Map: The definitive guide to Vancouver's medicinal marijuana dispensaries
Vancouver city council is debating how to best control the over-the-counter sale of medicinal marijuana. A proposed regulatory framework will eventually bring dozens of illegal businesses out of the shadows.
Exactly how many dispensaries exist and where they are located has been something of a mystery.
The storefronts have always stood in plain sight. But the City of Vancouver has long maintained that because there has never been a specific class of business licence for the shops, it hasn’t been able to maintain an official tally. Meanwhile, the Vancouver Police Department similarly refused the Straight’s repeated requests for a list of addresses. It cited privacy concerns that forbid the department from releasing specific information on individuals suspected but not charged with committing a crime
Now, the Straight has produced a marijuana dispensaries map that can be described as relying on official data.
The map below is based on a list of business names and addresses compiled and maintained by the City of Vancouver and current as of May 1, 2015. The list was provided to the Straight in response to a freedom of information request (though through unofficial channels and not by the legislated process).
The green dots represent the 84 dispensary locations that appear on the city’s list. A yellow dot marks a dispensary listed by the city but that is no longer operating. A blue dot marks a dispensary address that does not appear on the city’s list but which the Straight confirmed on May 4 as open for business.
The total number of dispensaries presently operating within the City of Vancouver is 88 or higher.
Comments
8 Comments
Dear NIMBYs
May 4, 2015 at 4:40pm
Remember folks, damn near every person who loses their dispensary job will end up working in a local grocery store or coffee shop, high as fuck, screwing up your grocery bill with like 12 corrections, making everything take longer.
Do you like waiting in line forever at the grocery store while potheads screw around and giggle about their mistakes?
No? Then leave the dispensaries alone.
stevedave
May 4, 2015 at 9:42pm
Just because your paranoid, doesnt mean theyre not after you.
Ah yeah,
May 4, 2015 at 10:15pm
Your still missing a few on that map.
Meatballs
May 4, 2015 at 11:43pm
Looks like Kerrisdale and Dunbar are pretty dry.
Scammers
May 5, 2015 at 11:06am
Medical marijuana is one of the biggest scams out there. I don't believe for a second that all of the people using these scummy joints are in real pain. Time to close them down and dispense through pharmacies, which are already set up to distribute controlled substances. If possible only supply formulations that have the pain-blocking affect without dulling the senses and doing permanent damage to the memory.
HellSlayerAndy
May 5, 2015 at 12:24pm
I like the one sponsored by the CBC!
hehe
@scammers
May 5, 2015 at 12:37pm
The only scam is that there isn't a mandatory minimum prison term for conspiring to take away someone's access to medicine.
It's high time to lock up dangerous hate-filled prohibitionists and throw away the key.
Xander Davis
May 6, 2015 at 6:12pm
Newly opening this week are:
Eden Medical, 3425 East Hastings
Opposite MacDonald's Burgers, and across the street from the Weeds store you noted.
Medi-Canna, 3675 East Hastings is just finishing painting the interior of ex-brothel, tuxedo store this week.
Both within 300 metres of each other, a public school and a community centre.