Pot shops reopen, but some shift sales tactics
In wake of raids, advocates hoping to demonstrate outside police HQ
On Monday afternoon, Sarain Stoney purchased marijuana.
He picked it up from CannaGreen’s Park Street marijuana dispensary, which reopened that morning.
“They usually have good medicine,” Stoney said. “I use if for my pain from past injuries.”
The dispensary was one of six cannabis establishments temporarily shut down after police searches last week.
By Monday, at least three were again operating in some form.
The Park Street shop was the most brazen, with customers openly buying products like Blue Dream and GrandDaddy Purple at $10 per gram.
“We’ve got good, grade-A, primo weed,” said the man behind the counter, who declined to provide his name.
He admitted that police had cleared out most of the shop’s supplies.
But he still had six jars of marijuana and a small assortment of pot-infused cookies for sale.
He did not ask customers for a prescription, and said he would gladly sell to anyone who described a medical condition they suffer from.
The employee said his manager made the decision to reopen on Sunday. He said the word went out to “keep it quiet.”
“We don’t want to be sticking it right in the cops’ face,” he said.
CannaGreen’s other Regina location, on Albert Street, was closed Monday afternoon.
But Best Buds Society has managed to stay open in the Warehouse District, even after three employees were charged on Thursday. The raids forced them to change their distribution system.
There’s no cannabis on the premises, said patient consultant Stu Martin, and the shop isn’t taking on new clients.
From my perspective, there’s two sides to this. there’s what’s right and what’s legal. for me, I have to stand for what’s right.
But Martin said he won’t turn away longtime customers, who he said need relief from conditions like multiple sclerosis, epilepsy and cancer.
He said that the shop is accessing off-site supplies, something owner Pat Warnecke confirmed. The threat of further charges did not seem to deter them.
“From my perspective, there’s two sides to this,” said Martin. “There’s what’s right and what’s legal. For me, I have to stand for what’s right.”
Regina police Chief Evan Bray has repeatedly pointed out that the storefront marijuana operations are illegal, and that medicinal cannabis is only available through licensed producers by mail order. But Martin said that doesn’t work for patients who need edibles or concentrated oils.
Warnecke said a patient protest is now being planned in front of the police station this week. They’re just waiting to secure a permit.
“There will probably be a smokein, I imagine.”
At least one of the businesses targeted in last week’s raids seems to have taken Bray’s lesson to heart. Green Street Clinic has provided marijuana consulting since January. Owner Jonathan Metz said his staff connect patients with the licensed producers Bray described.
“We weren’t selling chronic to anyone, even people that had a prescription,” he said, using a slang term for marijuana. “We would educate them on it.”
But he admitted that his business did offer topical creams that contained THC, one of the active ingredient in marijuana, as well as hemp-based dog biscuits infused with Cannabidiol. Staff at Green Street said the chemical provides relaxation for anxious animals.
That’s all over now. A secretary answered a phone call on Monday from a customer seeking the biscuits. She said the biscuits are no longer available. They were seized in Wednesday’s police raid.