Pubdate: Mon, 10 Apr 2017
Source: Toronto 24hours (CN ON)
Copyright: 2017 Canoe Inc.
Contact:  http://24hrs.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/4068
Author: Mike Strobel
Page: 5

BACK TO THE BLACK MARKET

Last pot dispensary storefront closes in T.O.

Forgive me if today's column is even wobblier than usual.

Your dutiful scribe is just back from a going-out-of-business staff
party at Village Cannabis Dispensary on Church St., the city's last
storefront openly selling recreational weed. For now, anyway, and,
wink, wink, it's not like a pothead doesn't have options in this town.

Still, it's a big deal for the marijuana movement, as the feds lurch
toward legalization.

The dispensary formerly known as Cannabis Culture, owned by Marc and
Jodie Emery, closed because the landlord got sick of police raids.

Most of the dispensary's 30 staff are now unemployed.

"Back to the black market, eh?" says a dude named Greg.

But you know who's REALLY drooling these days? Big Dope, which is
poised to make billions when rec pot is legal.

Some big names have been linked to potentially billion dollar Big Dope
firms - former PM John Turner, former premier Ernie Eves, former
health minister George Smitherman, plus assorted politician insiders,
senior cops and, here's a shocker, Olympic snowboarder Ross Rebagliati.

Hmm. Wonder why the authorities keep busting the Emerys and other
small-fry. Surely they're not clearing a golden path for those
political heavyweights. Surely.

"We're the little guy," says Village Cannabis owner Jamie McConnell,
46, though it's hard to describe a shop that served 2,500 customers on
Saturday as "little."

"The LPs (licensed producers, AKA Big Dope) are new. They don't know
pot," McConnell says. "Their quality is horrible. We've been doing
this for years and we know our products. We smoke 'em.

"They'll offer high-end licences for a quarter million dollars, that
none of us can get, and they'll give them to their friends.

"There's room for everybody. We're happy to share, but they don't want
to play. They want to cut us out."

If they can. McConnell plans to reopen somewhere within
weeks.

He's also pondering an edibles-only cannabis store - a little shop of
horrors, as far as cops are concerned.

Meantime, street dealers will soon hover around vacant Village
Cannabis, scooping up ex-customers. They did so after every closure
due-to-raid.

As I'm tired of saying, "When you make something a crime, guess who
shows up? Exactly. Criminals."
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MAP posted-by: Matt