Bags of marijuana are displayed in a vending machine at the BC Pain Society in Vancouver, Canada, May 12, 2014 |
The vending
machines at a Vancouver storefront look ordinary -- but instead of spitting out
gum or snacks, for a few coins they deliver medical marijuana.
For Can$4
(US$3.70), the brightly lit "gumball" machine drops a plastic ball
filled with the so-called "Cotton Candy" variety of the drug. The
"Purple Kush" option costs Can$6.
The BC Pain Society in Vancouver,
Canada on May 12, 2014, where
vending machines deliver marijuana.
|
His British
Columbia Pain Society is one of about 400 pot stores -- which call themselves
medical marijuana dispensaries -- in the western Canadian city.
They're all
part of a booming medical marijuana industry that operates in a legal gray zone
since a federal court ruling recently overturned Ottawa's latest attempt to
regulate its distribution.
Under the
new regulatory regime, as of April 1, some 30,000 home-based growing operations
and distributors across Canada are to be replaced by fewer but larger
commercial operations.
Many of the
smaller growers and distributors, particularly in westernmost British Columbia
province, however, refused to step aside.
Chuck
Varabioff, Director of the BC Pain
Society in Vancouver, British Columbia,
Canada loads marijuana in a vending
machine on May 12, 2014.
|
"Medical
marijuana dispensaries operating today in Vancouver do not meet these
criteria," the police warning said.
Official
city policy -- and to a lesser degree British Columbia government policy --
tackles all illegal drugs as a health instead of a criminal issue.
The use of
marijuana for medicinal purposes was effectively legalized in Canada in 1999,
and its use has been expanded through a series of court challenges.
Calls are
now growing to also decriminalize recreational marijuana use -- which Canada
has prohibited since 1923.
'Pain is
gone'
The medical
dispensaries are relatively new.
For
generations, pot has been produced and sold here as a street drug, including by
gangs, and fueled a vibrant underground economy.
A
decade-old study by an economist for the libertarian Fraser Institute think
tank estimated the street value of the weed at Can$7 billion a year in British
Columbia.
Medical
cannabis is sold "gumball"
style from a machine at the BC Pain
Society in Vancouver, British Columbia,
Canada, on May 12, 2014.
|
They can
take their purchase away, or smoke it at a large table with an air filtration
system.
Justin
Johnson sat at the table and inhaled deeply from a bong -- a glass pipe
contraption.
"I
feel stoned, slightly euphoric, a little anxious," he said with a little
smile.
"And
immediately all the pain I have is gone."
Johnson
said he has relied on marijuana to reduce pain since injuring his back lifting
a heavy box of potatoes in his former job as a chef.
He now
works as a pot advocate and is currently setting up a new storefront for the
British Columbia Pain Society.
Varabioff
said the shiny new vending machines and a second storefront for the business
are just the start of his big plans.
He hopes to
install marijuana vending machines in nursing homes and medical clinics.
Varabioff
said he's a businessman who does not smoke pot because he has asthma, but
supports its medical use after watching an elderly relative suffer in pain.
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