Nelson Star, February 10, 2016

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Vol.8 • Issue 64

Men’s curling provincials kick off in Nelson See Page 11

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New rules aimed at clarity for marijuana dispensaries BILL METCALFE Nelson Star

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Nelson musician Charlie Jacobsen graduated from Selkirk College in 2012. Now he’s touring country-wide with his album Alberta Flood, which was released in December. See full story on Page 23. Will Johnson photo

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Nelson city council hopes changes to its business licence bylaw will help to chip away at the legal ambiguity around marijuana dispensaries. The bylaw, previously unaltered since 1990, will now require a licensed business to be in compliance with local, provincial and federal laws. Mayor Deb Kozak says this puts the city in a position to better enforce the bylaw when the federal government comes out with new legislation on marijuana in the near future. The bylaw passed third reading and is still to be adopted at a future meeting. Its full text is attached to the online version of this story at nelsonstar.com. The new bylaw also adds new fines for operating without a business licence: $150 for a first offence, $300 for a second offence, and $500 for a third. The bylaw contains a provision that each new day of an offence after a ticket is issued is a considered a separate offence with a renewed fine. The city’s legislative manager Frances Long says that those tickets will be dealt with like traffic tickets. “They have to appeal the ticket within the first two weeks and then they see the screening officer and the screening officer makes a decision. If the person is not satisfied and there is no resolution, they can request an adjudicator to hear the dispute.” An alternative punishment for not having a business licence would be a $10,000 fine that could only be levied through a complex and expensive court procedure and would only be used in a extreme cases. Long says the city can’t shut a business down. Only a court can do that. At least five dispensaries are operating in Nelson without business licences. Some have applied and been refused, Kozak says, because city hall wasn’t CONTINUED ON A4

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