An unlicensed, Indigenous-owned hashish dispensary in London has been closed by provincial police for a second time following a raid on the enterprise late final month that noticed a 36-year-old man arrested.
It is the second time in two months that Spirit River Hashish, situated at 72 Wellington St., has been raided by the Provincial Joint Forces Hashish Enforcement Group (PJFCET) and ordered to shut beneath the Hashish Management Act.
In a press release on Wednesday, police mentioned they carried out a search warrant at an unlicensed storefront on Oct. 24, 2024, and allegedly seized $41,000 in “unlawful hashish and hashish merchandise” together with $6,700 in contraband tobacco and $2,460 in money.
A London man, 36, was charged with 4 Hashish Act and Felony Code charges and is due in courtroom on Nov. 29, police mentioned. His relation to the shop was not supplied.
The OPP-led PJFCET is chargeable for hashish enforcement and contains officers from a number of police departments, together with London police, who referred all inquiries to the OPP.
Spirit River Hashish, which opened in December 2022, operates out of trailers in an in any other case empty lot subsequent to an workplace constructing close to the Thames River. Nobody was there when a CBC reporter visited early Wednesday afternoon.
Of their assertion, police mentioned anybody wishing to enter the trailers requires permission from the Superior Court docket of Justice first or face arrest and break and enter charges.
The identical messaging may very well be seen within the window of Spirit River’s first trailer, which was raided by PJFCET and Middlesex OPP on Aug. 20. In accordance with the , a second trailer opened subsequent to it in October and was raided days later.
Spirit River’s Richmond Row location was additionally searched, and has not reopened. A storefront on Chippewas of the Thames First Nation was additionally searched, they mentioned.
On the time, police alleged seizing greater than $350,000 in unlawful hashish and hashish merchandise, laying charges towards 5 folks.
A type of charged was Maurice French, 51, of Chippewas of the Thames First Nation, who initially opened the Wellington Avenue Spirit River location in December 2022.
Talking with , French mentioned he hasn’t been concerned with the London storefront since March 2023, and was by no means concerned in the Richmond Avenue location.
Ontario enterprise data present the director of Spirit River Hashish Company modified in March 2023 from French to an area developer. Message despatched to the brand new director weren’t returned by publication time.
A closure discover posted within the window of Spirit River’s first trailer, which was raided by police in August. A second trailer was opened in October, and was raided days later. (Matthew Trevithick/)
The one dispensary French mentioned he’s now concerned with is Dutch’s Gasoline & Selection on Chippewas of the Thames, he mentioned. The shop opened in Might and was raided by police in August.
French was charged with two counts beneath the Hashish Act and one beneath the Managed Medication and Substances Act because of this. He is resulting from seem in courtroom on Friday.
He famous two different dispensaries he ran in Ipperwash and Melbourne are additionally now beneath new possession as of December 2023.
In December 2022, French advised that in opening the Wellington Avenue Spirit River, he was asserting his rights as an entrepreneur and a Chippewa man.
He argued a constitutional proper to function within the metropolis, saying the municipality’s land acknowledgement acknowledged London as being a part of the normal lands of the Anishinaabek.
“We’re exercising our constitutional rights and our treaty rights to fend off financial genocide.”
In 2018, French was charged by the OPP with possessing hashish for the aim of promoting after a raid at his dispensary on Chippewas of the Thames. He later launched a constitutional problem towards the costs.
The Crown dropped the case in Might 2022.
The Wellington Avenue retailer shouldn’t be licensed by the Alcohol and Gaming Fee of Ontario (AGCO), the provincial hashish regulator.
Below AGCO guidelines, retailers should not promote merchandise as “drugs, well being, or prescribed drugs,” and should cost relevant tax and supply from a federally licensed supplier.
Spirit River, which operated cash-only 24 hours a day, bought merchandise tax-free and marketed it as conventional drugs, almost all of it “sourced by First Nations folks.”
