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. - --- MAP posted-by: Jo-D