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BCIT students won’t wait for green light to roll out pot delivery service in Vancouver

The latest case comes from a pair of BCIT computer science students who want to set up a mobile cannabis delivery service that will launch once dispensaries across the city get the green light.

 Clayton Rannard and Kyle Dulay are co-creators of the Leefey cannabis delivery app. They hope to launch the business once dispensaries in Vancouver receive the proper licensing to operateClayton Rannard and Kyle Dulay are co-creators of the Leefey cannabis delivery app. They hope to launch the business once dispensaries in Vancouver receive the proper licensing to operate Photograph By DAN TOULGOET

Would-be entrepreneurs are lining up to break into Vancouver’s cannabis market despite clear legislation from the province that suggests they’re instead breaking the law.

The latest case comes from a pair of BCIT computer science students who want to set up a mobile cannabis delivery service that will launch once dispensaries across the city get the green light. None currently have the proper licenses from both the city and the province.

Kyle Dulay and Clayton Rannard are 21 and 19 respectively, and their budding business is called Leefey.

Their system would, in theory, work via an app that links consumers to dispensaries and eventually cyclists and drivers on the back end to deliver the product.

“We see ourselves as no different than someone like Skip the Dishes delivering alcohol to your door — it’s the same service, but with cannabis,” Dulay told the Courier. “We haven’t talked to anyone at the city, we’ve been talking to lawyers. As far as lawyers are concerned, they say the deliver model is legal.”

However, the province begs to differ.

Since long before legal cannabis rolled out Oct. 17, the province has said the delivery model is a non-starter, save for deliveries made by Canada Post. In that case, cannabis is ordered online from B.C. Cannabis stores only. The product is delivered by Canada Post to an individual’s home, or local post office, and must be received or picked up by an adult who can provide proof they are 19 or older.

Dulay says the same safeguards are in place with his business. ID must be provided and a $10 fee would be charged to those who can’t produce valid proof of age on top of not receiving the order.

It’s nearly identical to a pitch made by Calgary-based company Save the Drive, which hoped to launch into the marketplace across Canada, including in Vancouver, as of Oct. 17.

“The rules are continually changing. For [the provincial government] to say we are breaking a law, it’s not law yet for us to break,” founder Chanel Graham told the Courierin early September.

The Courier reached out to Graham to see if her business had since launched in Vancouver, or anywhere else in Canada, but didn’t receive a response.

As for Dulay and Rannard, they hope to get rolling in downtown if and when their business launches. They have a stable of about five delivery people, both on bike and in cars. That number would increase to 10 as the business blossoms, and those drivers would be paid either part-time or full-time wages depending on the business’s profitability.

Dulay’s main argument in launching the business is that delivery models abound for alcohol, and that the cannabis should be treated the same.

“I think we would fight it, if we were asked to shut down,” he said. “There’s nothing illegal about what we’re doing. You have companies like Skip the Dishes delivering alcohol to people’s doors, and we’re providing the exact same service for a recreational drug. We’re following all the procedures, we’re staying between the lines here. It wouldn’t be that easy to take us out.”

The Courier put that exact question to the ministry of public safety and solicitor general — if companies such as Skip the Dishes can deliver booze, why can’t private enterprise crack into the cannabis delivery market?

A ministry spokesperson provided this response:

“While the province’s Liquor Control and Licencing Act has been referred to throughout the development of the provincial regulatory framework, there are distinct differences between non-medical cannabis and alcohol that require consideration when developing public policy,” the spokesperson said. “Federal legalization of cannabis marks the end of nearly 100 years of prohibition and the B.C. government is taking a cautious and balanced approach to implementation of the provincial legalized cannabis regime.”