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The number of illegal pot shops in the city is on the upswing, even as the first wave of dispensary employees charged with drug trafficking make their way through the courts.
There are now at least 17 dispensaries selling marijuana over the counter, about the same number that were in town eight months ago when police began raiding them.
The stores are pushing the boundaries as the clock ticks down to July 2018, the date the federal government has promised to make recreational pot legal.
A few of the dispensaries cater only to medical patients. But many sell to anyone over 19, offering a wide variety of weed, cannabis concentrates, vape pens as well as candy, cookies and pop.
They are in discreet offices in suburban industrial parks; boutique-like stores on Bank Street; shabby storefronts on Rideau Street and Montreal Road; and private rooms hidden from public view in head shops.
What they have in common is their popularity.
“A significant number of otherwise law-abiding citizens” are shopping at dispensaries, noted an Ottawa judge Wednesday as he sentenced two young employees who were working at a pot shop on Bank Street when it was raided by police in January.
The “budtenders,” ages 20 and 22, pleaded guilty to drug trafficking. They received conditional discharges, which means they are registered as guilty but will not have criminal records.
In April, two other Ottawa budtenders who pleaded guilty received criminal convictions from another judge who said they had engaged in “blatant drug dealing.”
It’s an indication of the varying approaches as courts, police and prosecutors wrestle with what to do about the illegal shops and the people who own and work in them.
A case in point is the differences between Ottawa and Toronto, which have both seen a proliferation of dispensaries.
Toronto: Police crack down, but prosecutors drop charges
Police and city bylaw officers in Toronto launched a major offensive after nearly 80 shops popped up almost overnight in the city in the spring of 2016. In one of the largest drug raids in the city’s history, dubbed Project Claudia, they swooped down on 43 shops in one day in May. As sporadic raids continued in the whack-a-mole fight against the dispensaries, the number of shops dipped as low as 38, according to Mark Sraga, a spokesman for the city’s Licensing & Standards division.
This spring, the number inched back up to about 60 shops. In the past month, police have cracked down yet again, arresting dozens of people in raids on the CannaClinic chain. One shop was raided three times after it kept re-opening.
The current toll after 14 months of police raids in Canada’s largest city? A total of 312 people have faced criminal charges, according to the Public Prosecution Service of Canada, the agency responsible for prosecuting drug crimes.
The Prosecution Service threw out the vast majority of the charges — 188 of 224 — that were laid against people in 2016. Some charges were resolved after people signed a peace bond whose conditions included not working in dispensaries. In other cases, the Crown decided there wasn’t enough evidence to proceed.
Jack Lloyd, a Toronto lawyer who represents dispensary employees, says he hopes the Crown will also throw out the charges against the 88 people charged so far this year.
Offering peace bonds to so-called budtenders was a “progressive approach” that recognized it’s not in the public interest to prosecute employees, many of whom are in their 20s and working for around minimum wage, he said.
“The vast majority of people think it is a huge waste of resources to charge people and prosecute them, especially when court resources are limited.”
Ottawa: Police crack down, but prosecutors go for criminal convictions
In Ottawa, the dispensaries began to proliferate in the summer of 2016.
Police cracked down in November, raiding seven shops in two days. Sporadic raids have continued, but there have been none since March. The toll? A total of 29 people charged with drug trafficking offences in raids on 14 pot shops.
Prosecutors in Ottawa have not thrown out any of the charges. In the four cases where employees pleaded guilty, prosecutors have asked for criminal convictions in order to deter others and to underline the “serious and prevalent problem” the dispensaries present. The country’s marijuana laws haven’t changed yet, and even when they do the government will not allow sales of the drug from unregulated stores, the Crown argued.
Products in the pot shops are from the black market, and Health Canada warns they may be unsafe.
Crowns in different cities can exercise discretion in deciding whether it’s in the public interest to prosecute each case.
Constitutional challenges
At some of the trials, lawyers in both cities will make constitutional arguments to have charges thrown out. Canadian courts have ruled that under the Charter of Rights patients have the right to “reasonable access” to medical marijuana. Activists have long argued that dispensaries provide such access because not every patient can use the legal system for obtaining medical marijuana. Health Canada-licensed producers, who sell marijuana by mail order, sometimes don’t carry the strains or type of products they need or run out of them, they argue.
In four cases set for trial next spring in Ottawa, time has been set aside for constitutional arguments. In Toronto, Paul Lewin, the lawyer representing many of the dispensary employees there, says he will also be making such arguments, but declined to say for how many clients or when the cases will be heard.
Pot shops in Ottawa: charges and prosecutions
29: People charged in raids at 14 shops since November 2016
4: People who have pleaded guilty. Two received suspended sentences, which carries a criminal conviction, and two received conditional discharges, in which a guilty plea is registered but there is no criminal conviction.
7: People whose cases are set for trial
2: People who will appear in court to enter a plea
16: People still making their way through the court process
Pot shops in Toronto: charges and prosecutions
312: People charged since May 2016
188: People who had charges thrown out after signing a peace bond or because prosecutors decided there was not enough evidence to proceed
10: People who have trial dates or preliminary hearings scheduled. Most are owners or managers of dispensaries.
