Pubdate: Mon, 17 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: A4

POT STORE SELLS FROM WINDOW AFTER STOREFRONT BOARDED UP

CannaGreen customers stand on sidewalk to place their orders

Customers at a suburban pot shop were buying their weed from a takeout
window carved into a boarded up storefront on Saturday.

The front of the CannaGreen dispensary on Roydon Place, near Hunt Club
and Merivale roads, was destroyed Thursday night after a truck drove
into it.

The front of the illegal dispensary is now boarded up, but a hole has
been cut in the plywood to create a takeout window.

Customers stood on the sidewalk to order their dried weed,
cannabis-laced cookies, candy and pop.

"It's pretty crazy," said a 20-year-old student who came with his
buddy to check out the pot shop. He said the shop charges a bit more
for marijuana than street dealers do, but he feels safer.

"It's convenient. You don't have to get robbed. And you don't know
what you're getting from the streets - it could be sprayed.

"This is a medical dispensary. You're going to get good stuff
here."

CannaGreen is one of about 16 marijuana dispensaries in town. They are
all illegal, according to the federal government, which warns that the
products sold there are unregulated and possibly unsafe.

That hasn't stopped hundreds of customers from flocking to
them.

Another middle-aged customer at CannaGreen said he uses marijuana to
help his PTSD.

He is signed up to buy medical marijuana legally from a producer
licensed by Health Canada. But he supports the free market, said the
man who, like the other customers, did not want to be identified.

He can buy a greater variety of products at the dispensary, in smaller
quantities, than he can from the legal producers.

The landlord of the CannaGreen dispensary says he has been trying to
get rid of the tenant, who took over the space in the strip mall in
September. The landlord, who also does not want to be named, said he
didn't realize the store would be selling marijuana, and he is upset
about it.

The lease was to "Wee Medical Society." The landlord said he has asked
police to close the shop, and is negotiating with his lawyer to try to
have the lease cancelled.

Ottawa police say they're investigating all the marijuana dispensaries.
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MAP posted-by: Matt