Pubdate: Tue, 21 Feb 2017
Source: Toronto Sun (CN ON)
Copyright: 2017 Canoe Limited Partnership
Contact: http://www.torontosun.com/letter-to-editor
Website: http://torontosun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/457
Author: Chris Doucette
Page: 5

NO GREY AREA: COPS

The showdown between cops and illegal pot shops - with gun-toting
bandits in the middle pulling off weekly heists - is putting innocent
lives in jeopardy.

As the city feels its way through the wild west-era of marijuana
legalization, Toronto Police and the dispensary industry recognize
they must find a way to work together before someone ends up dead.

"This is an unusual situation," Toronto Police spokesman Mark Pugash
said recently. "Despite what people in the industry say, there is no
grey area. These businesses are operating illegally and not paying
taxes."

In the last seven months of 2016, there were nine pot shop heists in
the city. In the first six weeks of this year, six dispensaries have
been robbed. And not only is the frequency of such holdups increasing,
the bandits are becoming more violent.

Staff and customers have been pistol-whipped and stabbed. In some
cases, shots have been fired inside the shops, including one robbery
late last month where the crooks were locked inside by an employee and
tried to blast their way out through the front door.

"These dispensaries are in high traffic areas and the animals
committing these robberies don't care about innocent members of the
public," said Staff-Insp. Mike Earl, who heads up the force's holdup
squad.

With large amounts of cash and pot on hand, and barely half of the
robberies being reported by dispensary operators, he said bandits see
the shops as easy targets.

Although the number of dispensaries in Toronto have been cut in half
since cops began raiding the shops last spring, most stores can afford
to re-open immediately afterward.

And Toronto lawyer Selwyn Pieters insists laying criminal charges is
"an exercise in futility" because many of those arrested end up with a
slap on the wrist or their charges withdrawn.

He suggested it would be better if city bylaw officers issued fines
while police officers devoted their energies to combatting the robberies.

"We're spending hundreds of thousands of public dollars on
prosecutions that go nowhere," Pieters said. "There has to be common
sense as to how our laws are enforced."

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[sidebar]

Poised to hit jackpot?

Some big names, mostly former politicians, have ties to licensed
providers of medical marijuana that are poised to hit the jackpot when
pot is legalized for recreational use:

*Kim Derry is a longtime friend of MP Bill Blair - the Trudeau
government's point man on pot legislation - who served as a deputy
chief when Blair was Toronto Police chief and is now the security
adviser for THC Meds Ontario.

*Former Ontario deputy premier George Smitherman, who once served as
the province's health minister, is also tied to THC Meds Ontario.

*Former prime minister John Turner is a board member for Muilboom
Organic Inc.

*Former premier Ernie Eves is the chairman of Timeless Herbal Care, a
Jamaican medical marijuana company. Former Toronto lawyer Courtney
Betty is the company's CEO.

*Former BC premier Mike Harcourt is the chairman of True Leaf Medicine
Inc.

*Chuck Rifici founded Tweed Marijuana Inc., the country's first
licence provider to go public, while he was CFO of the Liberal Party
of Canada.
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MAP posted-by: Matt