108: People whose cases are making their way through the court process
3: People who pleaded guilty and were sentenced
1: People wanted on a bench warrant
2: Corporations owning dispensaries that pleaded guilty
Pot store budtender’s agonizing choice — roll the dice on a guilty plea, or fight in court?
Selena Holder was struggling to pay her rent with part-time jobs when a friend told her about a pot shop on Rideau Street.
When she dropped by the WeeMedical Dispensary Society in September 2016 and the manager offered her a job, Holder didn’t ask too many questions.
“(The manager) said ‘It’s a grey area, and we haven’t had any problems with the cops. And if we do, we have really good lawyers for you.'”
Other marijuana dispensaries had opened on Bank Street, Preston Street and Montreal Road.
“They are on major streets and the cops haven’t done anything,” Holder thought. “Maybe it’s OK.”
The job didn’t pay much — $12 a hour — but was full time.
“I wanted to see if I could get myself out of debt for the first time in a long time and buy myself things,” explains the soft-spoken Holder. She’s been on her own since leaving home at 16 and has struggled with mental health problems.
Holder worked at the dispensary for six weeks before police came through the door, charging her with drug trafficking. That ended not only her job, but her plans to take a veterinary technician course.
“It took me so long to find a purpose and a reason to be here,” Holder says, explaining how she vowed to turn her life around three years ago after doing a high school co-op placement at a veterinary hospital and discovered a passion for working with animals.
“Now my purpose feels like it’s fizzing out in front of me.”
Holder, 21, got her high school diploma last month. But she can’t do the vet tech course if she has a criminal record, because it requires work placements.
Most jobs require criminal record checks, she says.
Now Holder faces an agonizing choice. Does she plead guilty and hope a judge will spare her? Four of her fellow budtenders in Ottawa have pleaded guilty to drug trafficking: two received criminal records and two did not.
Or does she proceed to trial and take her chances there? That’s unknown territory because no trials have been held yet, in either Ottawa or Toronto. Holder said she’d prefer “option C” — having the charges withdrawn — but that has not happened in Ottawa.
She sighs.
“Definitely it was a stupid decision on my part” to take a job at a pot shop, she says. “I wish I would have known better.”
Holder says she’ll accept the consequences for her poor choice. But she’s angry that her managers at the pot shop and the “big boss” who arrived from B.C. to set up the chain of stores in Ottawa, aren’t facing charges.
“It’s really not fair that he’s (probably) a millionaire and a lot of us are having trouble finding a job now and paying our bills.
“Now my whole life is faded.”
查看原文...
There are now at least 17 dispensaries selling marijuana over the counter, about the same number that were in town eight months ago when police began raiding them.
The stores are pushing the boundaries as the clock ticks down to July 2018, the date the federal government has promised to make recreational pot legal.
A few of the dispensaries cater only to medical patients. But many sell to anyone over 19, offering a wide variety of weed, cannabis concentrates, vape pens as well as candy, cookies and pop.
They are in discreet offices in suburban industrial parks; boutique-like stores on Bank Street; shabby storefronts on Rideau Street and Montreal Road; and private rooms hidden from public view in head shops.
What they have in common is their popularity.
“A significant number of otherwise law-abiding citizens” are shopping at dispensaries, noted an Ottawa judge Wednesday as he sentenced two young employees who were working at a pot shop on Bank Street when it was raided by police in January.
The “budtenders,” ages 20 and 22, pleaded guilty to drug trafficking. They received conditional discharges, which means they are registered as guilty but will not have criminal records.
In April, two other Ottawa budtenders who pleaded guilty received criminal convictions from another judge who said they had engaged in “blatant drug dealing.”
It’s an indication of the varying approaches as courts, police and prosecutors wrestle with what to do about the illegal shops and the people who own and work in them.
A case in point is the differences between Ottawa and Toronto, which have both seen a proliferation of dispensaries.
Toronto: Police crack down, but prosecutors drop charges
Police and city bylaw officers in Toronto launched a major offensive after nearly 80 shops popped up almost overnight in the city in the spring of 2016. In one of the largest drug raids in the city’s history, dubbed Project Claudia, they swooped down on 43 shops in one day in May. As sporadic raids continued in the whack-a-mole fight against the dispensaries, the number of shops dipped as low as 38, according to Mark Sraga, a spokesman for the city’s Licensing & Standards division.
This spring, the number inched back up to about 60 shops. In the past month, police have cracked down yet again, arresting dozens of people in raids on the CannaClinic chain. One shop was raided three times after it kept re-opening.
The current toll after 14 months of police raids in Canada’s largest city? A total of 312 people have faced criminal charges, according to the Public Prosecution Service of Canada, the agency responsible for prosecuting drug crimes.
The Prosecution Service threw out the vast majority of the charges — 188 of 224 — that were laid against people in 2016. Some charges were resolved after people signed a peace bond whose conditions included not working in dispensaries. In other cases, the Crown decided there wasn’t enough evidence to proceed.
