Police raid two more marijuana dispensaries
Ottawa police raided two more marijuana dispensaries Tuesday, this time targeting a locally owned chain that was the first to open shop in town.
Police executed search warrants at the Magna Terra Health Services dispensaries on Carling Avenue and on Iber Road in Stittsville.
They carted away bags of dried weed, edible cannabis products and oils. No information had been released on arrests by early evening. It was the 13th raid on a dispensary in Ottawa since last November.
Police have warned that the shops are operating illegally and drug laws against trafficking are still on the books. Dispensaries have been opening across the country in advance of the federal government’s promise to introduce legislation this spring to legalize recreational pot.
The Magna Terra on Carling opened in November 2015, the first of what would be a smattering of shops in Ottawa.
The original name was Ottawa Medical Dispensary, or OMD, but the business partnership disintegrated and the dispensary was rebranded Magna Terra. The second location in Stittsville opened in late summer 2016.
Manager Franco Vigile said his dream was to open a string of dispensaries, proving to the government they could be run responsibly. Vigile maintained the shops were providing a valuable service to medical marijuana patients.
Magna Terra customers were asked to provide a doctor’s note or evidence of their need for medical marijuana.
A customer arriving at the closed shop on Carling Avenue on Tuesday said he was disappointed by the raid. “They weren’t causing any harm,” said Patrick, 57, who didn’t want to give his last name.
Patrick has a doctor’s prescription for marijuana and buys it legally from Tweed Inc. in Smiths Falls, one of the Health Canadaapproved growers. But legal growers can only send products by mail and are not allowed to sell edibles like cookies or candy.
“This is very convenient,” said Patrick. “There’s no waiting, and no shipping charge.”
He said he always smoked pot recreationally but now finds it helps his sore joints. He smokes every night, gets mildly high and sleeps well, he said.
Another disappointed customer said the cannabis-infused tea and hot chocolate he buys at Magna Terra help him with anxiety and depression. “This is my medication,” said Michael, 40, who also declined to give his last name. “I can barely live without it.”
He said he had been on various pharmaceutical drugs for 20 years, from Prozac to Ativan, but they had bad side effects so he decided to try marijuana. “It was a shot in the dark.” Now he has weaned himself off pharmaceuticals, said Michael.
Did he know the dispensary was illegal? “Well, sort of. It was barely riding a very fine line.”
Neither customer had any concerns about the safety of the products sold at Magna Terra, which were obtained illicitly. Health Canada warns that products sold at dispensaries may be unsafe.
In past interviews, Vigile has said the products were tested for mould and other contaminants but could not provide proof because he said the labs also operate illicitly.
The Magna Terra dispensaries were set up to look like medical clinics.
They also had tighter security than some of the other dispensaries operating in Ottawa. Customers had to press a buzzer and were only allowed through the door after the receptionist viewed them on video. The Magna Terra in Stittsville was held up last year.
Another four dispensaries in Ottawa that are part of a B.C.- based outfit have closed their doors recently.
The Green Tree shops on Preston Street and Montreal Road and the WeeMedical dispensaries on Rideau Street and St. Laurent Boulevard all have signs on their doors directing customers to the Trees outlet on Montreal Road.
It’s not clear if the four shops are closed permanently. The weed, candies and other products have been cleared out of the cases at those stores, except for some cannabis-laced pop. The four stores were raided by police in November, but reopened soon after.
At the Trees dispensary, the clerk said she could not provide any information.