The Globe and Mail reports in its Wednesday edition that Vancouver's outlaw cannabis shops are expected to fade away after a B.C. Court of Appeal decision last week removed any hope that the stores could continue to operate outside the bounds of the provincial and municipal licensing rules. The Globe's Mike Hager and Hina Imam write that Vancouver was once home to more than 100 illicit cannabis retailers before the legalization of recreational marijuana but, now, just nine of these storefronts compete with the 19 businesses so far properly licensed. The sector had been awaiting a verdict in a case launched by nine former retailers who had argued that cities have no right to limit where medical cannabis can be sold. They argued the storefront sales of the drug are a federal -- not a municipal -- matter and the city's licensing rules interfered with patients' "reasonable access" to the drug. The pot shops argued patients' Charter rights were infringed because the licensing system could require patients to travel farther than one could easily make it on foot to obtain medical cannabis. That argument was rejected by all three justices, who ruled the outcome would be an "absurd" inability of cities to enact zoning bylaws.