Pubdate: Mon, 06 Jun 2016
Source: Metro (Winnipeg, CN MB)
Page: 3
Copyright: 2016 Free Daily News Group Inc.
Contact:  http://www.metronews.ca/winnipeg
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/5322
Author: Braeden Jones

POT CRACKDOWN STEADFAST IN 'PEG

While marijuana dispensaries proliferate and engage in a game of
legally-grey chicken with authorities in some Canadian cities,
Winnipeg police say the same simply isn't happening locally.

"There are a few people that have tried to open up and we enforced the
laws as we know them right away," said Winnipeg Police Service Grow
Operations Unit member, Sgt. Carrol MacDonald.

"To my knowledge there has only been a handful, it's not as bad as
Toronto or Vancouver."

'Look what happened'

MacDonald said police saw one officially open, but shut it down right
away.

The city's first above-ground dispensary, 'Your Medical Cannabis
Headquarters,' sold cannabis medicine for under two weeks before it
was raided on August 4, 2015.

That was before Justin Trudeau became Prime Minister, but during one
of his campaign stops here en-route to gaining that office, the
Liberal leader enthusiastically endorsed the shop.

"I was a political pawn," said former store-owner Glenn Price. "When
he was in Winnipeg he backed my store... then they raided me."

Price is still waiting on court dates for charges pending from that
investigation.

Because he was first to attempt to operate a dispensary openly, the
publicized raid on his shop sent a message around the city that anyone
doing so underground should stay underground.

"I was the only one in Winnipeg with enough stones to come out and
make this happen... and look what happened," Price said.

MacDonald said police have learned "there may be one more (dispensary)
surfacing," but it's under investigation and would not provide further
comment.

"Other than that, if there are any, we're unaware of them," she
said.

In Toronto and Vancouver, as well as in Price's former store,
vaporizers, glass paraphernalia and other pot-related products are
often sold in addition to, or before opening, the dispensary side of
the business.

MacDonald said police don't go into store operating legal businesses
unless they are informed of illegal activity.

In May, city council decided to wait until the federal legalization
plan is rolled out before exploring how dispensaries could be
regulated in Winnipeg.

One legal business

There's nothing ambiguous around the rules of marijuana production,
despite the federal government's intentions to legalize, explained
MacDonald.

"It's either regulated or illegal, and there's only one legal (grow
operation) in Winnipeg," she said.

That legal grow, Delta 9 Bio-tech, is a Health Canada-regulated
licensed producer of medical cannabis products.

People who have medical marijuana licenses can access medicine from
Delta 9 by mail only.

"You can't just go there and knock on the door and go, "I'd like to
buy a gram please," MacDonald said.

Health benefits of homegrown pot disputed

In the past five years, the total value of the plants, product, grow
equipment and cash seized from grow-ops in Winnipeg is approximately
$56,243,128.

MacDonald said that's a hit to organized crime, and would have
otherwise supported criminal activity related to the sex-trade, guns
and moving other illegal drugs.

"There's not a gram of the stuff that we take down that was going for
medical use," she said.

The biggest cost, she added, is still the health detriment of
illegally produced cannabis on the user.

Marijuana taken from 15 different independent grow operations was
submitted to a lab for testing and came back "unfit for human
consumption," with mould, bacteria, e-coli, salmonella, heavy metals
and other toxins.

"It's (supposed) to be helping them, but it's hurting them, and that's
what the community needs to understand," MacDonald said, adding she
does not disagree medical marijuana helps people with certain ailments.

"I fully believe that's the case, but if they're growing it in their
own basement in contaminated soil, this is the stuff they're
ingesting... it's hurting them more than it is helping them, and that's
the big misconception."

The future of marijuana in Winnipeg

Her concern for post-legalization is that, depending on how the feds
decides to regulate the production and sale, it won't stop illegal
grow-ops, and even legal ones will push boundaries.

"I don't think it's going to put organized crime out of business,
there's too much money to be made," she said.

"And as for the possible-new legal grows? "Give them an inch and
they'll take a mile."

MacDonald would rather see licenses restricted to producers like Delta
9, but Price said with both the production and sale, he hopes "it's
going to be mum and pop shops able to compete with whoever gets into
the business."

Either way, MacDonald said it has to be tightly controlled, citing the
lack of adequate police resources to properly monitor the industry.

By the numbers:

Year over year totals of estimated value of pot plants, buds,
equipment and cash seized by the Winnipeg Police Service.

2012: 18,086,013

2013: 17,207,697

2014: 8,257,358

2015: 7,549,298

2016: 5,142,762

In the past five years, the total value of the plants, product, grow
equipment and cash seized from grow-ops in Winnipeg is approximately
$56,243,128

Average value of amount seized from 2012-2015: $12,775, 091

In 2016, police are on their way to take in $12, 342, 628 worth of 
illegal pot-related goods by the end of the year.

At the half way point through 2016, the grow operations unit has
prevented approximately $4.7 million worth of plants from being
harvested and sold, and seized about 38 lbs of marijuana that was
ready to move-either harvested, loose or packaged-worth an estimated
$177,720.  
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MAP posted-by: Jo-D