Jack Lloyd, a Toronto lawyer who represents dispensary employees, says he hopes the Crown will also throw out the charges against the 88 people charged so far this year.
Offering peace bonds to so-called budtenders was a “progressive approach” that recognized it’s not in the public interest to prosecute employees, many of whom are in their 20s and working for around minimum wage, he said.
“The vast majority of people think it is a huge waste of resources to charge people and prosecute them, especially when court resources are limited.”
Ottawa: Police crack down, but prosecutors go for criminal convictions
In Ottawa, the dispensaries began to proliferate in the summer of 2016.
Police cracked down in November, raiding seven shops in two days. Sporadic raids have continued, but there have been none since March. The toll? A total of 29 people charged with drug trafficking offences in raids on 14 pot shops.
Prosecutors in Ottawa have not thrown out any of the charges. In the four cases where employees pleaded guilty, prosecutors have asked for criminal convictions in order to deter others and to underline the “serious and prevalent problem” the dispensaries present. The country’s marijuana laws haven’t changed yet, and even when they do the government will not allow sales of the drug from unregulated stores, the Crown argued.
Products in the pot shops are from the black market, and Health Canada warns they may be unsafe.
Crowns in different cities can exercise discretion in deciding whether it’s in the public interest to prosecute each case.
Constitutional challenges
At some of the trials, lawyers in both cities will make constitutional arguments to have charges thrown out. Canadian courts have ruled that under the Charter of Rights patients have the right to “reasonable access” to medical marijuana. Activists have long argued that dispensaries provide such access because not every patient can use the legal system for obtaining medical marijuana. Health Canada-licensed producers, who sell marijuana by mail order, sometimes don’t carry the strains or type of products they need or run out of them, they argue.
In four cases set for trial next spring in Ottawa, time has been set aside for constitutional arguments. In Toronto, Paul Lewin, the lawyer representing many of the dispensary employees there, says he will also be making such arguments, but declined to say for how many clients or when the cases will be heard.
Pot shops in Ottawa: charges and prosecutions
29: People charged in raids at 14 shops since November 2016
4: People who have pleaded guilty. Two received suspended sentences, which carries a criminal conviction, and two received conditional discharges, in which a guilty plea is registered but there is no criminal conviction.
7: People whose cases are set for trial
2: People who will appear in court to enter a plea
16: People still making their way through the court process
Pot shops in Toronto: charges and prosecutions
312: People charged since May 2016
188: People who had charges thrown out after signing a peace bond or because prosecutors decided there was not enough evidence to proceed
10: People who have trial dates or preliminary hearings scheduled. Most are owners or managers of dispensaries.
108: People whose cases are making their way through the court process
3: People who pleaded guilty and were sentenced
1: People wanted on a bench warrant
2: Corporations owning dispensaries that pleaded guilty
Pot store budtender’s agonizing choice — roll the dice on a guilty plea, or fight in court?
Selena Holder was struggling to pay her rent with part-time jobs when a friend told her about a pot shop on Rideau Street.
When she dropped by the WeeMedical Dispensary Society in September 2016 and the manager offered her a job, Holder didn’t ask too many questions.
“(The manager) said ‘It’s a grey area, and we haven’t had any problems with the cops. And if we do, we have really good lawyers for you.'”
Other marijuana dispensaries had opened on Bank Street, Preston Street and Montreal Road.
“They are on major streets and the cops haven’t done anything,” Holder thought. “Maybe it’s OK.”
The job didn’t pay much — $12 a hour — but was full time.
“I wanted to see if I could get myself out of debt for the first time in a long time and buy myself things,” explains the soft-spoken Holder. She’s been on her own since leaving home at 16 and has struggled with mental health problems.
Holder worked at the dispensary for six weeks before police came through the door, charging her with drug trafficking. That ended not only her job, but her plans to take a veterinary technician course.
“It took me so long to find a purpose and a reason to be here,” Holder says, explaining how she vowed to turn her life around three years ago after doing a high school co-op placement at a veterinary hospital and discovered a passion for working with animals.
“Now my purpose feels like it’s fizzing out in front of me.”
Holder, 21, got her high school diploma last month. But she can’t do the vet tech course if she has a criminal record, because it requires work placements.
Most jobs require criminal record checks, she says.
Now Holder faces an agonizing choice. Does she plead guilty and hope a judge will spare her? Four of her fellow budtenders in Ottawa have pleaded guilty to drug trafficking: two received criminal records and two did not.
Or does she proceed to trial and take her chances there? That’s unknown territory because no trials have been held yet, in either Ottawa or Toronto. Holder said she’d prefer “option C” — having the charges withdrawn — but that has not happened in Ottawa.
She sighs.
“Definitely it was a stupid decision on my part” to take a job at a pot shop, she says. “I wish I would have known better.”
Holder says she’ll accept the consequences for her poor choice. But she’s angry that her managers at the pot shop and the “big boss” who arrived from B.C. to set up the chain of stores in Ottawa, aren’t facing charges.
“It’s really not fair that he’s (probably) a millionaire and a lot of us are having trouble finding a job now and paying our bills.
“Now my whole life is faded.”
查看原文...
