Pubdate: Sat, 23 Jan 2016
Source: Globe and Mail (Canada)
Copyright: 2016 The Globe and Mail Company
Contact:  http://www.theglobeandmail.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/168
Authors: Mike Hager and Selena Ross
Page: A15

POT SHOP OWNER VOWS TO REOPEN

Put Police Resources to Better Uses, Vancouver-Based Entrepreneur 
Says, After Danforth Location Is Busted

The owner of Canada's biggest chain of illegal pot shops says that, 
as long as Toronto police keep raiding his recreational vapour 
lounge, he will keep reopening the controversial franchise, adding 
that the public appetite for such enforcement is waning in the face 
of coming legalization.

Don Briere, owner of 19 Weeds locations throughout British Columbia, 
said Friday afternoon that GoodWeeds lounge on Danforth Avenue would 
reopen that evening after a dozen officers executed a search warrant 
Thursday night and arrested the couple who owns half the business.

Police were responding to a complaint about the conspicuous 
storefront, which operates like a bar and sells anyone over 18 years 
old hits of concentrated cannabis extracts or "dabs" without proving 
a medical need.

"We're just going to have to open again and we want to know why 
[Toronto police] are wasting our tax resources," Mr. Briere said from 
Vancouver. "The cannabis wars are over."

Still, Christopher Goodwin and Erin Goodwin, part owners of 
GoodWeeds, were both charged with possession of marijuana for the 
purpose of trafficking, possession of cannabis resin for the purpose 
of trafficking and possession of proceeds of crime, according to 
Toronto police spokeswoman Constable Caroline de Kloet. She would not 
release more information about the nature of the complaint against GoodWeeds.

Mr. Briere, who was once imprisoned for running B.C.'s largest 
network of marijuana grow operations, is one of dozens of 
entrepreneurs rushing to take advantage of Toronto's rapid rise as a 
centre for these dispensaries, which are illegal because they procure 
and sell their products outside Health Canada's licensed 
medical-marijuana system. There is no official tally of dispensaries 
across Canada but more than 150 are estimated to be operating, with 
most in Vancouver and Victoria.

In Vancouver, the municipal police force has repeatedly said that its 
resources are better deployed tackling more dangerous street drugs, 
such as heroin and fentanyl; it ignored former health minister Rona 
Ambrose's demand that officers "enforce the law" and shut down the 
dispensaries.

Vancouver police have raided 11 shops in the past two years after 
they were suspected of selling to minors or having ties to gangs such 
as the Hells Angels, but said it will leave the 100 other operators 
alone unless they too are suspected of such activity.

Toronto police have said they do monitor dispensaries, but have a 
host of other enforcement priorities.

Most of Toronto's roughly 40 pot shops allow customers to buy - but 
not consume - at their stores and require some form of medical 
paperwork showing the patient says cannabis helps treat a health condition.

Alan Young, a law professor at Osgoode Hall and a past consultant to 
dispensaries, said the obvious sale of cannabis products to 
recreational clients likely gained the lounge a bad reputation among 
some neighbours and forced police to act. He pointed to a similar 
case last September, where officers shut down another dispensary and 
vapour lounge called Melanheadz, which was located several blocks 
away from GoodWeeds.

"If I was advising a client how to avoid problems, I would advise 
them to keep away from dabs," said Mr. Young, who added police have 
shown no great will to go after those operators discreetly offering 
cannabis to medical patients.

Councillor Joe Cressy, chairman of the panel implementing the city's 
harm-reduction drug strategy, said Thursday's raid was "what we all 
recognize to be a failed criminalization approach" to marijuana. But 
Toronto city council will not mimic Vancouver in passing bylaws to 
regulate these illegal shops, he said.

"For the city of Toronto to establish its own bylaws that could 
become moot in a matter of months after they've been put in place is 
not the prudent and responsible way to proceed," said Mr. Cressy, 
whose ward encompasses the pot-shop hub of Kensington Market.

For now, he said, the city will keep urging the federal government to 
"move quickly but also responsibly" with a task force headed by MP 
Bill Blair to craft an approach to legalizing the drug.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom