Toronto Mayor John Tory says local officials may be forced to crack down on the growing number of marijuana dispensaries popping up throughout the city.
Tory made a surprise visit to a dispensary in the city’s downtown Kensington Market neighbourhood over the weekend. According to the website TO Dispensaries, nine of Toronto's estimated 100 dispensaries are located in the area.
"It's not acceptable," Tory told reporters on Monday. "I do accept the fact, and endorse that fact we're changing the law, but I've said all along that it has to be done in an orderly fashion."
The federal government has announced that it will introduce marijuana legislation in the spring of 2017.
On Monday, former prime minister Jean Chretien said he's in favour of marijuana decriminalization, noting that it's the "modern things to do."
Tory said, if Ottawa fails to introduce regulations that apply to dispensaries while the legislation is in the works, the city may need to step in with its own regulations that would dictate how far the marijuana shops can be located from one another and how far the businesses can be located from schools.
"We can't just sit back and have nobody take any action," he said. "So we'll have to if somebody else doesn't."
Tory said he plans to sit down with Toronto MP and the city's former police chief Bill Blair to discuss the upcoming marijuana legislation. Blair is serving as the government's frontman on the file.
Blair has said that, while the new legislation is being developed, Criminal Code provisions on marijuana must be enforced.
Despite the lack of rules, new independent medicinal marijuana storefronts have sprung up throughout the country, in anticipation of the new laws.
Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne has said cities and provinces are confused over the pot shops, as Ottawa has yet to clarify the rues around the recreational marijuana use.
Vancouver recently cracked down on unlicensed marijuana dispensaries, issuing $11,000 in fines over a single weekend.
The city prohibits dispensaries from operating within 300 metres of each other, or of schools, community centres and youth facilities.
Luke Churchill of Toronto Holistic Cannabinoids lamented the explosion of dispensaries throughout the city. He worries that businesses that skirt the rules the province has in place will negatively affect marijuana stores that operate legally.
"They're just running wild," Churchill said. "They're just kind of winging in."
With a report from CTV Toronto's Natalie Johnson and files from The Canadian Press
