UPDATE 9:25 a.m.

The owner of an Okanagan Falls dispensary smashed by vandals last night is taking the situation in stride.

Jukka Laurio is in the process of relocating his Herbal Green Apothecary dispensary from Penticton to Okanagan Falls in a bid to avoid municipal regulation.

“When I first opened in Penticton, the windows were smashed twice, I was firebombed. You just repair and move on,” he said Thursday morning while surveying the damage.

“I presume a local drug dealer doesn’t really like the idea of me opening a store in his territory,” he added.

Okanagan Falls resident Donna Evans said she doesn’t support or condemn the dispensary either way, but thought there just isn’t the support for a pot shop in an unincorporated area.

“OK Falls doesn’t have any presence of police, or guidelines,” she said. "There needs to be some sort of regulation."

Laurio said he was already in the process of wiring up the building with security cameras, which should be up and running shortly.

“We are going to repair it, the RCMP will look at it, nothing will happen, and we will carry on,” he said.

The graffiti uses the words “pedo, goof” and other profanities, likely in reference to Laurio’s 1997 sexual assault conviction — for which he served four years in prison — that became public knowledge when he ran for Penticton mayor in 2011.

ORIGINAL 7:45 a.m.

Herbal Green Apothecary, a controversial pot shop that moved from Penticton to Okanagan Falls just over a week ago has already been vandalized.

Donna Evans tells Castanet news, "I'm just leaving for work from OK Falls this morning driving to work and I can see that locals have already graffitied the pot shop that just opened."

The store opened on January 11, 2018 on Main Street in Okanagan Falls.

Owner Jukka Laurio, says it was a soft opening and he was hoping for a warmer welcome.