Kelowna city council plans for legal pot sales

The deadline for the public and municipalities to let the province know how legalized pot should be sold is November 1.

The City of Kelowna is preparing to weigh in and considering staff recommendations.

Those include privately run pot shops with the city controlling where they can set up.

Trent Kitsch is the CEO of the Doja Cannabis Company and is hoping to be part of the retail market when pot sales are legalized.

“We aren’t selling any illegal cannabis here but in the future we hope to be working with the city to be an example of how to distribute and promote retail cannabis through education and information,” Kitsch said.

UBCO professor Zach Walsh, who studies cannabis use, also agrees with the recommendations.

“I think ultimately we’ve had these dispensaries doing a good job for a number of years and being a real benefit to the community, so I think that when we have a system that works, and people are happy, we have no reason to reinvent the wheel,” Walsh said.

Community planning manager Ryan Smith wrote the recommendations with input from bylaw officers.

He says private ownership of dispensaries would fit well within Kelowna’s business culture.

“Staff felt from a local perspective, we’re an entrepreneurial community, and we thought from a community perspective that might be something they were looking for,” Smith said.

But Smith adds whether the dispensaries are private or government run, location is one of the city’s most important considerations. For instance, it wants to keep pot shops well away from places like schools and parks.