Pubdate: Wed, 22 Jul 2015
Source: Winnipeg Free Press (CN MB)
Copyright: 2015 Winnipeg Free Press
Contact: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/send_a_letter
Website: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/502
Author: Aidan Geary
Page: B4

POT-STORE OWNER OPENS DOORS AGAIN

'Not Going Anywhere' Despite Police Order

IN the three weeks since he started selling his product, Glenn Price 
of Your Medical Cannabis Headquarters has had highs and lows. What 
he's made clear is, although police have ordered him to stop, he's 
not going up in smoke.

After a brief hiatus, Price began selling medical marijuana again 
Tuesday morning, despite being ordered not to by police a week 
earlier. After a tumultuous few days including two police visits to 
his shop, a "smoke-in" at Winnipeg police headquarters and a 
near-doubling in customer interest, Price said Tuesday he's "not 
going anywhere."

"I just can't stop. I can't stop helping people that need help," 
Price said at his shop at 1404 Main St. "And if (police) want to come 
arrest me, they know where I am."

Although Price said he only sells his product to adults who have 
prescriptions who go through an assessment process with the store, he 
is not licensed by Health Canada to sell medical cannabis, meaning 
his operation is illegal. Police ordered him to stop sales on July 
14, only two weeks after he started. In those two weeks, Price had 
built up a customer base of more than 200 people. Now, he said, it's 
more than 400.

When his shop opened as usual Tuesday, some of those supporters 
gathered with picket signs and posters to stand behind him, vowing to 
form a human wall to prevent police, if they arrived, from entering 
the shop to arrest Price. The event, like Monday's "smoke-in" at the 
Public Safety Building, was organized by Steven Stairs, a local 
medical cannabis user involved with the Green party.

"We're going to do whatever we can to support him, and if he ends up 
getting arrested, we'll work on a plan after for the next thing," 
Stairs said on Tuesday. "But we're not going to stop."

It hasn't come to that - yet. Police did not visit the store on 
Tuesday, although Stairs said he thinks they will soon.

Stairs said the dispensary, the only one in Manitoba, provides needed 
access to cannabis for medical users. The legal alternative, the 
Health Canada-approved mail-order system, can leave patients waiting 
for months, Price added, and his own three-month wait helped motivate 
him to start the shop. The other option, of course, is to buy from 
ever-present underground drug dealers.

At a news conference on Monday, Winnipeg police spokesman Const. 
Jason Micalyshen said police will shut down anyone who sells cannabis 
without a licence, but wouldn't comment on individual cases. Police 
issued a news release that day listing the potential dangers of 
unauthorized marijuana sales, including unknown quality and contents.

A complaint about Price's shop was filed a week ago by 
Vancouver-based Pamela McColl of the national anti-pot organization 
Smart Approaches to Marijuana. She said in an earlier interview she 
is concerned Price's marijuana would make its way to youth, sold to 
them by adults who got it legitimately, and that it could "normalize" 
pot use to kids.

If he is arrested, Price promises he won't stop trying to run his 
business. If it isn't him, he said, another person will step in and 
run the store for him, and he would come back as soon as possible 
after being arrested.

"How far am I willing to go with this? Supreme Court," Price said 
Tuesday. "I'm not going to be quiet about this. I'm going to go until 
they stop me, as far as I can go."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom