Unlicensed London cannabis store ordered to close after raid by police | CBC News

An unlicensed, Indigenous-owned cannabis dispensary in London has been closed by provincial police for a second time following a raid at the business late last month that saw a 36-year-old man arrested.

It’s the second time in two months that Spirit River Cannabis, located at 72 Wellington St., has been raided by the Provincial Joint Forces Cannabis Enforcement Team (PJFCET) and ordered to close under the Cannabis Control Act.

In a statement on Wednesday, police said they carried out a search warrant at an unlicensed storefront on Oct. 24, 2024, and allegedly seized $41,000 in “illegal cannabis and cannabis products” along with $6,700 in contraband tobacco and $2,460 in cash.

A London man, 36, was charged with four Cannabis Act and Criminal Code charges and is due in court on Nov. 29, police said. His relation to the store was not provided.

The OPP-led PJFCET is responsible for cannabis enforcement and includes officers from several police departments, including London police, who referred all questions to the OPP.

Spirit River Cannabis, which opened in December 2022, operates out of trailers in an otherwise empty lot next to an office building near the Thames River. No one was there when a CBC reporter visited early Wednesday afternoon.

In their statement, police said anyone wishing to enter the trailers requires permission from the Superior Court of Justice first or face arrest and break and enter charges.

The same messaging could be seen in the window of Spirit River’s first trailer, which was raided by PJFCET and Middlesex OPP on Aug. 20. According to the London Free Press, a second trailer opened next to it in October and was raided days later.

Spirit River’s Richmond Row location was also searched, and has not reopened. A storefront on Chippewas of the Thames First Nation was also searched, they said.

At the time, police alleged seizing more than $350,000 in illegal cannabis and cannabis products, laying charges against five people.

One of those charged was Maurice French, 51, of Chippewas of the Thames First Nation, who originally opened the Wellington Street Spirit River location in December 2022. 

Speaking with CBC News, French said he hasn’t been involved with the London storefront since March 2023, and was never involved in the Richmond Street location. 

Ontario business records show the director of Spirit River Cannabis Corporation changed in March 2023 from French to a local developer. Message sent to the new director were not returned by publication time. 

The only dispensary French said he is now involved with is Dutch’s Gas & Variety on Chippewas of the Thames, he said. The store opened in May and was raided by police in August.

French was charged with two counts under the Cannabis Act and one under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act as a result. He’s due to appear in court on Friday.

He noted two other dispensaries he ran in Ipperwash and Melbourne are also now under new ownership as of December 2023.

In December 2022, French told CBC News that in opening the Wellington Street Spirit River, he was asserting his rights as an entrepreneur and a Chippewa man.

He argued a constitutional right to operate in the city, saying the municipality’s land acknowledgement recognized London as being part of the traditional lands of the Anishinaabek.

“We’re exercising our constitutional rights and our treaty rights to fend off economic genocide.”

In 2018, French was charged by the OPP with possessing cannabis for the purpose of selling after a raid at his dispensary on Chippewas of the Thames. He later launched a constitutional challenge against the charges.

The Crown dropped the case in May 2022.

The Wellington Street store is not licensed by the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO), the provincial cannabis regulator.

Under AGCO rules, retailers must not promote products as “medicine, health, or pharmaceuticals,” and must charge applicable tax and source from a federally licensed provider.

Spirit River, which operated cash-only 24 hours a day, sold products tax-free and advertised it as traditional medicine, nearly all of it “sourced by First Nations people.”