By Jon Hiltz

 

Thursday, May 26th, 2016 will go down in Toronto cannabis history as the city’s single biggest waste of time and money.

Toronto Police raided dozens of pot dispensaries after serving warnings less than a day before in some cases, telling owners to close up or there would be trouble. Hours later trouble came, with the cops using their sadly predictable overuse of force, kicking in the doors of some establishments, handcuffing staff members and carting off garbage bags packed full of much-needed medicine for the citizens of Toronto and the GTA.

Par for the course when the police department is elbowed to do something by the Mayor, City Hall takes the plausible deniability approach — issuing no statement at first and later briefly stating they do not control when the police enforce the law.

Mayor Tory deemed “Project Claudia a success, telling CP24, “I don’t have any issue with the decriminalization of marijuana, none whatsoever, I support it. It is the right thing to do. But the law is not going to be changed for a year or so … and in the meantime, I’m just saying we can’t afford to have the Wild West.”

What many believe the Mayor and the police fail to realize is that dispensaries for medical marijuana are a necessary part of the equation. In 2013, the Conservative government deemed that medical marijuana could only be accessed by mail order, through the small handful of licensed producers across the country. These producers have limited supply of strains and significantly less choice when it comes to products, as they don’t do edibles of any kind or other selections such as hash or shatter. Patients are also not allowed to grow their own, so they are left with the one option.

More importantly, however, marijuana exclusively through the mail was deemed unconstitutional by a federal judge in Vancouver earlier this year. That decision has clearly fallen on deaf ears with the feds.

Nevertheless, decriminalization is a no-go, which has been stated many times by Prime Minister Trudeau and his pied piper of pot, former Toronto Chief of Police, Bill Blair. This marks the second time in ten years Blair finds himself involved in a potential violation of our Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the first being the horrific show of force at the 2010 G20 Summit in Toronto.

Jim Karygiannis is the Toronto City Councillor for Ward 39 does not agree with the actions of the City or the police. “There was a decision made in federal court in BC that gave the federal government six months to come up with rules and regulations to deal with dispensaries. This was a Charter challenge and the judge came down on the side of the dispensaries and said that although there is a grey area, the federal government has to come to the table and bring legislation.”

The Councillor went on to add that the raids were a decision that came “from the top,” meaning the current Chief of Police Mark Saunders, but Karygiannis suggests Mayor Tory’s influence in light of his recent comments to the press about dispensaries being out of control. “I am saying that somebody called [the Chief]and said ‘you’ve got to get moving’ and the Mayor has made inclinations in the press that he thinks this is the wild west.”

Karygiannis also pointed out the expense that all this unwanted nonsense causes to the taxpayer, “It costs money to deploy the police officers and by-law officials and then we will have to pay the legal costs of the case.”

Now that “Project Claudia” has been enforced, the City will continue its perpetual waste of tax dollars to fight lawsuits from the numerous citizens affected by the raids. As well, if any charges have been laid, the justice system will likely release the individuals. The final result of this police project will be a spectacular loss of money, time and a whole lot of unnecessary anguish caused by a law that won’t exist in less than a year.

Tonight the biggest cannabis conference in our country’s history will kickoff in downtown Toronto, educating the public on this plant’s profound benefits. In a case of tragic irony, this celebration of all things marijuana will be unveiled on the same streets that were covered by police cruisers only yesterday.

Two steps forward, one step back.