Child’s Play

So. Turns out the concrete slabs used to barricade CAFE dispensaries cost a staggering $361,459.49. This price includes installation, removal, and reinstallation of giant blocks as well as paying structural engineers and security. Childish waste of taxpayer $$$ IMHO.

$$$ for this stunt didn’t come from @cityoftoronto: “The city has received monies from the provincial government to support the establishment and implementation of an enforcement strategy for cannabis in the city of Toronto.”

That’s right. Amid several years of drastic cuts to vital social services, @fordnation saw fit to allocate 361K towards concrete blocks in order to stifle unlicensed dispensaries. Priorities, priorities, priorities.

“BUT THEY WEREN’T PLAYING BY THE RULES. WHAT ABOUT PUBLIC SAFETY?” AFAIK the cannabis death toll is “zero” nationwide. Meanwhile, the #OpioidCrisis is in full swing. Overdose prevention sites save lives. NOT concrete blocks.

Opioid-related overdose deaths have been steadily climbing in Ontario since 2003. More than 1,200 people died from overdoses in the province in 2017, according to Public Health Ontario. More than 600 died from the same cause in the first half of 2018, the most recent data available shows.

“This is an absolute disaster for the province of Ontario,” Gillian Kolla [with the Toronto Overdose Prevention Society] said. This is a cut, make no mistake, this is a massive cut.”

Among the sites not approved by the province, Kolla said, was The Works run by Toronto Public Health, which sees 3,000 visits every month—the most used—and other smaller sites that help vulnerable people such as homeless women.

- CBC News, March 29, 2019

And psssst... the “rules” for obtaining a cannabis retail license were arbitrary and foolish in the first place.

If the goal was to drum up respect for rule of law by striking fear into the hearts of citizens, that plan flopped. Public opinion was largely supportive of CAFE and its customers, particularly since the province had *already* screwed up brick and mortar cannabis retail.