DOUBLING DOWN
Pat Warnecke, owner of best buds society in the warehouse district, vows to fight back after two police raids this week. “the plan is to keep on helping patients,” he says.
Pat Warnecke is willing to fight for his buds.
The same day the defiant owner vowed to reopen, police raided Warnecke’s shop a second time, moving in Thursday night.
Best Buds Society was among six pot shops police raided Wednesday night. The next morning, Warnecke was back, telling the LeaderPost he intended to reopen despite the risk of criminal consequences.
And on Thursday night, the police reported three employees have now been charged and additional evidence was seized, including a quantity of controlled drugs and substances as well as Canadian currency and other items that prompted drug trafficking charges.
The investigation is ongoing and the police anticipate more charges to be laid.
In an interview Thursday morning, Warnecke explained why he insists on fighting back.
“The plan is to keep on helping patients,” Warnecke said, adding he was in the process of restocking the store after police seized all his merchandise. “Of course we’re always worried they ’ll come back again and raid us, but there’s no contingency plan in place to help sick people. That’s shameful.”
Best Buds serves thousands of clients around the province who, Warnecke said, already have obstacles between them and products like skin creams and edibles.
“There’s generally been a lot of concern,” Warnecke said. “There have been a lot of people who are very upset about not having access to cannabis. There were people who showed up (after the raid Wednesday) night who were talking about going back to the streets, about going back to unsafe products and they ’re talking about going back to, even, opiates.”
Warnecke received a phone call from one of his employees at around 6 p.m. Wednesday saying police were on site confiscating products. He arrived to find at least one uniformed officer inside, and another man in plain clothes. An officer could later be seen carrying large bins around the side of the Warehouse District building.
About a half-dozen investigators could also be seen inside the Cannagreen marijuana dispensary on Albert Street shortly before 8 p.m.
Warnecke admits Wednesday night’s raid wasn’t surprising. Regina police Chief Evan Bray first warned pot shops of an impending crackdown in January. He repeatedly stressed there is still no legal way to sell cannabis from a storefront, even for medicinal purposes.
Bray told reporters Thursday the “swift and safe” raids resulted in the seizure of hundreds of pounds of marijuana and thousands of dollars.
“The focus of those search warrants was looking for items that included drugs that were in the retail locations and were being sold to customers illegally, and any other indication that a commercial business existed,” Bray said, adding that could include cash, receipts, ledgers, packaging and cash registers.
Regina police have been criticized by people who believe marijuana enforcement is a poor use of resources, particularly in the face of looming legalization. Bray said the actions taken by his force are motivated by safety and keeping drugs out of the hands of kids. He reiterated that edible cannabis products, which are sold in many of the dispensaries, will not be made legal this summer.
“This is what the community expects from police,” Bray said, adding the raids were done without having to bring many officers in on overtime.
Bray said the public education campaign that followed his January message was successful, since the majority of the city ’s dispensaries voluntarily complied with the request to cease selling cannabis.
In the months that followed, police sent letters to owners and their landlords advising them they were breaking the law. But Wednesday was the first known incident where police have taken specific action to search a dispensary in Regina.
As recently as Wednesday morning, Bray said police were still trying to persuade owners to comply and avoid the need for enforcement.
“It’s a process,” he said. “We’re continuing to work with the owners and operators to make sure that everybody understands the law. That’s not to say that investigations aren’t taking place.”