More pot dispensaries than Pizza Pizza outlets in Toronto, map shows
Posted May 9, 2016 2:33 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Care for a slice? You’d probably bump into a pot dispensary quicker than you would a Pizza Pizza in Toronto.
There are 100 dispensaries in the city with another 21 scheduled to open in the coming days, according to The Big Toke, a Toronto-based consulting firm for Canadian cannabis brands.
The firm published a map of dispensaries in the city.
By comparison, there are 105 Pizza Pizza outlets in Toronto proper.
Vancouver city councillor Kerry Jang is calling on Toronto to adapt their city’s dispensary licencing system.
Vancouver cracked down earlier this month on illegal medical marijuana dispensaries, and is days away from handing out business licences dispensaries even though they’re illegal.
The bylaw, which was approved last June, is about “taking back our storefronts, controlling the situation that saw buisnesses selling and promoting marijuana sales to kids and stores opening near schools,” Jang says.
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According to Jang, the federal government is two years away from any official legalization.
Jang believes licences are a good way of weeding out bad businesses and will help legitimize the good ones.
“Many of the bad pop-up dispensaries have moved from Vancouver to Toronto.”
Mayor John Tory weighed in, saying that “if the federal government wants it to be a free-for-all, then fine… one way to control the situation is to licence them.”
Mark Pugash, the director of corporate communications for the Toronto Police Service, says investigations of businesses will happen when police receive a complaint or when there is a public safety issue.
At its peak Vancouver had 120 dispensaries. Today there are only 45.
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