Pot shop owners warn visibility rules increase risk of robbery

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Cannabis retailers in Ontario are increasingly worried about thefts they believe are happening because of rules requiring store interiors and products be shielded from view from the street.

“There’s always been a couple — a few — but recently there’s been a significant increase that we’ve seen here in Ontario in robberies,” Adam Vassos, president of the Retail Cannabis Council of Ontario (RCCO), told the Sun.

“We had three or four in one week, a couple of weeks ago,” he added.

Not being able to see into cannabis stores from the street is regulated by the province.

“If you’re a legal cannabis store — licensed by the province of Ontario — you have to have your windows frosted so that patrons can’t see inside of your store,” Vassos explained.

That has heightened fears about being robbed, despite all the security measure inside cannabis stores.

“If someone were to close that door and lock it, nobody from the outside would know anything untoward that’s going on in here,” said Elisa Keay, who owns K’s Pot Shop on Queen St. E. near Greenwood Ave.

“When I read about these robberies — when you create opportunity — you have to expect something is going to happen,” she said. “We always maintain more than one person in the store.”

Vassos said the rules should be changed so that cannabis retailers are treated like alcohol retailers.

“When is it going to change?” he wonders. “Does someone have to be killed before the government actually does something about it?”

In March, Toronto Police announced the arrests of three men after investigators seized a large quantity of stolen cannabis products.

Police say those break-ins happened between Jan. 2 and Feb. 27 at a number of dispensaries across northwest Toronto.

The circumstances surrounding those alleged break-ins are unknown.

Health Canada said regulation “prohibits the display of cannabis by a person authorized to sell it in a manner that may result in it being seen by a young person.”

But it says frosted glass is not mandated.

“The Cannabis Act and its regulations do not mandate window coverings at retail locations,” the agency said Friday.

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The Alberta Cannabis Council recently wrote a letter on this issue to the Alberta government.

“Because cannabis retailers are effectively required to make it impossible to see inside their stores from the outside, it is relatively simple for criminals to enter a store, lock the door, and proceed with their robbery without attracting attention from anyone outside,” the ACC outlined in its letter.

“This is exactly what has been happening to our stores, with increasing regularity.”

slaurie@postmedia.com