Pot vendors still selling in open
Illegal booths continue to operate in downtown square despite mayor’s vow to crack down
After Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson said to “stay tuned” to see how the city and police plan to oust illegal pot vendors from the Vancouver Art Gallery square, a handful of vendors were still operating an open drug market there.
Darren Tarry of Mission said on Friday that he sells marijuana there 12 hours a day, three days a week, without a permit or licence, and he usually has a lot of competition.
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“Today there’s four of us, but tomorrow it’s going to be crazy,” he said, saying there can be 30 to 40 vendors on a busy weekend day.
The mayor and Vancouver police admit they’re concerned about the growing number of unlicensed pot vendors who regularly sell on the 800 block of Robson Street, a pedestrian-only stretch of street.
“It’s an important public space,” Robertson told reporters last week. “Obviously that’s a permanent plaza now, so those current people that are illegally using that space, that’s a situation we have to deal with.”
When asked what he would do, Robertson repeated “stay tuned” three times without providing any details.
He didn’t respond to a request for comment on Friday.
A Vancouver police spokesman, Sgt. Jason Robillard, said “police resources are limited” when it comes to dealing with drug issues and suggested the “current opioid crisis” takes precedence.
“That being said, we are concerned that the situation in the 800-block of Robson Street has evolved over the past year,” he said in an email. He said police are “monitoring” the situation closely and “have been working with the city to resolve (issues).”
City spokesman Jag Sandhu said in an email, “The city has been proactive in working with these vendors during their time on public land, which the vendors view as protest.”
He said the city began “regular street-use bylaw enforcement efforts to remove the vendors” in November, as they lack permits and business licences. They’re subject to two bylaws and $1,300 in combined fines, he said.
“Enforcement has been involving progressive escalation intended to encourage vendors to leave the space on their own,” said Sandhu. That includes verbal and written warnings, impounding of tents, followed by the $1,000 ticket for operating without a licence, he said.
On Friday afternoon, Tarry, who on a “good day” makes “$1,500 and up,” said he’s been issued two $1,000 fines for illegal vending by police over past month but he’s disputing them.
“I’m going to court so we can get a licence,” said Tarry, a former sheet metal worker who after an injury turned to selling pot and pot products, including cookies, gummy worms and honey that he and his wife produce in their kitchen. “I’d gladly pay it (licensing fee).” As a large cloud of hashish smoke from the adjacent seller’s table envelopes him, he says selling pot shouldn’t be available only to “large corporations” who can open dispensaries and this is his way of protesting.
“They’re not protesting, they’re selling,” said Aree Rakkiat, owner of the nearby Sauzzy Thai food truck.
She said she objects to the invasion of pot dealers to the square where FRANCIS GEORGIAN she has parked her truck for the past three years and has complained to city hall a number of times.
Some days, she feels overwhelmed by the number of pot vendors.
“I can’t stand the smell,” she said. “I open at noon and some days I have to leave by two, it’s so strong.”
She said she suspects the clouds of marijuana smoke scare away her customers, especially those with children.
And she said she considers it unfair that she has to pay her $1,500a -year licensing fee and other expenses that the pot vendors don’t.
Tarry, who needs only a table and a canopy for rainy days, said he passes savings on to customers, charging $5 gram, compared with dispensaries that he said charge $12.
The owner of DZ Buddz said all his products are “tested and regulated” even though they’re not marked as such and he can’t prove it, that he buys only from licensed producers and not the black market run by gangs and that he insists on seeing ID to prove the buyer is 19.