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Province approves Starbuds

- | Story: 261025

The Central Okanagan is finally getting its first legal cannabis retail store.

After getting municipal approval from the District of Lake Country back in December, the Starbuds location in Lake Country has sat empty, waiting for the province to give a final stamp of approval.

Way back in January, Starbuds president Dave Martyn told Castanet he hoped the approval would come in a matter of days, not weeks or months. It ended up taking many months.

While the province has yet to list the Lake Country store on their website of approved cannabis retail locations, Daniel Winer, Starbuds' director of marketing, took to Twitter Thursday to announce: “The cannabis gods have heard us! Kelowna, we are live!”

The Okanagan's first legal retail cannabis store was approved last month in Vernon, and opened on Canada Day.

Indigenous Bloom, a cannabis retail outlet located just north of Duck Lake, has been operating since January on Okanagan Indian Band land without a provincial licence, while another is operating on Westside Road.

The Lake Country Starbuds has seen its share of hurdles. After Lake Country city council denied the store's variance application at the beginning of December, a flurry of community support led council to unanimously pass the application two weeks later.

Starbuds' Winer says the Lake Country location will be opened sometime later this month.

While Starbuds has already opened a store in Dawson Creek, the opening of the Lake Country location will no doubt be particularly special for the company's president Martyn, who calls Lake Country home.

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