Many Ontario pot shops roll up wares
Tuesday is the final day for illegal cannabis dispensaries to close, with the Ontario government threatening that if they don’t, they’ll be blocked from the legal retail market when it opens in April 2019.
“Anyone operating a storefront after Oct. 17 is doing so illegally,” the Ontario Attorney General’s office said in a statement Monday.
“Failure to comply with the rules, whether provincial or federal, would preclude someone from obtaining a Retail Operator’s Licence.”
Dispensary owners across the province — at least the ones unwilling to risk a future in legal retail — appear to be heeding the warning en masse, planning to shutter their stores before legalization comes into force on Wednesday. Since Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservative government scrapped their Liberal predecessor’s plans for government-run stores in favour of a private retail model, the illegal dispensaries have been offered a route into the legal market.
For now, the Ford government is only offering an online cannabis retailer as a stop-gap while the province works to issue licences to private retailers. If the dispensaries want one of those licences, they can’t be running afoul of the law when it comes into effect.
“That message has been delivered loud and clear,” said Trina Fraser, a prominent lawyer who advises on the cannabis industry.
Fraser, co-managing partner at Brazeau Seller Law, said she tells dispensary owners: “I can’t guarantee that you’ll get a licence, but I can certainly guarantee you that you won’t if you don’t cease operations by Wednesday.”
The man who answered the phone at The Three Kings Dispensary in Hamilton, Ont., said the shop’s owner informed him a week ago that it would close Tuesday.
“It’s a bunch of bulls--t,” said the man, who would not give his name. He said he volunteers at the shop in exchange for “a free bag of weed.”
“We’re probably going to shut down,” he said. “The government wants to step in and take over and we’re the ones that have built this industry.
At Oasis Cannabis Dispensary, in Hamilton, nothing was out of the ordinary on Monday — nothing torn down or packed up. But the store was closing the next day.
“Everyone’s very displeased, of course,” said a budtender who answered the phone but wouldn’t give his name. “(Customers) obviously want us to continue in the future. They don’t want to order off the online store. They’re saying they would like to see it up front and not wait two or three days for the mail.”
Abi Roach, a Toronto cannabis lounge owner and advocate with the Cannabis Friendly Business Association, said she doesn’t expect all dispensaries to listen to the government.
“I know some dispensaries are closing and some will keep going. I don’t think it will be a mass extinction,” she said.
“You’ll be able to tell (on Tuesday) who’s in it for the long run and who’s in it for the short run.”