While marijuana is now legal across Canada, a longtime pot activist says the current legalization model is far from perfect.
Dana Larsen of Sensible BC appeared on the Early Edition Wednesday morning. He says that, in addition to waiving fees and wait time for pardons, the federal government should be doing more to apologize to those he feels have been wrongfully punished.
"There have been a lot of very harsh penalties, such as 14-year sentences for things such as a 19-year-old passing a joint to an 18-year-old," says Larsen. "It's still being treated much more strictly than alcohol, and I think we still have a long way to go."
Larson says he'd like to see taxes from marijuana go into reparitions for Canadians who have served jail sentences due to pot possession.
Another aspect of legalization that he disagrees with is the very limited number of ways to actually buy pot at this point in time.
"It's going to be a long, slow process before we get a reasonable number of these legal cannabis shops around the province," says Larsen. "Ironically, there are a lot of cannabis dispensaries and shops shutting down, so it's going to be a little bit harder to get cannabis today than it was yesterday, which is a little strange."
In the meantime, he has no plans on closing his own dispensary in Vancouver.
"We've decided not to apply for a permit or shut down. We've got thousands of medical patients that rely on us for cannabis access, and we've decided to continue serving them as long as we're needed."
The only licensed pot shop in the province currently sits in Kamloops. You can also order cannabis online at bccannabisstores.com.