Marijuana dispensary owner arrested

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This article was published 04/08/2015 (3712 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The spectacle of a police raid Tuesday, with medical marijuana store owner Glenn Price led away in handcuffs, put a spotlight on how differently Winnipeg is handling Ottawa’s pot regulations compared with cities like Vancouver, where there are dozens of dispensaries and the city aims to regulate them.

As the day wore on, city workers removed the shop signage and police worked their investigation of the fledging Your Medical Cannabis Headquarters. Meanwhile, the owner’s daughter grew ever more frantic.

“I have no idea what’s going on. The police won’t tell me anything,” Stacie Price said after hours of calls to police.

She last saw her father and the only client in the store led away during the 11 a.m. raid, the two men in handcuffs and her mother the only one of the three not in restraints.

Store owner Glenn Price opened Winnipeg’s first medical marijuana dispensary at 1404-A Main St. on July 1.

Winnipeg police immediately warned Price he risked arrest for filling and selling prescriptions doctors give patients for pot without a federal licence.

Tuesday, police kept their word, shutting down the dispensary as they led her parents and the client away.

By evening, however, her mother and the client had both been reportedly released. Her father remained in custody.

The Winnipeg Police Service released a statement following Tuesday’s raid, and while it refused to confirm any arrests, it did go into detail about its motivation for the morning action.

“Only licensed producers approved by Health Canada can produce and provide medical marijuana. Without this authorization, any person or business selling marijuana is committing a criminal offence under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. The Winnipeg Police Service will investigate activities that appear to be in contravention of this act,” the police statement said.

Two years ago, Ottawa tightened up regulations for the sale and distribution of medical marijuana, limiting licences to a pre-approved list of commercial growing operations. One company is listed as licensed in Manitoba and it is not Price’s store.

Winnipeg police spokesman Const. Rob Carver said police don’t want the politics of medical marijuana to get in their way.

“The regulations around medical marijuana in this country are fairly clear from a policing stand point. Under the Controlled Drug and Substances Act, regardless of who the individual is or the political motivation, we were made aware of an alleged crime. We have to investigate. We don’t get to pick and choose what we investigate as a policing agency,” Carver said.

The situation is all mixed up, said the province’s best known advocate for the use of medical marijuana.

Bill Vandergraaf is a retired Winnipeg police detective who promotes the movement against drug prohibition, specifically marijuana. He’s also a licensed medical marijuana user.

If pot were regulated like alcohol, the province would reap the benefits of revenue from taxes and valuable police resources would be spared raids like this, he said.

“I would not, nor would I ever, ask the police not to do their job. This is a matter of law, bad law, but law nonetheless,” Vandergraaf said.

“My perspective it’s unfortunate how this particular law is enforced… it’s treated differently from one city to the next.

“Toronto and Vancouver have dispensaries. Vancouver has about 100 of them and they’re talking about regulating them. That’s all we’re asking for in Winnipeg. That’s all Mr. Price has been asking for in Winnipeg,” Vandergraaf said.

At least one Winnipeg city councillor, Mynarski Coun. Ross Eadie, has said the city should follow Vancouver’s lead.

Vancouver-based Pamela McColl, who helped get the boll rolling against Price’s shop, contacted the Winnipeg mayor’s office and the police last month to file a complaint that the police weren’t upholding the law by allowing the storefront sale of medical marijuana.

Price is with Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM) Canada.

“We support the government of the day that believes marijuana should not be legalized,” McColl told the Free Press in July.

She said young people’s lives are at risk from the “pot lobby” that’s trying to legitimize its use. Cannabis use is high among western youth and four times as powerful now than when she studied history — and inhaled — in her university days at the University of Manitoba, she said.

Meantime, Stacie Price said she was in the shop when police carried out their raid Tuesday.

“They went into the dispensary and took my dad away in handcuffs. Then other officers went upstairs to my dad’s apartment and got my mom.

“They asked everyone for ID. There was one patient here,” she said.

That client, who was not identified Tuesday, was also placed in handcuffs and removed, she said.

The sight of uniformed officers crowding into the narrow storefront was unnerving.

“There must have been 15 to 20 of them. It was an intimidation tactic but you know what? My dad is passionate about what he’s doing. He must have 200 members (clients) and now they could end up on the street because where else can you buy medical marijuana?” Price said.

That defiant note echoed her father’s statements last week to media.

He vowed to keep the shop open even though it meant risking the arrest that was carried out Tuesday morning.

“How far am I willing to go with this? Supreme Court,” Price said. “I’m not going to be quiet about this. I’m going to go until they stop me, as far as I can go,” he said.

alexandra.paul@freepress.mb.ca