News

First Canadian marijuana vending machine launched

May 14, 2014

The B.C. Pain Society, a Vancouver-based medical marijuana dispensary, has opened what it claims is Canada’s first marijuana vending machine.

The cash-only vending machine can only be used by licensed medical marijuana users who have a doctor’s card proving they have a prescription for the drug, Canada’s The National Post reports.

The National Post said that, according to legislation that came into force in Canada on April 1, 2014, the B.C. Pain Society is actually illegal. Under this legislation, Canada’s only source for legal medical marijuana is a small network of large-scale, for-profit growers certified by the Canadian government’s Health Canada agency. “But the B.C. Pain Society, like all of the other dispensaries in the Vancouver area, keeps its doors open thanks to what many proprietors openly call a ‘legal gray area,’” the National Post said.

The Vancouver Police Department has taken the view that, although medical marijuana dispensaries are illegal, raiding them is far from its top priority, the National Post said. Instead, the Vancouver Police Drug Unit is focusing on targeting “violent gang members” and other operations that pose a “danger to the public.”