Karen Ogloff will have a decision to make.
The Lumby woman, a 20-year-sufferer of lupus, makes a trip into Vernon regularly for product at Herb鈥檚 Healing Center, in the Alpine Centre on Kal Lake Road, product Ogloff says helps her with her disease.
Tuesday afternoon, at a rally held by Herb鈥檚 owner Russ Stevenson, Ogloff heard the owner say he was closing his doors at 6 p.m. 鈥� facing, Stevenson said, a $5 million fine and three years in jail if he didn鈥檛 鈥� leaving her in a lurch as to where she鈥檒l get her product.
鈥淚 was diagnosed with lupus in 1992 and, so far, Herb鈥檚 products are the only thing that have helped me,鈥� said Ogloff, 47, who has been using Stevenson鈥檚 products for 鈥渁bout a year.鈥�
鈥淚 have no idea what I鈥檓 going to do (now). The prices here are good, the products are good, they鈥檙e excellent. I鈥檓 worried if he closes I won鈥檛 be able to get a product that helps a lot.鈥�
Stevenson held a rally at his shop Tuesday, attended by about 30 customers and supporters, protesting the City of Vernon insisting he close his business because he doesn鈥檛 have the proper licensing.
Support for Stevenson came from Ogloff and the likes of Julia Berschley, and her grandson, Bryce Kennedy. Berschley鈥檚 son, Collin, Bryce鈥檚 father, died Christmas Eve 2018 after a 20-plus-year battle with multiple myeloma.
鈥淢y son suffered for more than 20 years, and if it wasn鈥檛 for Russ supplying cannabis, and edibles, and smoking products, my son may not have lived as long as he did,鈥� said Berschley. 鈥淲hen I couldn鈥檛 afford to buy him his products, Russ gave him a whole bag of edibles for free. He didn鈥檛 charge me.鈥�
鈥淗e got a lot of quality of life out of your product,鈥� said Bryce to Stevenson, who said he鈥檚 been selling cannabis in Vernon for more than six years. He is one of the original founders of the Herbal Health Centre, right behind his current shop in the Alpine Centre. He did that for four years with the proper city business licences, then opened his own store two years ago. Since then, Stevenson said he鈥檚 spent this time 鈥渓ooking after our patients.鈥�
The City of Vernon, he said, came to his shop in January 2018 and asked that he put a covenant on the property and apply for a special temporary use permit to allow him to operate straight through until recreational marijuana was legalized in October 2018 and until provincial operating licences were approved. One of the stipulations, he said, was that he was given a 鈥渃ertain period of time for the licence to be on the wall.鈥�
鈥淲e can鈥檛 control the speed the government works, so there鈥檚 no way we can say product will be on the wall in three months or a year, so a restriction on time frame makes no sense,鈥� he said, calling the application process 鈥渁bsolutely cumbersome and ridiculous.鈥�
He has continued to operate without a proper licence, giving away, he claimed, more than $30,000 worth of product to his customers. He had nine employees prior to the regulations but has been operating the store himself for the past few months, and Stevenson said his client base number is 2,800.
鈥淭he people being hurt by all of these delays are the medical patients,鈥� said Stevenson. 鈥淧atients can only buy off a licensed producer for the government and those producers are not compassionate. The other problem I see is medical patients are ordering online, paying for shipping and waiting for a product to show up while recreational users can walk into a store and buy their product. How is that OK? Why are we punishing the most vulnerable people in our society?鈥�
Stevenson blasted the government鈥檚 products, saying the products he sells 鈥渇ar out-exceed what the government sells,鈥� and also City of Vernon Mayor Victor Cumming for a lack of response to four phones calls from Stevenson, and to calls from 鈥�500 of his customers.鈥�
鈥淲e definitely did not get 500 calls, we got quite a few and each had an e-mail message returned to them,鈥� said Cumming, who feels sorry for Stevenson鈥檚 plight.
鈥淚 feel for him, I really do. He鈥檚 offering what he thinks is a great product but the federal government will not legalize those products.
鈥淢r. Stevenson was made quite aware, and he knows, he鈥檚 been operating without a licence. He was told he had to quit selling medical marijuana as only the federal government can do that and people have to order online. He was then made aware that the province would be responsible for licensing recreational marijuana and go through the application process (which Stevenson said he had). He has not been granted a licence by the province so the city can鈥檛 give him a business licence.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 know what else we can do.鈥�
If he does close for good at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Stevenson, who said he didn鈥檛 want to apply for a recreational licence, called it 鈥渁 sad day in history,鈥� and got further support from advocate Cynthia Breden of Vernon.
鈥淚 thank Russ for his integrity, putting his own health and safety and own freedoms and monies at risk,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e stand with you, we stand for you. It鈥檚 so easy to lose our lives to the Internet and order online, but do people realize we鈥檙e giving away little bits of freedom here and there, and Russ is reminding us that we need to stand up to our right to choose.鈥�
roger@vernonmorningstar.com
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