Toronto police say in total they seized about 9.78 kilograms of marijuana and $15,841 in cash at the three locations.Mark Blinch/The Globe and Mail
Toronto police said on Tuesday they had busted three more illegal marijuana dispensaries, all in the city's east end, and warned their crackdown on storefront pot operations would continue.
Six men, ranging in age from 21 to 63, are facing drug charges after raids on Monday at two locations of a dispensary known as S.W.E.D., one on Danforth Avenue and the other on Pape Avenue, and another nearby Danforth storefront dispensary called Section 56.
Police say in total they seized about 9.78 kilograms of marijuana and $15,841 in cash at the three locations, as well as food containing marijuana.
The busts follow a series of police raids in May on 43 of the up to 100 pot dispensaries that have sprung up along Toronto streets in the past year.
Ninety people faced drug or zoning-bylaw charges in the wake of those raids.
But some pot entrepreneurs defiantly reopened their dispensaries, despite police warnings they could face charges again.
According to police, only one of the three locations raided on Monday was among those busted in the initial May raids.
And only one of the people charged this week, a 21-year-old man, was also charged in May.
The campaign against pot dispensaries comes in what critics say is a legal vacuum created as the federal government's existing mail-order medical marijuana faced successful court challenges and the new Liberal government continued to ponder its plan to legalize recreational marijuana next year.
At a May news conference announcing the initial raids, Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders was heckled by pot advocates when he said police had targeted dispensaries because their products are not tested and may not be safe for the public.
A recent Globe and Mail investigation that lab-tested nine samples of marijuana from Toronto pot dispensaries showed that a third would flunk Health Canada's safety standards for medical marijuana and contained bacteria or potentially harmful mould.
Police say their crackdown will continue, particularly on dispensaries that prompt public complaints or reports of sales to minors.
"We'll continue to respond to complaints, to public safety issues," police spokesman Mark Pugash said.
Jeff Gray