City Council in Victoria, BC, is again calling on the provincial government to end enforcement of provincial cannabis rules against the Victoria Cannabis Buyers’ Club (VCBC).
In a letter sent to BC Attorney General Niki Sherman and Minister of Public Safety and the Solicitor General, Nina Krieger, Victoria Mayor Marianne Alto asked about the reasons for enforcement actions against the VCBC in April and again in May.
“I write on behalf of Victoria City Council to inquire about the rationale for recent enforcement against the Victoria Cannabis Buyers Club (VCBC), and to reinforce our historical support for VCBC,” reads the beginning of the letter.
This is not the first time the city council has expressed their support for the dispensary. In 2020, the council had unanimously supported a call from the VCBC to seek an exemption from the province from enforcement, which the BC government subsequently rejected.
“Raids on the VCBC store and the subsequent eviction notice from its landlord (under threat of civil forfeiture of their building) make no sense in the current environment of cannabis legality, regulation and popular recreational use,” stated Alto at another point in the letter.
The Victoria Cannabis Buyers Club has been operating in Victoria since the 1990s, at several locations in the city. The club has faced ongoing enforcement by the BC Community Safety Unit (CSU) following legalization in 2018, beginning with an educational visit in 2019 that later escalated to enforcement actions and product seizures.
In 2025, following repeated investigations, raids, and seizures, BC’s Deputy Director issued a Compliance Order imposing an AMP of $3,235,465.74 on the VCBC, based on the estimated value of previously seized product.
The VCBC is asking for a pause on provincial enforcement until a judicial review is complete. “It is this judicial review that we believe will redeem the VCBC and force Health Canada to license storefront medical access that provide high dose edibles,” Smith wrote in a letter. In addition to requesting that enforcement be paused, VCBC has asked the Victoria council to lease the space it can use in the meantime.
In May, VCBC founder Ted Smith posted on social media that the CSU was beginning the process of seizing the home of his partner and VCBC board member Clea because she was on the board of directors when the club was raided and fined $3.2 million.
“The latest efforts by the Province to attack and defeat the Victoria Cannabis Buyers Club threatens the existence of a long-standing community service that has a history of supporting the health care needs of patients who have neither the financial nor systemic capacity to find that care elsewhere, wrote Alto in her final paragraph of the recent letter. “I urge you to halt your persecution of VCBC at least until their judicial review has been resolved.
Read the full article at StratCann
