After years of legal wrangling with a defiant pot shop owner in Penticton, the city has won a court battle, and the dispensary owner has been ordered to pay up.
Jukka Laurio had been operating a marijuana dispensary called Herbal Green Apothecary on Westminster Avenue for years before moving it to Okanagan Falls in January.
He ignored numerous city orders to stop illegally selling marijuana without a business licence, wracking up thousands of dollars in fines.
The city took him to court and a B.C. Supreme Court judge ordered Laurio to pay a fine of $15,000.
The city says it’s the largest fine made against a marijuana dispensary in B.C.