Pubdate: Mon, 12 Sep 2016
Source: Toronto Star (CN ON)
Copyright: 2016 The Toronto Star
Contact:  http://www.thestar.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/456
Author: Jesse McLean
Page: GT1

POLICE BOARD MEMBER QUESTIONS OFFICER'S POT SHOP

Councillor Bill McLean plans to raise issue during Durham Region
police board meeting

A member of the Durham police board wants answers to why an active
officer was allowed to co-own a medical marijuana company that is
unlicensed and offers customers drug products that are illegal to sell.

"There are questions that I will be asking at the next board meeting,"
said Bill McLean, a Pickering councillor and retired Toronto police
sergeant, responding to findings of a Star investigation into the
marijuana company Living On Inc.

"I think it's our job as a board to ask those questions and get those
answers."

But McLean might be the only one at today's meeting of the Durham
Regional Police Services Board who wants to discuss the
controversy.

The police service has steadfastly refused to answer specific
questions about what it calls an "employer-employee matter" that is
"not open for public discussion."

Roger Anderson, head and spokesman of the board, called it a personnel
issue and would not comment further.

And the officer himself says it has no place before the civilian body
tasked with police oversight.

"It's nothing to do with the Police Services Board. They don't oversee
anything like this," Const. Phil Edgar said in an interview.

A recent Star investigation found Living On Inc., located on First
Nations land in Port Perry, Ont., was not licensed by Health Canada.

Its website also advertises various kinds of edible marijuana products
- - pot peanut brittle, lollypops, a weed-infused chocolate-hazelnut
spread called "Chrontella" - that are illegal to sell in Canada
because the government says they pose a risk of overdose or
unintentional ingestion by children.

After the Star began asking questions, Edgar said he "stepped back"
from the marijuana company and is weighing whether he wants to
continue a career of policing or branch into the budding medical weed
business.

He said he joined the company in December 2015 and filed a request for
secondary employment shortly after. He left Living On in July.

Under Ontario law, officers must receive the police chief's permission
to have a second job or have ownership in a company that may appear to
be a conflict of interest or interfere with their duties as a cop.

Police board member McLean first raised concerns about the approval of
Const. Edgar's request at a June police board meeting.

He was told the Durham force received a legal opinion "that it would
be required to approve" Edgar's ownership of a "marijuana dispensary,"
police board records show.

Durham police have not made the legal opinion public.

While continuing not to comment on Const. Edgar's case, the police
force appears to have implied that it did not know about the company's
lack of licence or the illicit goods advertised on Living On's website.

"While our decision-making is subject to limitations in the
legislation, the service would never knowingly approve a request for
secondary employment that is illegal," police spokesman Dave Selby
said in a statement.

"At any time, should new facts come to the attention of the service
that would change the context of a secondary employment approval, the
service may take any steps deemed necessary, including revocation of
the approval."

As of Friday, the police force had yet to revoke its approval of
Const. Edgar's marijuana side job, the officer told the Star.

Edgar said he was involved only in promotions with the company but, as
far as he understands, the company was and continues to be properly
licensed.

"From my view, everything Living On was doing was ethical and legal.
If we're helping people, and it's all ethical and legal, then I have
no problem with it," Edgar previously told the Star.

While the controversy unfurls within the force, Durham police are
quietly cracking down on medical marijuana dispensaries that have
popped up in its municipalities.

Storefront medical marijuana dispensaries are illegal in Canada. In
late August, officers delivered letters to dispensaries in Oshawa
warning if they continued to participate in "unlawful activity," the
force "may take action as authorized by the Criminal Code."

One dispensary in Oshawa has already shut its doors. Employees at
another Oshawa shop, 420 Compassion Club, said their customers are
patients who need medication and closing down would be turning them to
the streets to score.

"They shouldn't be letting an officer own a shop when they're sending
us a letter saying it's illegal and making us scared to come to the
shop, scared about our freedom," employee Justin Long said. Durham
police would not say whether its officers also sent a notice to Living
On. At a recent visit to the company's yet-to-open storefront, a sign
on the window said it would be opening soon pending a Health Canada
inspection.

The drug regulator said storefront medical marijuana shops are illegal
and it does not inspect them.
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MAP posted-by: Matt