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City of Vancouver owed almost $1M in illegal pot shop fines

Mon, Jun 26: Nearly $1 million in penalties handed down for rule breakers but only $140,000 has been collected... the reason, according to councilors, a backlog in courtroom time. Others question whether crackdown is worth the effort. Jill Bennett reports – Jun 26, 2017

The City of Vancouver has handed out nearly 2,000 tickets to marijuana dispensaries operating without a business licence, for a combined bill of $1.1 million.

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Only 400 tickets have been paid, which means the city has only received $175,750 from the million-dollar bill.

Over the last five weeks, the city also handed down 26 court injunctions to pot shops. Prior to that, they handed down another 27, bringing the total of injunctions to 53.

WATCH: BC considers the effect of the federal marijuana legislation

However, once a store received an injunction, the city can no longer hand out tickets and collect money from those dispensaries.

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As of the end of July, none of the injunctions have made it to a courtroom.

There are only 12 dispensaries left in the city that can be subject to tickets from bylaw officers.

In Dec. 2016, the city increased the ticket fine from $250 to $1,000.

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