Concession Street pot shop draws protest
A campaign is underway to close the Pacifico medicinal marijuana shop that opened recently on Concession Street.
A flyer was circulated on parts of the Mountain with the heading “Get rid of illegal pot dispensaries on Concession Street” that asks for support for an online petition.
“A nice, polite and quiet drug dealer is still a drug dealer,” states the flyer that contains the phone numbers and email addresses of the Mountain police station, Police Chief Eric Girt, city bylaw enforcement, Ward 7 Coun. Donna Skelly, MP Scott Duvall and MPP Monique Taylor.
Pacifico spokesperson Tamara Hirsh said the opposition campaign is “coming from a place of fear.”
Hirsh said they welcome more public dialogue on medicinal marijuana as they continue their quest to have sales by dispensaries legalized.
John-Paul Oddi, who lives around the corner from Pacifico, sent a letter to members of the Concession Street BIA’s event committee calling on the business group to “stand up” and “openly speak out against such illegal operations.”
He did not respond to an interview request from Hamilton Community News.
BIA executive director Cristina Geissler said the association has no comment on the letter.
Last week, someone put up a protest sign made from a sheet between two wooden poles in front of the Pacifico.
It appears the sign went up after the store’s business hours and was taken down the next morning.
The protest has support from some of Pacifico’s neighbours.
“If you are going to have one of those stores, you would at least go to the neighbours who are literally behind the store and just talk to them,” said Salma Burney. “I’m going to have pot smell in my backyard because (people smoke) back there.”
With public and Catholic elementary schools in the area, both Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board central Mountain trustee Dawn Danko and Catholic board chair Pat Daly said they expect to discuss what — if anything — they can do about Pacifico and other pot shops in the city at the staff or board level in the coming weeks.
Skelly said she has not received any complaints about the Concession Street shop. She said she is open to the idea of the city licensing medicinal pot shops, but they can’t do that until it is legalized by the federal government and permission is granted by the province.
The councillor said she visited Pacifico on Monday and said she came away impressed with how professionally the business was being run.
“I was a lot more reassured that this isn’t a dispensary that will be selling drugs to children for recreational purposes,” Skelly said.