Pubdate: Wed, 06 May 2015
Source: Metro (Ottawa, CN ON)
Copyright: 2015 Metro
Contact:  http://www.metronews.ca/Ottawa
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/4032
Author: Lucy Scholey
Page: A1

POLICE SCARE POT LOUNGE USERS: OWNER

'We're not doing anything illegal,' Wayne Robillard says

The owner of BuzzOn, Ottawa's new vapour lounge, is accusing police of
trying to intimidate his customers.

Wayne Robillard told reporters at city hall on Wednesday that police
have stopped in three times since he opened on April 20 and asked
customers for ID. Officers confiscated one person's marijuana, he said.

"They're trying to find a backdoor way to shut us down," he said, clad
in a white T-shirt with "I am Cannabian" emblazoned across the front.
"We're not doing anything illegal, so they have to find another way."

Robillard said "hundreds" of people have stopped in to the lounge at
29 Montreal Rd. and he has a clientele of about a dozen regulars. He's
even considering quitting his day job as the operations manager at a
manufacturing firm to run the lounge on a full-time basis.

The lounge is meant to be a place for medical-marijuana users to puff
their medication in the company of others, but Robillard said he's now
instructing customers on their rights.

"Is it worth trying to criminalize a few people when there's so many
who are benefiting?" he said, adding, "I'm not going to say that
there's absolutely no recreational use whatsoever. That would be
ludicrous of me."

Robillard explains that he does not sell weed; he sells memberships.
However, he said it would be inappropriate for him to ask customers
for their medical card.

The police response is "directly proportionate" to Mayor Jim Watson's
reaction to the vapour lounge, he said. Last week, Watson said he was
not impressed with the venue and that he expected police to enforce
the laws.

Clayton Goodwin, executive director of Veterans for the Use of Medical
Marijuana, called the mayor's reaction "discrimination" against patients.

"What resides in BuzzOn is a community," he said. "There are people
there that are medicating there that have anxiety. There are people
that are medicating that have mental illness. Then you have police
storming in that have guns and uniforms."

A spokesman for Ottawa police said they were continuing to monitor and
investigate BuzzOn but would not comment further.
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