Toronto pot outlets ordered to shutter in 3 days

The city continues to serve pot shop landlords with a three day deadline to shutter their premises

Thestar.com
May 19, 2016
By Betsy Powell

The city is warning Toronto landlords they have three days to shut down the retail marijuana storefronts operating on their premises or potentially face stiff fines for bylaw zoning violations.

“We’re giving property owners an opportunity to remedy the issue first,” Tracey Cook, executive director of the city’s licensing division, said Thursday. The city’s goal “is not just to go out and hammer people,” it’s to ensure property owners comply with the rules, she said.

Toronto police and bylaw enforcement officers delivered 20 notices to property owners on Wednesday and continue to serve warnings to other landlords with pot shop tenants. Cook estimated there are at least 75 marijuana dispensaries currently operating in Toronto.

They are all contravening bylaws because only federally licensed marijuana growers in industrial areas of the city can legally produce pot for medical patients, she said.

“The fact of the matter is the law is the law as it is written today and it is our responsibility to enforce it appropriately.” The federal government’s plan to legalize pot is still months away.

However, Osgoode Hall law Prof. Alan Young says the city is failing to distinguish between medical marijuana dispensaries that exclusively cater to the needs of seriously ill Canadians from outlets that “jumped the gun and are selling pot in anticipation of legalization.”

“In my opinion, dispensaries which restrict sales to documented medical patients are not illegal and protected by the Charter of Rights and Freedom,” said Young, a leading cannabis reformer.

Numerous court cases have successfully challenged the federal government’s medical marijuana program as unconstitutional because it is unaffordable, he said.

“The ones that are purely recreational, there is no argument under the Charter for their protection. But if you cater exclusively to sick people, you have a strong and compelling argument accepted in courts before.”

Brandy Zurborg, co-owner of Queens of Cannabis, said Thursday a zoning bylaw officer stopped by the Bloor Street West outlet and “tried to instruct us to pass their information onto our landlord. They wanted us to do their job.”

Zurborg said she and her partner will continue to sell to patients prescribed pot. “We’re going to talk to the landlord and assure them ... a lawyer advised us the city has no leg to stand on.”

Also at Toronto city hall Thursday, the licensing and standards committee asked licensing staff to develop a regulatory framework for marijuana dispensaries to operate in the future. Staff will report back to the committee at its June 27 meeting.