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City of Vancouver moving ahead to close more than 150 pot shops

Click to play video: 'Vancouver gets ready to close unlicenced pot stores'
Vancouver gets ready to close unlicenced pot stores
ABOVE: More than 150 pot stores in Vancouver will have to close next week, because they're not licenced. But as Nadia Stewart reports, some owners are wondering why the city is spending money enforcing the shutdown, when Ottawa is getting ready to legalize marijuana – Apr 21, 2016

The City of Vancouver is moving ahead to close more than 150 pot stores across the city.

Of the more than 170 stores that applied for licenses under the city’s new rules, only 14 were given the green light.

The rest have until next Friday to close their doors, but some owners are wondering why the city is spending money enforcing the closure while the federal government is getting ready to legalize pot.

“We’ve been here seven years,” said Dana Larsen, Vancouver Dispensary Society director. “To make us leave because we’re 270 metres from a school, which is only kindergarten to Grade 3 students, none of whom are walking in the neighbourhood.”

However, B.C.’s long-standing Compassion Club will stay open. They were ordered closed by the city last year after new zoning and licensing requirements for pot shops were established.

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The Compassion Club appealed that and will continue providing medical cannabis to its 6,000 clients.

-With files from Nadia Stewart

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