It is Nov. 5, 2019. Squamish's Bryan Raiser, owner of 99 North Cannabis, stands in front of his store, his face in his hand. He is crying.
Just before 11:30 a.m. that day, members of the Community Safety Unit (CSU) had entered both 99 North and Grassroots Medicinal, another medicinal dispensary operating at the time.
Members of the CSU removed boxes of products and cash from both locations and shuttered them, slapping “Seizure” stickers on their front doors.
At that point, the provincial government of B.C. had a pathway for legal cannabis retail sales, and Raiser was on it—being the first in B.C. to apply to get a licence, he says.
But, because he hadn't been officially approved, his shop and the other in town were technically illegal, thus the raid.
Waiting years to be approved was a very dark time for the well-known local, who, in previous careers, wrote for The Squamish Chief and served as a municipal councillor, among other professions.
“Absolute, darkest, craziest days of my life,” Raiser recalls.
He watched other stores be approved and opened in town and beyond, and then the pandemic hit.
His story
Raiser had actually been the first retail cannabis dispensary in Squamish to open its doors back in February 2015, years before October 2018, when recreational cannabis was legalized.
He opened his storefront medical marijuana dispensary at 37768 Second Ave. at the corner of Vancouver Street during the week of Feb. 19, 2015.
He placed a black and white depiction of Elvis Presley in that tiny 18-square-metre (200 square-foot) store.
It was a way to make customers feel more relaxed coming in, he says.
Back to the future
Fast forward to February 2025, Elvis is at the back of his current (2,200-square-foot) legally approved store as a reminder of what was.
Raiser sits at a table in the staff room of his bright and centrally located cannabis store at 130-1200 Hunter Place, next to a pet store and pizza joint, and across from a bank. The store's 2021 Chamber of Commerce Award for Innovation & Resilience, which he received the first year he reopened with the provincial government's blessing, is proudly displayed near the front of the bright and almost clinically clean store.
(99 North was also the 2022, 2023, and 2024 winner for Best Cannabis Store in The Squamish Chief Reader’s Choice Awards.)
"I want people to know how fucking awesome Squamish is," Raiser says, with his usual colourful language.
“I just want everybody to know that Squamish is awesome and anything is possible. Again, it doesn't matter how dark it was—I was—after a raid and in a pandemic … it worked,” he says.
“Life is a roller coaster; you can't get up without going down, and you can't go down without being up. We need that message more than ever.”
Roller coaster ride
The previous stigma faced by cannabis users and sellers, the raid and then the waiting years to be approved as a provincial store were traumatic, Raiser says.
He reflects on the stigma around cannabis for generations that had people arrested and charged and families divided “over a plant.”
"It's hard for people now to appreciate—the people who were there understand— just how crazy it was,” he says.
He recalls professionals who didn’t want to be seen near his first medical dispensary and people who were kicked out of their family homes for “smoking weed.”
Raiser recalls an elderly client who came to his early medical dispensary and told him she felt lied to most of her life that marijuana was evil; meanwhile, she ended up finding medicinal cannabis was one of the only things that finally had reduced her pain from a physical ailment.
The dark times continue to impact Raiser.
He still measures his words carefully and is anxious to make clear that he follows all the rules and regulations around being a retail cannabis store, as if afraid the gains he has made could be taken from him at any minute, even though he has operated his legal store for four years.
(Read more background of the store's history on the 99 North website.)
Squamish council perspective
Raiser notes that Squamish was one of the first communities to grant a cannabis dispensary—which was illegal under federal law at the time—a business license.
Patricia Heintzman, who was mayor of Squamish during this period (2014 to 2018), recalls her council at the time letting RCMP know—as is standard for councils—what their priorities were, and busting pot shops that would soon be legalized was not high on that list.
"This is going to be legal in a year or two, is this something we want to spend our tax dollars on for the police to pursue [as a] priority," she recalls the council discussing.
"We never told RCMP not to act on anything, because we can't. If it's a legal code of Canada, the police have every right to act on it, but we did have conversations with the police about prioritization, and the best use of our resources. And of course, it was up to them whether or not they do anything about it," she adds, noting intimate partner violence, among other crimes, was a priority for the council in those years.
"I think our police acted quite well. And obviously, any sort of crazy illegal activity … needed to be curtailed.”
During that time, District council also set about putting in bylaws in preparation for legalization.
"We wanted to get ahead of it so we wouldn't be swept up in this change wave, and all of a sudden going, 'Oh my God, what do we do?"
There were other town councils with the same attitude, but then there were also communities, such as the City of Kelowna and others, who took a more heavy-handed approach.
"Our observation at the time was that it was a long, expensive road if you got into that court battle stuff, particularly when, in [about a] year, it was all going to be legal," Heintzman recalls.
She hosted the B.C. Mayors' Caucus in Squamish, and they toured Raiser's dispensary.
"Because all these municipalities were going to have to start to consider how they work with these stores, because it was going to be legal. I shared with them our policies that we developed.”
Asked if she sees a point in the future when any provincial or federal government could roll back the gains in cannabis legalization, Heintzman says she doubts it.
"I think the world is understanding that cannabis is perhaps even more benign than alcohol," she says.
"And it's a massive revenue generator for the Canadian government. So I can't see them, any government or party or whoever's in there ... getting rid of that particular cash cow."
But Heintzman also acknowledged B.C. is in a bit of a bubble when it comes to attitudes.
She recalled talking to then-parliamentary secretary, and former police officer, Bill Blair (who is now Defence Minister) in 2017 when he was on a tour to meet with Canadians to discuss cannabis legalization and regulation.
She was telling him that the rollout of legalization seemed a bit more complicated than it needed to be.
"He said, 'B.C, is different. We could roll this out yesterday, and B.C. would be OK, but rolling this out in Saskatchewan or in Manitoba? They're not used to having pot shops—like in Vancouver—for 30 years,’”
‘Bryan, good for you’
Raiser cherished the support he got from politicians and regular residents in those early years.
"The community rallied. Even people who I knew did not like me as a [former] councillor or as a journalist—any of my previous careers—they're like, 'Bryan, good for you. So, it was amazing,” he recalls.
It has been a wild decade-long ride for Raiser.
His store now is a tribute to the town he loves and the trip he has been on that got him here.
The original 99 North dispensary sign hangs prominently at one entrance, above a wall of mountain biking bibs and memorabilia "from every mountain bike event that has ever taken place in Squamish," he says proudly before pointing out a painted plank of wood that was by crafted by legendary local trail builder Dave Reid, who died in 2022.
"I've always deeply loved this community. ... I would not be here without Squamish. It's a very Squamish story. We are not like other communities in many, many, many ways. This is a very good example of that,” he says.
But while things are much better than they used to be in terms of cannabis, Raiser still hopes for more evolution.
"The government symbol for cannabis is a stop sign with a pot leaf on it and says, 'THC.' For opioids, it's a yield sign. Opioids, go slow. Weed, absolute stop. It's like, OK. That shows that this is still how it's treated. It's not treated as we should have. There should be weed tourism. This is an economic driver,” he says.
He walks to the front door to pose for a photo, arms wide open for what is next.
