Pubdate: Tue, 04 Oct 2016
Source: Ottawa Citizen (CN ON)
Copyright: 2016 Postmedia Network Inc.
Contact:  http://www.ottawacitizen.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/326
Author: Jacquie Miller
Page: A6

'HOW CAN THIS BE POSSIBLE?' OTTAWA PREPARES FOR POT SHOPS

 From zoning bylaws to policing, it's a new world for enforcement

Tom Poirier, the owner of an army surplus store in a strip mall off
Merivale Road, watched with curiosity as a new business prepared to
open next door.

Poirier discussed the odd renovations with Bill Chappell, who owns a
hobby shop in the mall on Roydon Place. The front room of the new
business had a sliding window in the middle of the back wall.

"I was joking around with Bill," says Poirier. "I said, 'You see that
wall and the window? I betcha they're going to sell drugs!"

He pauses, shaking his head. "And sure enough, that's what they're
doing."

The tenant next door is CannaGreen, one of the city's newest marijuana
dispensaries. The back room at CannaGreen contains an ATM machine and
a couple of display cases filled with dried weed and cannabis-laced
cookies, brownies, candy and cola with names like Grow-op Grape.

Neither Poirier nor Chappell opposes marijuana. "I drink alcohol, so
I'm not going to point a finger," says Chappell, who describes himself
as a "live and let live kind of guy."

But they are dumbfounded that a shop illegally selling pot can operate
freely. Would someone be able to open a store selling moonshine?
wonders Chappell. "How can this be possible? Everybody I've told just
can't believe it, they just about fall over."

Chappell's store shares a common wall with CannaGreen. The smell of
pot now permeates The Hobby Centre, wafting across the shelves of
model toys, trains and planes. His customers are complaining. He's
afraid elderly shoppers and families with children will stay away,
unnerved by what's for sale next door.

Chappell complained to his city councillor, Keith Egli, whose office
referred the complaint to Ottawa police. CannaGreen isn't breaking any
city licensing bylaws because there are none that apply to illegal pot
shops.

The dispensaries are opening across the country, their owners
emboldened by the federal government's promise to legalize
recreational pot. They operate in what some have dubbed a "legal
limbo." Police in some jurisdictions are reluctant to enforce drug
laws when pot may soon be legal, and there is growing public
acceptance both of marijuana use and its sale in stores.

There are about 15 dispensaries in Ottawa. Dispensaries are illegal,
selling products from the black market that may be unsafe, according
to the federal government. Ottawa police say they are investigating -
and consulting with - the Public Prosecution Service of Canada, which
is responsible for prosecuting drug crimes.

In the meantime, city councillors have asked staff for more
information about what, if anything, the city can do about the shops.

Like other municipalities across the country, Ottawa is preparing for
a new world of legal pot. The federal government will set the
framework for who will be allowed to grow, distribute and sell
marijuana. But it will be left to municipalities and police forces to
enforce the law, set licensing and zoning rules, and oversee public
health issues.

"There will be a lot of impact on municipalities," says Lynn Dollin,
president of the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO). She
lists some of the services under municipal control that will play a
role: police and fire departments; paramedics; building inspection,
bylaw and land-use planning departments; and public health units.

"There could be some good (impacts), too," says Dollin, who is the
deputy mayor of Innisfil, on the shore of Lake Simcoe just south of
Barrie. "I'm not saying they are all going to be negative. There could
be some jobs and economic growth."

AMO has set up a committee to find out what's happening in American
cities where marijuana is legal, and to lobby the federal government
to make sure municipalities are consulted about the law that is
supposed to be introduced this spring.

"What has happened in the past, more often than not," says Dollin,
"when something new rolls out, the responsibility for it to work falls
on municipal governments, without any funding to make that happen."

Several municipalities in B.C. are calling for a share of the tax
revenue the federal government will collect from pot sales.

Other cities aren't waiting for legalization to try to control the
spread of dispensaries. Vancouver and Victoria have adopted zoning and
licensing bylaws for the illegal shops, and Toronto plans to discuss
the idea next month.

Vancouver led the way in June 2015. The Vancouver bylaws require
dispensaries to obtain a business licence and set rules for their
operation. For example, dispensaries must be at least 300 metres from
each other, schools and community centres, and have video surveillance
and security systems. Employees must have police checks. Shops can't
contain ATM machines and must close between 10 p.m. and 8 a.m. They
are not allowed to sell to minors, or have marijuana-related
advertisements or displays that can be seen by minors outside the
building. Most controversially, shops are banned from selling edibles
like brownies, cookies and candy, products that might be attractive to
children.

Many of the pot shops have ignored the bylaws. According to recent
statistics released by the City of Vancouver, 32 marijuana stores
voluntarily closed or stopped selling marijuana, but 57 shops are
still operating and "subject to enforcement." The city has issued 691
tickets at $250 a pop, but only 140 have been paid. The city has also
filed 27 court injunctions against shops that have not complied. Only
four business licences have been awarded. Several dozen applications
are processing.

At the City of Ottawa, there appears to be little political appetite
for introducing regulations before marijuana is legal. Staff have
advised against it.

"The legal advice from the city is that we can't regulate an illegal
activity," says Coun. Riley Brockington, who is concerned about the
dispensary on Laperriere Avenue in his ward across the street from a
school. Brockington says he's sympathetic to patients who need medical
marijuana. But if shops are eventually allowed, the city needs to
ensure they are not close to residential areas and schools, he says.
The Vancouver bylaw is a good starting point for a community
discussion, he adds.

Dispensaries are subject to the city's zoning laws, says Brockington.
Bylaw officers consider them to be retail operations. The owner of the
dispensary on Laperriere was sent a notice in August warning him the
shop violates zoning for that street, says Brockington.

Most of the dispensaries are in areas that permit retail stores,
according to the city.

The Public Health Department has also become involved because it
regulates the sale of food. Last spring, after receiving a complaint,
health inspectors visited a Weeds dispensary on Montreal Road and
checked the temperature of the fridge holding the cannabis brownies
and cookies. That store temporarily closed after Canada Post seized
boxes of cannabis products that were mailed to it from B.C.

Coun. Rick Chiarelli says dispensaries should not be allowed to evade
city bylaws because they operate in violation of federal drug laws. "I
don't think anyone should use the fact that they're breaking one law
as a free pass on the other laws."

The dispensary owners are employing a faulty business model, says
Chiarelli. "These people look like they are setting up businesses on
the faulty assumption that they are going to be allowed to continue in
business once (marijuana) is legalized, and I think that's a foolish
assumption. If you think the federal government is going to let (the
dispensaries) collect money from this and not them, I think you're
dreaming."

CannaGreen did not respond to an email request for information, and
the man who answered the phone at the number on the website said he
would phone back later, but did not. The staffer on duty Friday
afternoon refused to comment. A dozen customers made their purchases
and hopped in cars. "This isn't legal?" asked one.

A young woman in the passenger side of a car said she was happy the
shop was open. "Hell, yeah, more weed!" she said with a laugh, popping
open the can of orange cannabis crush she'd just purchased and taking
a sip.

Chappell sits in his hobby shop next door, fuming.

Recently two CannaGreen customers came into his store asking for
glasses of water, says Chappell, who kindly obliged. "I guess it was
hard for them to choke down the (pot) brownies."
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MAP posted-by: Matt