Pot shop owners warn visibility rules increase risk of robbery

Article content material

Hashish retailers in Ontario are more and more fearful about thefts they imagine are occurring due to guidelines requiring retailer interiors and merchandise be shielded from view from the road.

Article content material

“There’s at all times been a pair — a number of — however just lately there’s been a major improve that we’ve seen right here in Ontario in robberies,” Adam Vassos, president of the Retail Hashish Council of Ontario (RCCO), advised the Solar.

“We had three or 4 in a single week, a few weeks in the past,” he added.

Not having the ability to see into hashish shops from the road is regulated by the province.

“If you happen to’re a authorized hashish retailer — licensed by the province of Ontario — you need to have your home windows frosted in order that patrons can’t see inside your retailer,” Vassos defined.

That has heightened fears about being robbed, regardless of all the safety measure inside hashish shops.

“If somebody had been to shut that door and lock it, no person from the skin would know something untoward that’s happening in right here,” stated Elisa Keay, who owns Ok’s Pot Store on Queen St. E. close to Greenwood Ave.

Article content material

“Once I examine these robberies — while you create alternative — you need to anticipate one thing goes to occur,” she stated. “We at all times preserve multiple individual within the retailer.”

Vassos stated the principles ought to be modified in order that hashish retailers are handled like alcohol retailers.

“When is it going to alter?” he wonders. “Does somebody should be killed earlier than the federal government truly does one thing about it?”

In March, Toronto Police introduced the arrests of three males after investigators seized a big amount of stolen hashish merchandise.

Police say these break-ins occurred between Jan. 2 and Feb. 27 at various dispensaries throughout northwest Toronto.

The circumstances surrounding these alleged break-ins are unknown.

Article content material

Well being Canada stated regulation “prohibits the show of hashish by an individual licensed to promote it in a fashion that will lead to it being seen by an adolescent.”

Nevertheless it says frosted glass isn’t mandated.

“The Hashish Act and its laws don’t mandate window coverings at retail places,” the company stated Friday.

The Alberta Hashish Council just lately wrote a letter on this challenge to the Alberta authorities.

“As a result of hashish retailers are successfully required to make it unimaginable to see inside their shops from the skin, it’s comparatively easy for criminals to enter a retailer, lock the door, and proceed with their theft with out attracting consideration from anybody outdoors,” the ACC outlined in its letter.

“That is precisely what has been occurring to our shops, with growing regularity.”

slaurie@postmedia.com