Court battle over medical marijuana dispensary gets underway

Your Medical Cannabis Headquarters opened on July 1 in Winnipeg.

A legal battle is underway over a medical marijuana dispensary raided by Winnipeg police.

Glenn Price made his first court appearance Thursday, fighting charges of drug trafficking and possession and a small crowd was on hand to show its support.

About 15 people showed up to support Price. His store was shut down early this month.

"I opened this shop to give back to the community, not to put money in my pocket,” said Price. “If I wanted to do that, I'd be standing on that corner and selling pot to everybody."

Police said the store wasn’t licensed by Health Canada and that Price was operating an illegal drug-trafficking business disguised as a medical marijuana dispensary.

But Price said he's done nothing wrong.

"I only sold to medical cannabis to patients that are displaced. Seven hundred people are back on the street buying medical cannabis illegally, on the black market. I tried stopping the black market, where we could come to a store and get medicine properly."

Colleen Carlson bought marijuana from Price's store. She lives with arthritis and got a prescription to use medical marijuana.

"I went on this for one month—I was able to reduce my Tylenol intake by one-third. Now I'm out. He's closed down. I am now sentenced to live in pain," said Carlson.

Sparks flew when court officials told another medical marijuana user, Steven Stairs, to leave his bong outside.

"They said I was allowed to bring my vaporizer into the building but not my bong. I'm not planning on using my bong but it's there with me all the time because it's my desired method of choice," said Stairs.

Manitoba Justice said bongs aren't allowed because they could contain drugs or drug residue.

But Stairs said he carries it everywhere he goes.

"I carry it to my kids daycare. I carry it to my school I carry it to work. No one cares because everybody knows that I'm a legal medical marijuana user."

As for Price, his court appearance only lasted a couple minutes.

He'll be back in court next month to continue fighting the charges.