Nepean pot shop case highlights hazy enforcement rules for police

A knife point robbery didn't do it. Neither did a truck crashing through the store's front window. Nothing seemed to be able to shut down CannaGreen, a marijuana dispensary in a Nepean strip mall this summer, until the owner of the building slapped an eviction notice on the front of the store.

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But even then the bailiff hired to enforce the order said the pot shop opened again and continued selling.

And that's when Ottawa police came on Wednesday to help the bailiff enforce the eviction and arrested a man for trespassing.

Ottawa police have said they are hesitant to enforce trafficking charges against dispensaries, given the fact that they could be thrown out of court once federal legislation comes into effect.

But the CannaGreen situation may provide the blueprint for how neighbourhoods and police deal with the proliferation of unregulated pot dispensaries that have popped up in the capital after the federal government signaled its intent to legalize marijuana: where the criminal laws are murky, municipal bylaws and provincial regulations can be used to shut stores down.

Illegal dispensary 'an absolute joke' says bailiff

On Thursday, customers visiting businesses located at 33 Roydon Place saw Ottawa police vehicles parked outside the boarded up store, while investigators carted off boxes of evidence out the back door. Just a day earlier, witnesses saw police put a handcuffed man into the backseat of a squad car.

Doug Specht, a bailiff hired by the landlord to evict the owner of CannaGreen for a breach of the lease agreement, says the owner didn't know pot was being sold in Unit 5 of Roydon Place.

Specht changed the locks on the doors and put up the eviction notice, but said that someone "broke in" and started selling pot again. Police were then called and made the arrest.

Specht, who has been a bailiff for more than three decades, said what he saw inside CannaGreen was a slap in the face to legitimate business operators.

"Let's say he sold $10,000 in drugs today, where is the accounting for that? There was no cash register, just a cash box. If somebody can go and do this it's an absolute joke. And around that person selling this stuff are the legitimate people playing by the rules and they have to watch people selling drugs. What the hell is that?"

Business next door wants pot shop gone

That's a question Bill Chappell found himself asking many times over the past few months. Chappell owns Hobby Centre, a store that sells model kits and trains, next door to CannaGreen.

Since the dispensary opened over the summer, Chappell says he's seen "stoners and seniors" buy pot and many young people. Meanwhile his customers told him that CannaGreen's owner has openly solicited them, encouraging them to try his wares as they walked by the dispensary.

But Chappell says he is most concerned about recent violent incidents that have occurred next door.

"It's an illegal business and it's causing illegal problems," says Chappell. "The owner told me he was robbed at knife point, then someone stole a truck and drove it completely through the front of the store."

After the truck crash, the landlord boarded up the building after finding out CannaGreen didn't have any insurance. But that didn't derail the pot store. Someone just cut a hole in the plywood to serve customers, said Chappell.

'Shady' dispensaries fuel legalization opponents

Currently in Ottawa, there are more than a dozen marijuana dispensaries. Some have thrown open their doors for the public to scrutinize and only cater to individuals with medical prescriptions, while others are more secretive.

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City bylaw officials have only received four complaints since June 1 regarding medical marijuana dispensaries, but police have received far more complaints to the point where they publicly stated they will only investigate "serious concerns."

Eugene Oscapella, a lawyer and lecturer at the University of Ottawa, will be closely watching how police and the city handles the CannaGreen case.

Oscapella is concerned shady dispensaries will "pour fuel on the fire of opponents to the strict regulatory model."

Oscapella estimates it could take two more years before the federal government is able to pass legislation and implement strict controls on the sale of marijuana. In the interim, it's up to individual municipalities and their police force to bring some order to the chaos that currently exists.

Public pressure will bring police, says lawyer

Municipalities can enforce zoning bylaws, while landlords should enforce tenancy agreements, says Oscapella. He also advocates some police action in cases where there is criminal activity beyond possession and selling of pot to adults.

"Are they selling to kids? Are they involved in organized crime and are they actively promoting and advertising the drug?"

While police have been hesitant to act, the criminology professor believes a few targeted cases spurred on by public complaints could send a strong message to fly-by-night dispensaries.

"Public pressure will bring police into this," says Oscapella. "If people feel they can operate with relative impunity they're going to do it because there is a significant amount of money to be made in the cannabis market."