Attorney General David Eby (left) and Mike Farnworth (right), Minister of Public Safety, are shown around the Kamloops B.C. Cannabis Store by Blain Lawson (middle), general manager and CEO of the Liquor Distribution Branch. (via Eric Thompson)
Tired of cannabis stories? We promise this will be the last...of the week.
Attorney General David Eby and Minister of Public Safety Mike Farnworth visited the province's only cannabis store on Friday afternoon and among the topics discussed, was why there was only one government store to visit.
"Unlike some provinces, in particular ones back east where they went in and said, 'Here's where government stores are going to go' with very little community consultation, we made it clear that local government was going to be able to decide what kind of stores they want in their community," said Farnworth.
"Many communities have said that they wanted to be able to deal with the issue of licences and where those stores will go after the local elections (Oct. 20) and that's something we respected. Yes, there was only one store on opening day, but there are going to be many more in the months ahead and we've had the online retail sales outlet, which has been quite successful."
The pair praised Kamloops city council for its quick work creating bylaws to get the store open in time for legalization.
The store was lined up around the corner again Friday, although that was mostly because it was closed for a period so that Eby and Farnworth could tour the facility. Overall sales at the brick and mortar store dropped by nearly 300 transactions from the first to second day.
Supply hasn't been nearly as much an issue out West as it has been in other provinces. Farnworth said the cannabis industry would be a work in progress, but drew comparisons to the province's wine industry as a roadmap to where it could be headed down the line.
"It's going to take a few years before we have a fully functioning, mature system of public and private retail," he said. "We know that there's a real interest in micro-cultivation in British Columbia and that's something we've pushed very hard on to get in place with the federal government, to build on B.C.'s expertise and help small-scale producers get into the market. I fully expect you're going to see the cannabis industry develop similar to B.C.'s wine industry, with a greater variety of product available, ranging in quality from value-oriented to the ultra-premium products made by craft producers, all sold at competitive prices."
