Erich Weiss doesn’t know which way to turn.
The 25-year-old sole proprietor of Higher Levels Novelties, on Esquimalt Road in Esquimalt, recently received his business licence notice from the township. The annual licence fee for his drug-paraphernalia store increased to $2,000 from $100. And they want him to move within six months.
“I really wish I had $15,000 or $20,000 to fight it. … Basically [the notice says] to pay $2,000 by the end of January and then I’m allowed to stay until July and then they’re kicking me out,” said Weiss, who opened the store, his first business venture, last March.
Under Esquimalt’s new business licence bylaw, certain types of business — including those that sell liquor for off-site consumption, money lenders and drug-paraphernalia sales — are charged $2,000 instead of the $100 licence fee most businesses pay.
The bylaw also prohibits the sale of drug paraphernalia within 500 metres of a school, prohibits the display of drug paraphernalia by a business and prohibits the sale of drug paraphernalia to anyone under 19. The highest penalty for violation of the bylaw is $10,000, the maximum allowed under the Community Charter.
Higher Levels Novelties is within 500 metres of several schools so, even if he pays the $2,000 business licence fee, Weiss must relocate within six months.
Weiss has been calling real estate agents to try to find a new store location “but everything’s so damn expensive.”
He’s also considering papering over windows to try to meet the intent of some of the bylaw’s conditions.
He has looked at relocating in Victoria, but the real estate prices are higher, and he would have to compete with the seven stores like his already in operation there.
Esquimalt’s new business licence bylaw came in the wake of a well-publicized battle the municipality waged with the owner of the Bong Warehouse and the store’s bong-shaped mascot, which some felt was offensive. Citing an unfriendly business climate, the Bong Warehouse recently closed shop.
Weiss, who said he has never had a township official visit his store, believes he’s being swept up by a broom that was being aimed at the Bong Warehouse.
Higher Level Novelties sells a variety of instruments used for smoking marijuana such as pipes and bongs, but doesn’t sell crack pipes, Weiss said.
Crack pipes are available free of charge at the Esquimalt Health Unit as part of the Vancouver Island Health Authority’s harm-reduction program.
Both Esquimalt Mayor Barb Desjardins and Coun. Tim Morrison, the councillor who championed the bylaw changes, stand by the changes.
“I would suggest his best step forward would be to approach council and express his problems and to see what we can do to work with him in terms of resolving his situation,” Morrison said.
Both Desjardins and Morrison said Weiss had ample opportunity to express his concerns before the bylaw was passed.
“He has an opportunity to move within Esquimalt and comply to the bylaw or he could certainly come forward to staff and/or council and plead his case. There may be the opportunity for an extension of that time frame that he might require to move within the township,” Desjardins said.
“But unless he comes forward in some way to staff and/or council, the bylaw is what he needs to comply to.”
