Province raids two unlicensed cannabis stores in Vancouver

January 29, 2025 | David Brown

Two unlicensed cannabis stores in Vancouver were raided by the BC Community Safety Unit on January 29, according to store owner Dana Larsen, in a series of posts on social media.

Larsen operates the cannabis stores The Dispensary at 649 East Hastings and The Medicinal Cannabis Dispensary at 1182 Thurlow.

In a post on X, Larsen says he plans to re-open by January 30. The raids seized all of his product, but no arrests were reported. VPD was not immediately available to provide any information.

BC’s Community Safety Unit (CSU) is the provincial agency charged with monitoring and enforcing the province’s retail cannabis rules and regulations. CSU investigators can conduct compliance and enforcement activities against unlicensed cannabis retailers and other illegal sellers across the province.

The CSU can undertake various enforcement activities against unlicensed cannabis retailers, including inspections, issuing tickets, obtaining warrants, conducting seizures, and more. The CSU can also recommend the prosecution of offences under the Cannabis Control and Licensing Act.

In the past, they have issued significant fines to the owners of unlicensed cannabis stores based on the valuation of the products seized.

As of December 29, 2024, the CSU had conducted 367 education visits of unlicensed cannabis stores, resulting in the closure of 238, with 115 total seizures. Most of those 367 education visits were in the Lower Mainland (150), while 109 were on Vancouver Island, 80 were in the Interior, and 28 were in northern BC.

The total value of all cannabis seized by the CSU is $38.9 million. The majority of that was seized in 2021.

The owners of an unlicensed cannabis store in Gibsons, BC, recently lost their appeal of a $118,919 fine from the BC government following a raid by the BC Community Safety Unit (CSU) of their unlicensed store in 2019.

The Victoria Cannabis Buyers Club, an unlicensed medical cannabis dispensary that has been operating in Victoria since the 1990s, was issued a $3.2 million fine from the province in 2024. The province had previously proposed to fine the VCBC and Smith a combined $6.5 million for selling cannabis without a licence, including $3,235,465.74 to Smith personally.

Unlicensed cannabis stores on K’ómoks First Nation in Comox faced several enforcement actions from the CSU in 2024 as well, as did a handful of cannabis stores operating on Okanagan Indian Band (OKIB) land near the town of Vernon.