Surrey is holding fast to its refusal to issue marijuana business licenses within its boundaries but a quick search on the internet reveals local THC fans have options for getting their medical and recreational weed delivered to their home.
For example, CannaMobile Surrey Marijuana Delivery promises “quick and easy same day delivery to your front door.” However, if you view the https://justice.gov.bc.ca/cannabislicensing/map, you’ll find no marijuana shops in Surrey.
There’s also Dash Dub – “Same Day Surrey Weed Delivery.”
Despite Surrey’s rules, and the services offered by these and others, the city’s bylaws enforcement department has issued no tickets to date.
Rob Costanzo, Surrey’s general manager of corporate services, declined a phone interview but told the Surrey Now-Leader by email on June 10 that “there are no changes in our bylaws regarding cannabis and we are unaware of related delivery services as we have received no complaints from the public in this regard.”
Jaclynn Pehota, executive director of the Association of Canadian Cannabis Retailers, said the delivery of cannabis in B.C. is the purview of public stores. B.C. Liquor Stores, she said, are authorized to take payment online and then send out orders via Canada Post.
“The private retailers, the independent guys not owned by the province, they are able to take orders online, but they are not able to accept payment or do any shipping via the internet,” Pehota said. As it stands now, she said, a retailer is not allowed to drive an order over to a customer’s house.
Meantime, Surrey Councillor Jack Hundial says he “would like to see licensed retailers for medicinal use” in Surrey. “Specifically medicinal use.”
Otherwise, he noted, “the status quo has not changed at all, as far as I know. Certainly nothing has come to us in council recently at least. Currently the city is not taking applications for dispensaries.
“I do think at some point Surrey needs to deal with that issue. I know the position for some on council has been well, we’re not going to entertain this until we make Surrey safer, but there’s a wide interpretation on that.”
Councillor Brenda Locke said she was not aware of the delivery services available to Surrey residents. Asked if they are legal, she replied, “I don’t know. I wouldn’t have thought to look there but now that you say that I will find out, because I can’t answer that question.”
Surrey councillors Jack Hundial and Brenda Locke. (Photos: Now-Leader files)
Asked if she thinks Surrey should permit the licensing of marijuana shops in Surrey, Locke noted that the federal government has declared the product legal.
“I think we have to have to figure out a way to make it as safe as we can, to allow it to be retailed in Surrey,” she said.
“It’s retailed all around us, so it makes sense. And I know they’re doing retail out of Semiahmoo land, because I talked to the chief there. So I think we need to figure it out, but I’d really want it to be done in the most safe and sort-of responsible way we can figure out. So I’d like to see those protocols well in place before I’d say I’d want to see wide-open retailing of the product.”
Surrey Mayor Doug McCallum did not respond to a request for comment.
But during his bid for the mayor’s chair leading up to the 2018 civic election, he expressed vehement opposition to permitting pot shops to set up in Surrey, at least “until we get crime under control.”
– File from Amy Reid