Proposed first-of-its-kind weed-smoking patio gets rejected in Nelson, B.C. [Video]

A café owner in the B.C. southern Interior city of Nelson has been pushing for the city’s first-ever weed-smoking patio. Earlier this week, the city council rejected Brenton Raby’s application.

Yaherb Culture café was established in downtown Nelson just after marijuana was legalized in 2018, anticipating the day when consumption sites would be permitted. 

Seven years later,  smoking and vaping cannabis on public patios is permitted in B.C., in places where smoking and vaping tobacco is already allowed, subject to local and Indigenous bylaws. 

“The plan was to open a cannabis culture café where people in the cannabis community could gather and express themselves,” said Raby. 

He obtained a business licence, a registered trademark, and a health permit for the renovated café.

In 2017, Nelson updated its Clean Air and Smoking Regulation Bylaw. The revised bylaw does not specifically refer to patios. 

In an email to CBC News, Raby says that he felt the bylaw was ambiguous enough and decided …