Stores selling pot could face trouble: police

Chief warns crackdown could be coming as weed is still illegal

Regina police are well aware stores selling marijuana are up and running around the city.

And while cannabis is set to become legal this summer, Chief Evan Bray is clear: selling the product is still illegal.

It’s a message he says will be actively communicated with the public in coming weeks, and it is one those working at or running dispensaries in the city have likely already heard.

Bray wants the illegality of dispensaries to be clearly known.

“Once we’re satisfied that everyone is up to speed on what they can and can’t do, if there is continued illegal activity after that, then there is going to be some enforcement.”

Walk into just about any of the stores operating in the city now and it is clear: They are outside the parameters of the current law.

It is currently illegal to sell marijuana at a storefront, even for medical purposes.

The pending legalization may cast a shade of grey on that law, but the law still exists.

But that is not stopping dispensaries in the city from selling marijuana and related products.

Most require you to fill out a form, in which customers write general information about themselves — such as name and address — before providing a piece of ID (to prove they are 19 or older) and a reason for needing marijuana.

No prescription from a doctor is required, and people can write just about anything as their reason for buying marijuana.

“Anxiety,” “headaches,” “cramps” and “sleeping ” are examples of reasons given to shops by customers.

There are consumers of marijuana who will readily admit they are buying it for recreational, not medical, use.

At most dispensaries, filling out that form takes less time than standing in line to get to the front. They are busy places, located on busy streets, like Albert, in the city. Handfuls of people are typically inside during operating hours, which stretch from morning to night.

Absent from most of the stores is decor, like art or chairs, seen in other places of business.

Employees at some of the stores know a police raid is possible at any time, which is a reason few of the shops have anything more than a simple display case, a board outlining prices and an ATM inside (the shops are generally cash only).

Bray is aware of the public backlash against law enforcement agencies that cracked down on dispensaries in other jurisdictions, saying the service here is taking a “cautious approach” and that investigators involved with drug files are “extremely busy with other drug work as well.”

“We have meth problems in this city, fentanyl is an issue in this city. It takes a lot of time, effort and resources to do a drug investigation. There are some going on right now, obviously I won’t be talking about openly, but to say that all of our efforts can focus in one area, that doesn’t happen,” he said.

He warns the public there is no regulated testing or onus for testing done on the cannabis products currently being sold in the city.

That will change when the sales become legal. The province recently said it would allow Regina to have six dispensaries, and 60 throughout Saskatchewan.

In order to become legal, the stores operating in Regina will have to win a lottery and then prove they are capable of meeting federal and provincial regulations, many of which are still unknown.

Bray understands why a business, like those open now, would want to get its name out there; but notes there is a difference between providing information and actually selling an illegal product.

He adds the police also “have a responsibility to a group of potential business owners saying, ‘we’re not opening right now because it’s not legal right now.’ ”