Lifestyle

A look at the business of 4/20

By Jacob Parry /

Photos from the “4/20” market, which hosted around 40 vendors, outside the Vancouver Art Gallery on April 20, 2013.



Photos from the “4/20” market, which hosted around 40 vendors, outside the Vancouver Art Gallery on April 20, 2013.



Photos from the “4/20” market, which hosted around 40 vendors, outside the Vancouver Art Gallery on April 20, 2013.



Photos from the “4/20” market, which hosted around 40 vendors, outside the Vancouver Art Gallery on April 20, 2013.



Photos from the “4/20” market, which hosted around 40 vendors, outside the Vancouver Art Gallery on April 20, 2013.



Photos from the “4/20” market, which hosted around 40 vendors, outside the Vancouver Art Gallery on April 20, 2013.



Photos from the “4/20” market, which hosted around 40 vendors, outside the Vancouver Art Gallery on April 20, 2013.



Photos from the “4/20” market, which hosted around 40 vendors, outside the Vancouver Art Gallery on April 20, 2013.



Photos from the “4/20” market, which hosted around 40 vendors, outside the Vancouver Art Gallery on April 20, 2013.



Photos from the “4/20” market, which hosted around 40 vendors, outside the Vancouver Art Gallery on April 20, 2013.



Photos from the “4/20” market, which hosted around 40 vendors, outside the Vancouver Art Gallery on April 20, 2013.



Photos from the “4/20” market, which hosted around 40 vendors, outside the Vancouver Art Gallery on April 20, 2013.



Photos from the “4/20” market, which hosted around 40 vendors, outside the Vancouver Art Gallery on April 20, 2013.



Photos from the “4/20” market, which hosted around 40 vendors, outside the Vancouver Art Gallery on April 20, 2013.



Photos from the “4/20” market, which hosted around 40 vendors, outside the Vancouver Art Gallery on April 20, 2013.



Photos from the “4/20” market, which hosted around 40 vendors, outside the Vancouver Art Gallery on April 20, 2013.



Photos from the “4/20” market, which hosted around 40 vendors, outside the Vancouver Art Gallery on April 20, 2013.


THE#BCBIZDAILY
Plus, a Vancouver startup releases its high-tech eyewear and a pipeline gets federal approval

World of WeedCraft
As marijunana creeps closer to full legalization in B.C. (click for an infographic), the once underground economy of dealers, bakers and makers of products that include pot has started to emerge into the daylight. That trend is no clearer than at the “4/20” rally held annually at Georgia and Hornby, where every year organizers run a market for marijuana products and paraphernalia, peddling cookies, brownies, pipes, T-shirts and plenty of pot. In 2013, BCBusiness sent photographer Makito Inomata to catalog some of the wares on display (see slideshow above).

Not your father’s sunglasses
Vancouver-based Recon Instruments has started shipping out its set of computerized sunglasses, Recon Jet, nearly two years after it started pre-sales of the product. The long-awaited wearable computer designed for cyclists and extreme sports fans can project information, including push notifications, text messages and data on speed and cadence—and all onto a tiny screen on the inside of the lens. Recon Jet retails for $879. 

LNG pipeline
The National Energy Board has approved a natural gas pipeline that will connect Petronas‘s proposed liquified natural gas plant outside of Prince Rupert with the company’s wells in the Peace River valley. The pipeline has been proposed by TransCanada Pipelines Ltd. As a first step to constructing a pipeline, Michael Culbert, the president and CEO of Progress Energy Canada (a wholly-owned subsidiary of Petronas), said that the NEB’s decision was “a key component to fulfilling a core requisite that informs [Petronas’s] final investment decision.”