Kamloops is steaming along on the legal cannabis front adding further fuel to the fire of its nickname ‘Kamsterdam.’

City Business Licence Inspector Dave Jones says with nine legal cannabis stores already approved more are coming.

“Four more will come on February 12th to go in front of council.”

Jones says while only the one government store is operational another legal cannabis store will soon open its doors.

“One of the cannabis stores that went to council on late October it got its conditional approval a couple of weeks ago. 399 Tranquille Rd the Shore’s cannabis store should be open mid-February for the first private store.”

And it is not just legal pot shops either.

“We do have two applications in from the federal government and with the owners for two commercial grows.”

Jones says so far legal cannabis stores have clustered in the downtown core and on Tranquille but he anticipates they will soon spread into other parts of the city.

“The Tranquille corridor and the downtown corridor were the big zoned areas where a lot more properties were available. They were the easy pickings. Those stores got picked off and obviously they were the ones who were up front. I think you will start seeing some of those exterior parts of town will be coming forward now. There is some other properties that are not in the downtown core or Tranquille and I think in the next couple of months you will see those come to fruition.”

He says the other factor will be the exclusion zones, rules mandating how far from schools and each other cannabis stores must be, that will make it tougher for prospective owners to find a site.

Jones adds the applications for two more government cannabis stores, on Tranquille and at Lansdowne Village, have been approved and those stores are being worked on but his sense is the province is shifting its attention to getting government stores in other communities potentially slowing down the timeline to open the two new stores here in Kamloops.