Pubdate: Sat, 18 Nov 2017
Source: Ottawa Citizen (CN ON)
Copyright: 2017 Postmedia Network Inc.
Contact:  http://www.ottawacitizen.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/326
Author: Jacquie Miller
Page: A4

JUDGE BLASTS COPS' FAILURE TO SHUT POT STORES

An Ottawa judge has blasted the police force for failing to shut down
the city's illegal marijuana dispensaries.

Justice Norman Boxall said Friday he can't understand why it's so
difficult to close shops that operate openly on major streets.

"I just don't understand how the police cannot shut down a dispensary
where the person has a big sign up, as I drive down Rideau Street,
that says 'marijuana dispensary.' They brag about it on the internet
that they are selling it.

"Yet I expect those same police officers to be able to arrest drug
dealers who use encrypted BlackBerrys and coded language. How are they
ever going to arrest most types of criminals if they can't (shut down
the shops)?" he asked.

Boxall had before him a 21-year-old woman who was charged with drug
trafficking when police raided the Rideau Street dispensary where she
worked as a clerk. The former "budtender," who suffers from severe
anxiety, was shaking and crying. "I just want to apologize and just
say I've learned my lesson," said Selena Holder, who pleaded guilty.
"I just want to continue with my life and save animals."

Boxall spoke to Holder gently, assuring her the court did not want to
dash her dreams of taking a vet technician course. "You can't change
what you did, but you do have control over your future."

Her sentencing was put over until January.

Holder, in a previous interview, told the Citizen she took the
$12-an-hour job because she was struggling to pay her rent and
believed the pot shop was operating in a legal "grey area."

A spokesperson for Ottawa police said the force would not comment on
Boxall's remarks.

Police have conducted multiple raids on dispensaries, but many just
reopen. In previous interviews, police officials have said they have
limited resources, and drug investigations take time - points that
were made in court Friday by the Crown prosecutor.

Boxall was skeptical. "What does that show about the respect for the
law when the police say, 'I don't have the resources to shut down
organized criminals who can afford companies and so on ...

"I'd like to hear a police officer come in front (of me) and explain
to me why the Ottawa police doesn't have the resources, out of their
big squad, to arrest people (when) they say it's a serious problem,
people selling kilos of marijuana for profit?"

Boxall said if someone set up a shop selling cocaine, or illegal
cigarettes or alcohol, it would be shut down immediately.

Boxall also questioned why police don't go after the stores'
landlords. "Why don't we go after the big guys?"

While many of the arrests in Ottawa have been of budtenders in their
20s, the Public Prosecution Service of Canada says some owners and
managers have also been charged.

Ottawa police have sent letters to landlords warning them against
allowing illegal activity on their premises, with limited success.
There are now about 20 dispensaries in the city.
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