B.C. swoops down on illegal pot shop
Victoria dispensary raid could be start of major crackdown
The provincial government’s pot police raided Victoria’s Trees of Eden dispensary Wednesday, seizing all products in what could mark the beginning of a longanticipated crackdown on illegal cannabis stores.
Trees Cannabis, which operated the Alpha Street store, will suspend operations at its six other stores on Aug. 16, including four in Victoria and two in Nanaimo, said owner and chief executive officer Alex Robb.
The company wants to give its employees adequate notice and ensure people can stock up on medicinal cannabis products not currently available from licensed stores, he said.
Robb said he hoped there would be more licensed stores before the Community Safety Unit started its crackdown. The unit, which falls under the Policing and Security Branch of the Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General, carries out compliance and enforcement activities against unlicensed cannabis retailers across the province. No one from the unit was available for comment Wednesday.
Before the raid, Trees Cannabis was planning to suspend operations on Sept. 30 as it continued to move through the licensing process.
“I had hoped that we would have obtained our licence by this time and this would not have happened. However, it’s a very slow and arduous process,” Robb said. “But I do anticipate it’s going to be another month or two before we are able to open up again licensed.”
The company said it decided to keep its unlicensed dispensaries open when it saw that the province and municipalities weren’t ready and it would take a long time to get licensed stores in place.
Robb said he expected enforcement to begin first for “problem stores” that don’t “have as much social licence” in the community. “But I think they decided to target this store because it does have so many customers and I think in their minds, it was negatively affecting the businesses of licensed stores.”
About 25 people were employed at the Trees of Eden dispensary. They will now be working shifts over the next two weeks at other Trees dispensaries in Victoria and Nanaimo. After that, the company will lay off 152 people in Victoria and Nanaimo, Robb said.
Investigators visited all the unlicensed stores in May and June, Robb said.
“They said this was their first visit, an educational visit, but they would be seizing all product on their next visit,” Robb said. “We began planning a suspension of operations, but we also saw that there was still not an adequate number of licensed cannabis stores on Vancouver Island.”
Wednesday’s raid is sending a clear message to the public that they should be shopping at licensed stores, he said.
The investigators were accompanied by a couple of Victoria police officers. They were polite and professional and did their best not to traumatize the young people who worked in the store, said Robb.
There were no arrests and no fines — yet, he said. The province has a year to determine a fine based on the amount of product seized. “We could be fined anytime in the next year and it could be a very substantial fine . ... They could potentially fine us hundreds of thousands of dollars,” he said.
In June, Victoria had four legal cannabis stores. Staff at those stores were reluctant to comment on the crackdown.
Trees Cannabis began in 2014 with the goal of providing cannabis to people in the community with medical needs. It sell topicals, capsules, CBD pain patches, tinctures and bath bombs.
Robb is concerned that when he closes the two dispensaries in Nanaimo, people there won’t have any place to go.
“I’m quite discouraged,” he said. “I’ve been doing this for four years and it’s a constant process of muddling along and trying to make it work. I’m more disappointed in the way the entire legalization has rolled out in Canada.”
Robb said he’s also frustrated that the licensed stores are only selling products produced by large corporations, and smallscale producers have not been able to get into the licensed system.