Vendors who return to illegal Vancouver pot market risk being detained: lawyer

Marijuana vendors who return to set up shop at an illegal pot market in downtown Vancouver may be putting themselves at more risk than they think.

Criminal lawyer Kyla Lee said that when people are arrested, they’re usually released on a promise to appear in court, as long as they don’t have more run-ins with the law.

But she said that marijuana vendors risk losing a shot at bail if they continue to rack up charges.

“They wait in jail until their trial date, or until they plead guilty, and the problem with circumstances where you don’t have bail is that it becomes all the more tempting to enter a guilty plea because you get credit — extra credit for the time that you’re serving in custody before you’re convicted,” she said.

“So you can enter a guilty plea and get more credit and get things over with faster.”

Lee said these people may have good intentions by challenging laws with marijuana legalization on the horizon, but police could detain them.

“The police have the ability to request that you be held for court and the prosecutors have the ability to seek your detention pending the outcome of the criminal cases,” she siad.

Vancouver police said they seized 23 pounds of cannabis edibles, nine pounds of marijuana and more than $4,000 during a raid of the illegal market on Sunday.

On Tuesday, police said they also seized cocaine and weapons including bats and batons.