Pubdate: Fri, 18 Sep 2015
Source: Vancouver 24hours (CN BC)
Copyright: 2015 Vancouver 24 hrs.
Contact: http://vancouver.24hrs.ca/letters
Website: http://vancouver.24hrs.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3837
Author: Michael Mui
Page: 5

CLOSING POT SHOPS LIKE 'HAMMER TO KILL A FLY'

Vancouver's Police Board has dismissed a complaint alleging its
officers were turning a blind eye towards the city's many marijuana
dispensaries - saying it has taken action, but the investigations are
simply too costly and ineffective.

In a lengthy response to the complaint filed by Smart Approaches to
Marijuana Canada, VPD Deputy Chief Doug LePard said the department has
executed 11 warrants and recommended 23 charges since 2013 against
marijuana dispensaries. The most recent bust happened in August.

But those were special cases. The stores were alleged to be selling to
children, committing violence, or associating with organized crime.
LePard gave three examples.

"In the first incident a 15-year-old boy was hospitalized after
allegedly purchasing edible marihuana products from the store. In the
second, marihuana was allegedly traded by the proprietor for stolen
property," he said.

In the third case, he said police received "information that the
dispensary had allegedly been selling to youths and was associated to
the Hells Angels." The department also pointed to the high costs of
policing dispensaries. In one 2014 example, 560 police hours-or
$34,000 in salary and benefits-were spent on a single
investigation.

The task involved 30 hours of work to prepare a warrant, 10 detectives
and a forensic unit member executing the warrant-each spending 10
hours on the search, 30 hours of investigative activity after the
search, 160 hours to process evidence, and another 160 hours to
complete reports and packages to Crown.

"Or stated another way, the investigation required the equivalent of
one officer working full-time for approximately three months," LePard
said.

Police said they can only do so much, and it's the municipality that
must exercise its bylaw authority to shut down businesses after a
warrant is executed. Without that, as was the case with one
dispensary, the vendors simply open up again immediately after being
raided by police.

"Obviously, the lack of clarity in the federal legislation and policy
that comes out of Ottawa is a huge challenge here," said Gregor
Robertson, Vancouver mayor and chairman of the police board.

"We're in a federal election, we will see a new parliament, we don't
know what the construct of that will be ... it may all change in a
matter of months."

Pamela McColl, who filed the complaint, said the city should've
cracked down on dispensaries as soon as the first one opened.

"This is a Vancouver problem, it was very much the city manager and
mayor and council who let these things go on," she said.

"They could have fined them $500 per day that they had these
dispensaries operating (through bylaw penalties). They could've done
that but they didn't."
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MAP posted-by: Matt