Sandy Lake gets first cannabis dispensary
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 11/03/2021 (2029 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
The new cannabis dispensary in Sandy Lake has been years, and in some ways decades, in the making.
Darrell Barr, who owns the business with wife Emily, has been advocating for the legalization of cannabis since the ’70s.
At the time, he said, he was seeing his friends go to jail as a result of cannabis possession, including one he said appeared set up by police.
He joined the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws in the ’70s in an effort to promote its legalization.
“The main thing is to just get it out in the public and legalize it so people won’t get arrested and lose their passports and everything else,” he said — something that finally came to fruition in Canada on Oct. 17, 2018.
Darrell applied with the province to open a cannabis shop in Sandy Lake during the first and second rounds of applications and finally received approval in the third.
“I was told by the cannabis people I’m the oldest guy in Manitoba with a Cannabis store,” the 64-year-old said with a chuckle.
“It’s probably the most difficult business I’ve ever set up,” he said, adding that despite the regulatory hurdles he has had to pass through, those in government have been extremely helpful in getting him rolling.
The community has also been supportive from the very start, he said.
“We’re getting people in the store to thank us for opening without buying anything. Of course, they’ll be back I’m sure, but they’re so grateful someone has taken the opportunity.”
The shop has been named Lyons Roar, after past prime minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, whose government prohibited cannabis in 1923.
The couple also owns the Frontier House restaurant, a liquor store and hardware store in Sandy Lake.
“We’re small-town builders. We like to try and build the community and keep what we have here, but the pandemic’s not really helped,” said Darrell, adding their restaurant has been closed for about a year.
Sandy Lake has been their home for approximately 10 years, and Darrell said it has proven an ideal fit.
“It’s not an industrial community based on a factory — it’s tourism,” he said. “We like to live in a community where people come to have fun.”
Lyons Roar is located at 110 Railway Ave. in an old bank building the Barrs have owned for several years and have previously used as a convenience store and office space.
» tclarke@brandonsun.com
» Twitter: @TylerClarkeMB