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October 16, 2018 - 2:22 PM
KAMLOOPS - The legalization of recreational marijuana is hours away and the City of Kamloops will have the first, and only B.C. pot shop up and running tomorrow morning.
The B.C. Cannabis Store is scheduled to open tomorrow at 10 a.m. and today, Oct. 16, city council unanimously approved the retail cannabis sales license for the government owned and operated marijuana store located in the Sahali Town Centre neighbourhood in the Columbia Place Shopping Centre.
Coun. Denis Walsh did not vote as he declared a conflict of interest because he currently has a cannabis retail application in progress.
Today's cannabis retail sales application drew media attention from outside the city.
"It's a bit of novelty, certainly the amount of press we had in our gallery today was very unusual," Mayor Ken Christian says. "I think this will be normalized very quickly and I suspect other applications in other communities as well as further applications in Kamloops."
The mayor says he won't be attending tomorrow's grand opening of the cannabis store.
"I'll be there on Friday to meet with the ministers, they're going to be coming in and I want that opportunity to talk with the Solicitor General about the future of cannabis revenue sharing in British Columbia," Christian says.
The hours of operation for the cannabis store will be 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday, Friday to Saturday from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., according to a report to council, which also noted B.C. cannabis regulations allow the sale of cannabis from 9 a.m. to 11:00 p.m., seven days a week.
Kamloops city council recently set the business license fee for cannabis retail applications at $5,000. The recommendation was passed at a previous council meeting on Aug. 14. The application fee for cannabis retail applications currently sits at $1,600.
The City of Kamloops is also accepting referrals for private pot shop applications. A past news release from the city says the provincial government will be responsible for licensing private, non-medical pot shops within the city.
Applications for private cannabis shops must go through the provincial government before they are referred to the city.
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