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: Shawn Jeffords

COUNCILLOR AGAINST CITY'S ACTIONS

Councillor Jim Karygiannis says he wants to stop the city's crackdown
on medical marijuana dispensaries.

Karygiannis said to do that he'll introduce a motion at the next
Licensing and Standards committee meeting that would call on city
staff to defer study of regulating and enforcement around the
dispensaries until after the federal government sets the rules for
marijuana legalization.

"This is a knee-jerk reaction to a couple hundred e-mails,"
Karygiannis said of the crackdown. "I think we can certainly go and
caution them and make sure that we move quickly in order to have rules
and regulations to standardize them."

Karygiannis said the city is wasting resources.

"These dispensaries have popped up because there is a vacuum of law,"
he said. "Instead of shutting them down and having court challenges
later on and these will be thrown away ... all the work we're going to
do goes out the window."

City spokesman Tammy Robbinson said as of May 25, licensing staff had
issued "78 property owners out of a known 83" dispensaries.

"The notices advised the property owners that these dispensaries are a
contravention of the city's zoning bylaw and that the property owner
may face charges," Robbinson said.

Robbinson said bylaw officers were issuing charges to business owners
for the zoning contraventions. The city's director of bylaw
investigations will also take part in a Friday press conference on the
raids, she said.

Mayor John Tory's office said Thursday he couldn't comment on the
raids and ongoing investigations. But in recent weeks Tory has
advocated for a crackdown.  
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MAP posted-by: Jo-D