Pubdate: Fri, 27 May 2016 Source: Toronto Sun (CN ON) Page: 4 Copyright: 2016 Canoe Limited Partnership Contact: http://www.torontosun.com/letter-to-editor Website: http://torontosun.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/457 Author: Maryam Shah Note: files from Jenny Yuen, Don Peat RAID INSPIRES SURPRISE, DISBELIEF Giant bags of weed locked in police cruisers, young people in handcuffs inside dispensaries, signs that say "Closed" or "Closing." This was the very public face Thursday of Project Claudia - an effort by Toronto Police to crack down on stores selling medical marijuana over the counter. Police wouldn't say how many marijuana dispensaries were raided across the city over the lunch hour, how many people were arrested or the charges. Officers were seen at dispensaries on Queen St. W., in Kensington Market, and along the Danforth. More details are expected to be rolled out at a press conference Friday morning at police headquarters. A protest against Project Claudia is expected to be held outside HQ at the same time. Word of the long arm of law enforcement sweeping in spread like wildfire among marijuana enthusiasts and advocates online. That's how Justin - he didn't want his last name used - learned about the raids. The 30-year-old immediately went to check on his brother, who he says has been working at the Queen St. W. location of Eden for about a month. "He just smiled at me and waved at me as they were bringing him downstairs but he had handcuffs on," Justin said, concern apparent on his face as he looked through the glass front of the dispensary. He says he uses medical marijuana himself, and finds it "a little hypocritical" to have a crackdown with marijuana legalization on the horizon anyway. "I don't have to wait for it to come in the mail," he pointed out. At dispensaries, patients can smell and touch the product, he added."It's like I either do that, or go to a guy that sells cocaine and God only knows what else, and buy marijuana, and I don't want to go to a person like that," he said. Almost everybody who walked past Eden - which had a police officer standing by as people sat in handcuffs inside - expressed surprise or disbelief at the crackdown. Marijuana activist Jodie Emery rushed over as soon as she heard what was happening. "Dispensaries are operating with peaceful civil disobedience," she stressed. "They're not legal but they're not causing harm. They're breaking the law in a way that demonstrates the law is unjust." The only reason medical marijuana was legalized, she added, is because decades earlier "dispensaries opened up, got arrested, went to court, and changed the laws." According to Const. Caroline De Kloet, the investigation "targeted various locations that have been identified as trafficking in marijuana outside of the marijuana for medical purposes regulation." The city sent warning letters to landlords recently, notifying them that marijuana storefronts are breaking a zoning bylaw. - - Files from Jenny Yuen, Don Peat - --- MAP posted-by: Jo-D