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TUESDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2015
www.nanaimobulletin.com
VOL. 27, NO. 60
Pot shop undaunted following police raids I
MARIJUANA DISPENSARIES re-open after RCMP seizes drugs and makes arrests. By TaMaRa CUNNINgHaM ThE NEwS BULLETiN
Tree tradition
CHRIS BUSH/THe NewS BUlleTIN
Firefighters Justin Lynch, top, and Greg Finstad climb the support pole to string lights for the Christmas Tree atop Sugarloaf Mountain as fellow firefighters untangle wires and check bulbs Friday. The tree has been a Christmas tradition since Departure Bay volunteer firefighters first started it in the 1960s and is continued by Nanaimo Professional Firefighters Local 905.
A steady stream of customers returned to Trees Dispensary Nanaimo on Friday, just three days after police raided the Bowen Road pot shop. The dispensary is back in business, although not without challenges. The store is short-staffed with the arrest of three employees, the phone wasn’t working and credit cards were being run up manually without a point-of-sale machine. Even the display cases were looking a little empty. Where there used to be about five to six pounds (two and a half kilograms) of bud, there’s now only one or two, says store manager Anita Roy – and that’s only thanks to restocking efforts by the Trees chain, whose executives are determined to keep the Nanaimo store open. There’s also the threat of arrest for employees and patrons, but the store has still been busy, according to Roy, who says people are stocking up. “A lady picked up 15 caramel packs,” she said. Police raided Trees Dispensary, Phoenix Pain Management Society and Nature’s Source Society Dec. 1, close to three weeks after warning 11 medical marijuana dispensaries to stop selling marijuana or face potential enforcement. Dispensaries said everything was seized, including product and cash, and 16 people were arrested and charged. All vowed to re-open and there are plans to continue to press local government for regulation.
Find quality employees.
CHRIS BUSH/THe NewS BUlleTIN
Samantha Zroback, budtender at Trees Dispensary Nanaimo, prepares an order for a customer on Friday afternoon.
Trees Dispensary has also been rolling out changes. Roy says Trees now conducts random testing of its products for dosage content and chemical residue. The dispensary also has customers Skype with a naturopath professional in store to get a letter of assessment. The dispensary used to ask patients to self-declare a medical condition because they wouldn’t get doctor’s referrals. Technically people could falsely claim to have a medical condition, but Roy said the trust is the same as in a doctor’s office. “There is no way a doctor can verify if you have pain,” she said, adding people don’t go to “such elaborate lies” to get a bit of pot. “They can buy pot without telling those lies. They can go on the street.” See ‘DISPENSARY’ /3