Nanaimo RCMP have shut down a marijuana dispensary that opened up shop next door to a day care last week.
Mounties say they reached out informally to the landlord and the owner of the Leaf Labs dispensary on Terminal Avenue to resolve the issue, but they refused to cooperate.
It was shut down on Monday, its third day of operation.
“It is illegal and they have no right to be doing what they do,” Const. Gary O’Brien said. “They have no authorization under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, they do not have authorization from Health Canada.”
Another issue was that the pot dispensary was approximately 4.5 metres from a day care.
“We’ve spoken to the adjacent day care, which is one of the mitigating factors as to way we took the action that we did,” O’Brien said. “We know the owners of that and the parents are very happy that the action was taken.”
A 24-year-old man, who was allegedly operating the dispensary, was arrested on charges of possession for the purpose of trafficking.
He was released on a promise to appear and is due in court on July 10.
Police also obtained a search warrant and seized 26 ounces of marijuana.
Last week Nanaimo city staff confirmed the dispensary hadn’t been issued a business licence.
If it continues to operate Mounties say they are prepared to enforce the same action they did on Monday.
The ongoing fentanyl crisis is one of the reasons that police haven’t taken similar action with other dispensaries in the city until now, officials say.
“Still continuing to focus on that, but we now have more time and some manpower to address the other illegal dispensaries as well,” O’Brien said.
In an email the dispensary said it plans to re-open the shop as soon as possible.
