Police defend raids on pot shops
Press conference turns unruly as advocates protest crackdown
It was meant as a calm followup, to showcase drug seizures and justify the raids on pot dispensaries, complete with smashed door glass, of the day before.
Instead, Friday’s police news conference turned to turmoil as marijuana advocates hurled questions at Chief Mark Saunders while he laid out the figures of “Project Claudia.”
Officers hit 43 unlicensed marijuana dispensaries across the city Thursday.
The police slapped criminal charges on 90 dispensary owners and employees and confiscated more than 270 kilograms of pot.
Among the spoils were $160,000 in cash, 127 kilograms of oils and spreads and 142 kilograms of pot-infused cookies.
Saunders said Friday the raids, carried out in sync with city licensing staff, were “not an attack on lawful production, distribution or purchasing of marijuana for medical purposes.”
Rather, the action was launched due to health concerns over the “unknown and unregulated amount of THC” in dispensary weed and edibles, as well as residents’ complaints about pot shops’ proximity to schools.
“I was not pressured politically. . . . This is about public safety.”
POLICE CHIEF MARK SAUNDERS
“These locations have a broad impact on surrounding neighbourhoods. There is no quality control on these products,” Saunders said. “I was not pressured politically. . . . This is about public safety.” Pot advocates on hand disagreed. “There’s no threat to public safety . . . It’s the patients and the peaceful dispensary operators who are being hurt,” said Jodie Emery, a cannabis advocate and wife of “Prince of Pot” Marc Emery. “Who are the victims? The patients suffering, sick, are the victims.”
Emery called the raids a “waste” of tax dollars and “a new form of prohibition.”
As tension escalated, police escorted two advocates out of headquarters, where they joined several hundred demonstrators on the street who remained unmoved by Saunders’ attempt to square the raids with Ottawa’s promise of pot legalization and a recent federal court decision upholding patients’ right to access pot.
The questionably timed news conference, coming less than 24 hours before this weekend’s Lift Cannabis Expo at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, coincided with the arrival of marijuana heavy-hitters, including the Emeries.
“Our media gallery is open to the public, so anybody is able to attend,” said police spokeswoman Const. Meaghan Gray.
Public relations consultant Marjorie Wallens said the event was “poorly handled and confusing.”
She acknowledged the “difficult situation” police are in from a public image perspective. She also said the raids didn’t come out of nowhere; warning letters from police and licensing officials had been sent to nearly 80 landlords with pot retailer tenants over the previous week.
“It’s hard to get out in front of a story like this for police, when they have to conduct operations in a clandestine manner to do their job,” she said. “You’re damned if you do, damned if you don’t.”
Wallens added that Saunders, criticized for averting more direct engagement with the public over the past year, “has to be transparent and open and forthcoming” in the future.
“Police are sort of the man in the middle, as it were,” said Dave Gordon, a managing partner at the Cohn and Wolfe public relations agency. “You’ve got this commitment to legalization legislation on the federal end and, on the other end of the spectrum, you’ve got compassion clubs and entrepreneurs who’ve taken advantage of the lag and started up illegal dispensaries.”
The criminal charges — 186 for possession for the purpose of trafficking and 71 for proceeds of crime — did not deter at least one dispensary from reopening Friday, albeit with bare shelves.
“It made me so sick. I haven’t slept,” said Chris Bino, who works at Toronto Holistic Cannabinoids in Kensington Market. “But I’m just worried about the people who need this as medicine. They don’t seem to have addressed that properly.”
Other clinics, such as Cannawide, around the corner on Kensington Ave., remained shuttered, while Canna Clinic, five doors up, continued to operate Friday unhampered by search warrants or charges.
The 40 or so dispensaries spared from Project Claudia could still face police action, with investigation continuing. City licensing staff also say more fines may be imposed for zoning violations if stores stay open.
Bylaw officers laid a total of 79 charges for alleged zoning violations — dispensaries are barred from residential and commercial zones — and supposedly operating without a proper licence for food — including the confiscated “Crontella” chocolate paste and “Ganja Blondie” brownies.
Appearances for the bylaw charges are slated for June 15 in the provincial offences court at Old City Hall. With files from Fakiha Baig