Surrey residents will now be able to buy their cannabis within city limits after council decided in a five-to-four vote Monday to recommend that the Liquor and Cannabis Regulation Branch issue a cannabis retail store license to applicants in nine locations.
Surrey Mayor Brenda Locke and councillors Mandeep Nagra, Rob Stutt and Gordon Hepner voted against it at third reading and councillors Doug Elford, Pardeep Kooner, Harry Bains, Linda Annis and Mike Bose voted in favour.
The vote came after related public hearings that night during which council heard from 35 speakers. The vast majority were the applicants' staffers, who sang the praises of their employers.
The successful applicants intend to open stores at Unit 108-15775 Croydon Drive (Burb Cannabis Corp) and Unit 125-16030 24 Street (Lightbox Enterprises dba Dutch Love Cannabis) in South Surrey, and in North Surrey at Unit 502-7380 King George Boulevard (Imagine Cannabis Co.), Unit 103-9014 152 Street (1486965 B.C. Ltd.), 15148 Fraser Highway (1181168 B.C. Ltd.), 19581 Fraser Highway (R. Basran), Unit 201-13650 102 Avenue (Lightbox Enterprises dba Duth Love Cannabis), 10383 150 Street (1486965 B.C. Ltd.), and Unit 5-10330 152 Street (Imagine Cannabis Co.).
During the public hearings council also heard from a retired Vancouver Police officer who investigated child pornography and other child abuse.
"I'm obviously going to be the dissenting person speaking on these applications," Noreen Waters said.
She told council marijuana was used in most of those cases where children were used for sexual purposes "and it was used to lower the inhibitions of the children."
She said there is a school within two blocks of one of the locations and a park within a block and a half "with young children's toys and things to play with.
"I found that these pedophiles that I dealt with, and there were a great many, they used marijuana to lower the inhibitions of children," Waters told council.
