Victoria Cannabis Buyers Club prepares to fight $6.5M fine from the province

After years of turmoil, and a pair of police raids, an unlicensed medical marijuana shop in downtown Victoria has been fined $6.5 million for violations under the Cannabis Control and Licensing Act.

The Victoria Cannabis Buyers Club and its founder, Ted Smith, have received fines for more than $3 million each from the BC Community Safety Unit.

The Cannabis Buyers Club is launching a GoFundMe campaign, not to help with the fines, but to cover legal fees, as the club prepares to launch a constitutional challenge.

"Until there’s legal, medical storefronts for patients, there’s a fight that Health Canada has on their hands," said Smith.

According to Smith, the club provides specialized medical products, counselling, and dosages that recreational shops cannot provide to medical patients.

"So a cancer patient cannot walk into a store in Victoria, a recreational, legal store, and ask which products will help with their cancer because the employees are legally not allowed to give them an answer to that," said Smith.

Since 2019, police have raided the Johnson Street dispensary two times. But now, Smith says the fines open a door to the court challenge he has been waiting for.

"We have some significant charter of rights issues that our members will want to see heard before the courts, and this is giving us that chance," he said.

"We were raided with no fines or criminal charges or any means to argue that what the government is doing is unconstitutional," Smith said. "Whereas now that door's been opened. And it’ll be a lot of work, but yeah, we finally will get our day in court."

The Victoria Cannabis Buyers Club will be appealing the fines, and Smith adds that it will also be seeking an injunction to stop any further punitive measures until after his constitutional challenge has been heard in court.

The BC Community Safety Unit has not responded to CTV’s request for comment Thursday.