Unlicensed BC cannabis store loses another appeal
A BC couple who ran an unlicensed cannabis store have lost a legal challenge almost five years after their store was raided.
According to a Jan. 15 BC Supreme Court decision, Michelle Vrinder Sikora and Douglas Peter Sikora have launched numerous appeals since their store S&M Medicinal Sweet Shoppe was raided by the province's pot police in June 2019.
"I appreciate that the (couple) operated their business with the intent to benefit persons managing symptoms from a variety of medical conditions. They operated on a retail basis as an alternative to the federal scheme which requires medical cannabis to be obtained from a limited number of providers who must deliver their product by mail. However, given the presumed constitutionality of the legislative scheme, it is not open to the (couple) to offer an alternative and at the same time be compliant with the law," BC Supreme Court Justice Sandra Wilkinson said in the decision.
The Sikora's store in Gibsons existed before cannabis legalization came into place in 2018, and since then the couple have made various legal challenges as they didn't apply for a provincial licence.
When the province's Community Safety Unit turned up in the summer of 2019 they found a sign with a cannabis leaf on it that read "dispensary." They also had another sign that read, "We grow it. We make it. We bake it."
The province then seized more than $50,000 of cannabis products from the store and Michelle's car.
She applied to get the seized cannabis returned and argued it was a "medicinal dispensary" which filled a void left by the federal government's cannabis laws which didn't provide safe and reliable access to cannabis for medical patients.
She lost the appeal.
They were later fined $118,919 – twice the value of the cannabis seized.
The couple were given two choices, admit they sold cannabis without a licence and pay the half the fine, $59,495, or challenge it.
They opted for the latter.
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They argued that under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, they were guaranteed to be free of "state interference with psychological integrity."
However, the appeal was dismissed, although they had their fine tweaked and reduced to $105,873.
The couple headed back to court asking for a review of their appeal.
"(The couple)... do not seek licensing under the provincial scheme. Their goal is to provide cannabis to those who require it for medical purposes," the couple argued in the decision. "They fully acknowledge that medical cannabis is distributed at much higher THC doses than provincially regulated recreational cannabis in order to provide therapeutic results. They do not want to be retailers of recreational cannabis."
Again they argued their Charter Rights had been violated, in part due to the delays in the court process.
However, the Justice rejected the argument.
"They had provided no evidence, other than a bare assertion, that the delay at issue had caused them psychological harm," the Justice said.
The couple also argued that "everyone has the right to life, liberty and security."
The Justice ruled that nothing the province's pot police had done involved any arrest, detention, the possibility of imprisonment, or "genuine penal consequences" and dismissed the argument.
Ultimately, the Justice threw out their appeal.
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