A monumental victory for an unlicensed medical marijuana dispensary in Saskatoon after a two-year battle with the courts.
On Thursday, Crown prosecutors withdrew all charges against individual employees of the Saskatchewan Compassion Club after they were arrested following a police raid of the store in 2015.
In exchange, the company pleaded guilty to one count of trafficking the sale of cannabis to its membership, all of whom, said Mark Hauk’s lawyer, were medical patients.
“Give it three years time (you will) probably see legal store fronts filling the capacity of medical access so there will be no need for municipalities to tolerate illegal dispensaries, but until such time we’ll continue to see them proliferate for sure,” Hauk said outside of Saskatoon provincial court.
The Crown had to drop a few charges in 2016 against all three accused related to marijuana derivatives or oils.
At that time, Crown prosecutor Janelle Khan told media the decision followed a court ruling that medical marijuana shouldn’t be restricted to its dried form and in this case, all of the accused had a valid prescription for medical marijuana.
“The reason that was done is because of the Supreme Court of Canada decision of R. versus Smith – it was not illegal for the defendants at the time of the incidents to be in possession of the marijuana derivatives.”
Fast forward to Thursday and along with the guilty plea, the company has to pay a $6,500 fine plus a victim fine surcharge of $1,950.
The Saskatoon Police Service later issued a statement of their own saying it was pleased that there was a conclusion to this case.
“We just want to let the public know that it doesn’t change our mandate to enforce the laws of Canada, dispensaries that are not operating under the approval of Health Canada are doing so illegally,” said Alyson Edwards, a spokesperson with the Saskatoon Police Service.
“It our position as it among many law enforcement agencies across the country that we need to continue to enforce those laws.”
The compassion club has now relocated to Victoria, assisting sick and terminally-ill patients via mail order. According to Hauk, he and his team haven’t ruled out returning to Saskatoon.
“I’ve had some interesting discussions in the last couple days so maybe stay tuned for a store front in Saskatoon sometime in the near future here again.”
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