Police board member questions officer’s pot shop
Councillor Bill McLean plans to raise issue during Durham Region police board meeting
A member of the Durham police board wants answers to why an active officer was allowed to co-own a medical marijuana company that is unlicensed and offers customers drug products that are illegal to sell.
“There are questions that I will be asking at the next board meeting,” said Bill McLean, a Pickering councillor and retired Toronto police sergeant, responding to findings of a Star investigation into the marijuana company Living On Inc.
“I think it’s our job as a board to ask those questions and get those answers.”
But McLean might be the only one at today’s meeting of the Durham Regional Police Services Board who wants to discuss the controversy.
“They shouldn’t be letting an officer own a shop when they’re sending us a letter saying it’s illegal and making us scared to come to the shop.” JUSTIN LONG 420 COMPASSION CLUB EMPLOYEE
“The service would never knowingly approve a request for secondary employment that is illegal.” DAVE SELBY POLICE SPOKESMAN
The police service has steadfastly refused to answer specific questions about what it calls an “employer-employee matter” that is “not open for public discussion.”
Roger Anderson, head and spokesman of the board, called it a personnel issue and would not comment further.
And the officer himself says it has no place before the civilian body tasked with police oversight.
“It’s nothing to do with the Police Services Board. They don’t oversee anything like this,” Const. Phil Edgar said in an interview.
A recent Star investigation found Living On Inc., located on First Nations land in Port Perry, Ont., was not licensed by Health Canada.
Its website also advertises various kinds of edible marijuana products — pot peanut brittle, lollypops, a weed-infused chocolate-hazelnut spread called “Chrontella” — that are illegal to sell in Canada because the government says they pose a risk of overdose or unintentional ingestion by children.
After the Star began asking questions, Edgar said he “stepped back” from the marijuana company and is weighing whether he wants to continue a career of policing or branch into the budding medical weed business.
He said he joined the company in December 2015 and filed a request for secondary employment shortly after. He left Living On in July.
Under Ontario law, officers must receive the police chief’s permission to have a second job or have ownership in a company that may appear to be a conflict of interest or interfere with their duties as a cop.
Police board member McLean first raised concerns about the approval of Const. Edgar’s request at a June police board meeting.
He was told the Durham force received a legal opinion “that it would be required to approve” Edgar’s ownership of a “marijuana dispensary,” police board records show.
Durham police have not made the legal opinion public.
While continuing not to comment on Const. Edgar’s case, the police force appears to have implied that it did not know about the company’s lack of licence or the illicit goods advertised on Living On’s website.
“While our decision-making is subject to limitations in the legislation, the service would never knowingly approve a request for secondary employment that is illegal,” police spokesman Dave Selby said in a statement.
“At any time, should new facts come to the attention of the service that would change the context of a secondary employment approval, the service may take any steps deemed necessary, including revocation of the approval.”
As of Friday, the police force had yet to revoke its approval of Const. Edgar’s marijuana side job, the officer told the Star.
Edgar said he was involved only in promotions with the company but, as far as he understands, the compa- ny was and continues to be properly licensed.
“From my view, everything Living On was doing was ethical and legal. If we’re helping people, and it’s all ethical and legal, then I have no problem with it,” Edgar previously told the Star.
While the controversy unfurls within the force, Durham police are quietly cracking down on medical marijuana dispensaries that have popped up in its municipalities.
Storefront medical marijuana dispensaries are illegal in Canada. In late August, officers delivered letters to dispensaries in Oshawa warning if they continued to participate in “unlawful activity,” the force “may take action as authorized by the Criminal Code.”
One dispensary in Oshawa has already shut its doors. Employees at another Oshawa shop, 420 Compassion Club, said their customers are patients who need medication and closing down would be turning them to the streets to score.
“They shouldn’t be letting an officer own a shop when they’re sending us a letter saying it’s illegal and making us scared to come to the shop, scared about our freedom,” employee Justin Long said. Durham police would not say whether its officers also sent a notice to Living On. At a recent visit to the company’s yet-to-open storefront, a sign on the window said it would be opening soon pending a Health Canada inspection.
The drug regulator said storefront medical marijuana shops are illegal and it does not inspect them.