Pot dispensary debate at City Hall deferred until October
Posted June 27, 2016 8:04 am.
Last Updated June 27, 2016 7:50 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Just days after another series of raids targeted downtown marijuana dispensaries, the City of Toronto has deferred the issue for the second straight time.
The Licensing and Standards Committee met at City Hall on Monday to discuss how to license pot shops.
Many people, most of them pro-dispensary, showed up to speak at the committee meeting, hoping to have their say on the issue. However, the debate has been pushed back to October.
Coun. Giorgio Mammoliti, who spearheaded the move to have it deferred, said the federal government who should deal with it.
“I do not want dispensaries coming up at every corner of each of our communities, and I think the federal government needs to step in,” Mammoliti said amid shouts of protests from dispensary advocates, with some yelling “shame on you.”
“To say that Toronto can do nothing on this issue is to say that Victoria, Vancouver, and Calgary are better run than the City of Toronto because they have figured out a way to do it,” one woman who was at the meeting said.
Earlier this year, Mayor John Tory tabled the existing licensing debate. He asked Municipal Licensing and Standards executive director Tracey Cook to conduct a “review of the current operations of marijuana dispensaries” and provide recommendations on how they can be licensed.
Tory also wants to know how far dispensaries should be located from schools and daycare facilities.
Related stories:
Two downtown marijuana dispensaries reopen after Thursday’s raids
Police raid Toronto pot dispensaries for non-medical marijuana traffickers
Tory urges crackdown on weed dispensaries while city studies licensing options
Last week, Toronto police raided four marijuana dispensaries in the city’s downtown core. Two Canna Clinic locations and two Cannabis Culture locations were investigated on Thursday and 23 people were arrested.
Last month Toronto police raided 43 marijuana dispensaries across the city, charging people for trafficking non-medical marijuana.
Ninety people were arrested and close to 200 charges were laid in connection with the raids, including 71 criminal charges.
With files from Momin Qureshi