The Vancouver Sun
Column: One day after Vancouver councillors decided to re-issue business license of a store selling illegal drugs, the police say a valid licence does not insulate anyone
You might have heard this week that Vancouver has legalized over-the-counter sales of LSD and magic mushrooms — but that’s not quite true.
In fact, despite a move Tuesday by city councillors that some have interpreted as an indication the city is set to regulate the psychedelic drug trade, the Vancouver Police Department said the following day that criminal charges could be coming soon for people involved in that business.
A couple of Vancouver councillors certainly generated significant attention this week by going against a decision of the city’s own legal department and senior officials and reinstated the business licence of a shop on West Broadway that sells magic mushrooms, LSD, DMT, and other psychedelic drugs.
The decision at Tuesday’s business licence hearing doesn’t mean that starting Wednesday, Vancouver has a legal, regulated psychedelic drug trade. It does mean the public conversation around psychedelic drugs is likely to continue and expand, including a fuller debate on the topic expected to come to a Vancouver city council meeting next month.
But the political makeup of the full city council is quite different than the three-councillor group that decided Tuesday to hand back the revoked business licence for 247 West Broadway.
And as VPD spokesperson Const. Tania Visintin said the next day, selling these substances is still illegal, and “the existence of a business licence does not change this reality or the law.”
In November, VPD officers executed search warrants on several storefronts, including 247 West Broadway.
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