Regina chief warns it’s still not legal to distribute marijuana

REGINA Police Chief Evan Bray says the recent arrests made at a Cannagreen dispensary ’s Regina location were the result of a “big operation” in which significant amounts of intel were collected over the last couple of months.

“That was a fairly big project and operation that we did,” said Bray at the monthly Regina board of police commissioners meeting Wednesday. He said the reasoning is no different than it was back in April. “It’s all part of an investigative process.”

Cannagreen’s Albert Street location had not been subject to a raid since Regina police started cracking down on marijuana dispensaries in March of this year. However, Cannagreen’s Park Street location was raided in April.

Despite temporarily reopening after the raid, the location is now closed.

Three people were charged after police carried out a search warrant at the dispensary on Aug. 24.

The store was open at the time, and customers inside were asked to leave when police arrived. At the same time, police were also searching the residence of one of the people charged.

Bray said police engaged in lots of dialogue with the Regina Chamber of Commerce (RCC), whose staff had expressed safety concerns.

The RCC is located two doors down from the dispensary.

Despite the impending legalization of marijuana on Oct. 17, Bray said it doesn’t change the safety concerns the police have surrounding unregulated marijuana sales.

“The legislation hasn’t changed. There is a mechanism for people who have a medicinal need to get product,” Bray said. “If people aren’t happy with that, that’s not something I can change.”

Bray made reference to an incident at a U.S. park earlier this month in which emergency crews responded to 76 overdoses due to a bad batch of a synthetic cannabis.

“Those are the types of things that we worry about. I haven’t seen that in Regina but the fabrication of edibles and those types of things that haven’t been tested to ensure they ’re safe for consumption pose a community safety issue,” he said.

Until marijuana is officially legal, any distribution of it is considered trafficking, said Bray.