No pot, but vendor reopens

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This article was published 11/08/2015 (3693 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The walls and display cases in his shop are empty but Your Medical Cannabis Headquarters owner Glenn Price is still full of determination.

Price re-opened his medical marijuana shop at 1404-A Main St. Tuesday for the first time since he was arrested on Aug. 4 and police raided his business.

“I’m not selling anything. I’m just educating and bringing awareness to Winnipeg,” said Price, 54. “I’m not going to serve no medicine until we go through this thing with the city. I put my neck out on the line for medical cannabis users already. I’m not going to go to jail for five years and rot until they decide they’re going to deal with me in court.”

Price said dispensing knowledge, not medicine, is all he can do for now.

“Dispensing knowledge of how to fill out your paperwork properly, how to use your medicine properly,” he said, noting many of those who need marijuana for medical purposes are non-smokers. “A person comes to see me, I can tell them face-to-face how to make butter, cookies, tea, how to consume your medicine besides smoking it.”

Price started a petition on Tuesday — with a full page of signatures already — that he intends to deliver to city council to encourage it to hold hearings about medical marijuana dispensaries being allowed in Winnipeg.

“I don’t know how many names I need. If it takes a thousand, if it takes a million. I’ll get them,” Price said.

Price was charged with drug trafficking and possession offences, as well as possession of the proceeds of crime after police issued two search warrants at his home and business. He was released from custody after 12 hours. He said his first court date is Aug. 20 at 1 p.m.

Price opened the medical marijuana dispensary July 1 and has a business licence from the province.

Although Price said he only sells his product to adults who have prescriptions and who go through an assessment process with the store, he is not licensed by Health Canada to sell medical cannabis, meaning his operation is illegal. Police ordered him to stop sales on July 14, only two weeks after he started.

He was made aware that he risked being arrested if he continued to to sell the product.

It is illegal to run storefronts that sell medical marijuana in Canada. Marijuana is classified as a narcotic and is illegal for recreational use.

A week later, Price said his wrists are still swollen from the pressure of the handcuffs he was placed in during his arrest.

“They said they had to put cuffs on for their safety and my safety,” he said. “Their safety wasn’t a big worry. There was 20 of them that came in here, what was I going to do?”

Price said he had 700 patients when he was forced to close his medical cannabis dispensary.

ashley.prest@freepress.mb.ca

— with files from Alexandra Paul and Katie May