Pubdate: Mon, 10 Apr 2017
Source: Toronto Sun (CN ON)
Copyright: 2017 Canoe Limited Partnership
Contact: http://www.torontosun.com/letter-to-editor
Website: http://torontosun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/457
Author: Mike Strobel
Page: 6

LAST CALL FOR POT SHOP

Dispensary holds smokin' closing-up party

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, and corporate Big Dope moves to corral the market.

First, back to the party, at the dispensary formerly known as Cannabis
Culture, Marc and Jodie Emery, proprietors. It has closed because the
landlord got sick of police raids.

I can report the nachos were crisp and plentiful and the L.A.
Confidential weed was especially mellow, even second-hand.

"A relaxing, day-time weed," Mike the "budtender" calls it. "If you're
not a pothead, don't start your day with it, because you'll never get
off the couch. But we're all pretty seasoned around here."

Most of the dispensary's 30 staff, now unemployed, were there, a bit
at odds with the staid wood panelling. The joint, just south of
Wellesley, once was the iconic steakhouse Bigliardi's. Frank Sinatra
ate there. So did Bette Midler, who had a minor hit with Sweet Marijuana.

Midler is before Danniela Crisostomo's time.

"Eventually, I want to open my own dispensary," says Crisostomo, 21.
She was charged in last week's raid. So much for not marring young
lives with silly charges for a victimless "crime."

But back to the party. Customers peer longingly in the window. "Back
to the black market, eh?" says a dude named Greg.

Inside, Sunday Love, a staffer's St. Bernard, mingles and
drools.

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 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.

Big Dope is better connected than a crossword puzzle. Did I mention
the billions at stake?

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.

(Editor's note: You're getting too cynical, Strobel. Here, have a
martini. And don't call me Shirley.)

"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.

"I've got a few leads on a new place. I'm not stopping."

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."

It's just silly. I don't smoke anything stronger than salmon, but
sometimes I think a little L.A. Confidential might really hit the spot.
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MAP posted-by: Matt