberg, who issued issued the compliance order July 30, said she did not accept that the club’s cannabis was either safe or approved, saying it did not qualify as medical cannabis.
She imposed a fine of $3.2 million on the club alone. No fine was levied against Smith, since Oberg concluded he was not personally selling cannabis contrary to the act.
Oberg did not determine whether Smith or any club officials might be liable for the club’s fine, saying that would have to be the focus of another hearing.
Smith said there’s now fear that the unit may go after board members for the money.
He is also unhappy that the club is blocked from making an argument with respect to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
In November 2022, the B.C. legislature amended the cannabis act to say the safety unit director does not have jurisdiction over constitutional questions.
The club, which is now based in the 1600-block of Quadra Street, was again raided in the spring of 2023 by safety unit officers who seized cash and products.
No fine has been imposed to date. The club’s lawyer has filed court challenges to that raid.
