Pubdate: Fri, 27 May 2016
Source: Toronto Sun (CN ON)
Page: 4
Copyright: 2016 Canoe Limited Partnership
Contact: http://www.torontosun.com/letter-to-editor
Website: http://torontosun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/457
Author: Maryam Shah
Note: files from Jenny Yuen, Don Peat

RAID INSPIRES SURPRISE, DISBELIEF

Giant bags of weed locked in police cruisers, young people in
handcuffs inside dispensaries, signs that say "Closed" or "Closing."

This was the very public face Thursday of Project Claudia - an effort
by Toronto Police to crack down on stores selling medical marijuana
over the counter.

Police wouldn't say how many marijuana dispensaries were raided across
the city over the lunch hour, how many people were arrested or the
charges.

Officers were seen at dispensaries on Queen St. W., in Kensington
Market, and along the Danforth.

More details are expected to be rolled out at a press conference
Friday morning at police headquarters. A protest against Project
Claudia is expected to be held outside HQ at the same time.

Word of the long arm of law enforcement sweeping in spread like
wildfire among marijuana enthusiasts and advocates online.

That's how Justin - he didn't want his last name used - learned about
the raids.

The 30-year-old immediately went to check on his brother, who he says
has been working at the Queen St. W. location of Eden for about a month.

"He just smiled at me and waved at me as they were bringing him
downstairs but he had handcuffs on," Justin said, concern apparent on
his face as he looked through the glass front of the dispensary.

He says he uses medical marijuana himself, and finds it "a little
hypocritical" to have a crackdown with marijuana legalization on the
horizon anyway. "I don't have to wait for it to come in the mail," he
pointed out.

At dispensaries, patients can smell and touch the product, he
added."It's like I either do that, or go to a guy that sells cocaine
and God only knows what else, and buy marijuana, and I don't want to
go to a person like that," he said.

Almost everybody who walked past Eden - which had a police officer
standing by as people sat in handcuffs inside - expressed surprise or
disbelief at the crackdown.

Marijuana activist Jodie Emery rushed over as soon as she heard what
was happening.

"Dispensaries are operating with peaceful civil disobedience," she
stressed. "They're not legal but they're not causing harm. They're
breaking the law in a way that demonstrates the law is unjust."

The only reason medical marijuana was legalized, she added, is because
decades earlier "dispensaries opened up, got arrested, went to court,
and changed the laws."

According to Const. Caroline De Kloet, the investigation "targeted
various locations that have been identified as trafficking in
marijuana outside of the marijuana for medical purposes
regulation."

The city sent warning letters to landlords recently, notifying them
that marijuana storefronts are breaking a zoning bylaw.

- - Files from Jenny Yuen, Don Peat  
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MAP posted-by: Jo-D