Kitchener dispensary reopens after bust
Bust marks third police investigation at a local pot shop in three weeks
KITCHENER — Little over a day after it was busted by Waterloo Regional Police, a downtown Kitchener marijuana dispensary is back in business.
Investigators used a Controlled Drugs and Substances Act search warrant to descend on the La Rouge dispensary Wednesday, seizing undisclosed quantities of “marijuana, hashish-related products and cash” from the illegal Queen Street dispensary.
By Friday, the store’s signs were taken down, but an employee still answered a buzzer.
He explained that repeat customers who were in the dispensary’s database were allowed in, but firsttime buyers would be turned away.
The man said he didn’t know anything about the police raid, but said the marijuana dispensary would be temporarily closing down.
The man at the shop said an update on a new location would be posted online.
Waterloo Regional Police are trying to crack down on local black market dispensaries ahead of legalization of recreational marijuana in October. They’re targeting shops that have opened up in the void left by five Waterloo Region dispensaries that had closed in a similar enforcement campaign last year.
Ontario’s Ford government plans to allow private businesses to sell cannabis, but it’s not clear if existing dispensaries will be allowed to apply for licences.
Municipalities are scrambling to sort out the licensing requirements to allow legal storefront marijuana shops.
Many cities expect it will be well into 2019 before the regulatory system is in place — meaning consumers will need to buy their legal pot online until retail stores can be sorted out.
For people who work in illegal dispensaries, meanwhile, it’s a strange time. The courts have been handing down increasingly lenient sentences, and Crown prosecutors have withdrawn hundreds of charges against the socalled “budtenders” who staff these shops.
Wednesday’s raid was the third by Waterloo Regional Police in the past three weeks, after officers seized cannabis edibles, oils and cash from Trymz’s King Street East location in Cambridge on Aug. 2.
Three people, all from Hamilton, were arrested in that bust.
Just a week earlier, police used another search warrant to raid the same shop.
On July 26, officers busted Trymz and seized marijuana seedlings, marijuana edibles and cash. Three more employees were arrested on that date.
The Cambridge dispensary opened up in early July, and drew a loyal following with features such as a free pre-rolled joint with every purchase over $100.
The store’s original shop in Hamilton marketed aggressively, by handing out branded lighters to pedestrians and free joints to anyone who came into the store wearing Hamilton Tiger-Cats gear.