Charges dropped against ‘budtenders’ caught up in marijuana shop raids

Charges have been dropped against two of the clerks charged in police raids on Magna Terra Health Services marijuana dispensaries last spring.

It’s the first time prosecutors in Ottawa have withdrawn charges against “budtenders” working at illegal pot shops.

A total of seven people were charged in the raids on Magna Terra outlets on Carling Avenue and on Iber Road in Stittsville last March.

Charges against two people were withdrawn, while prosecution of the other five is going ahead, according to court records. Charges can be dropped if there is not enough evidence, or if prosecutors decide it is not in the public interest to proceed.

The bright, clean Magna Terra shops were locally owned. Manager Franco Vigile called them “clinics.” He said he was helping medical marijuana patients. His brother, Peter J., and sister Nina both worked at the dispensaries.

When they were raided, Franco and Peter J. Vigile were charged with drug trafficking and possessing the proceeds of crime. Police also searched the Vigile family home, the corporate address of Magna Terra. They seized an unlicensed, loaded Desert Eagle handgun, and Nina Vigile was charged with several gun-related offences, including possession of a prohibited weapon and possession of a weapon obtained by crime.

Earlier this month Ontario Attorney General Yasir Naqvi warned that illegal dispensaries will be closed as the province moves to allow the sale of recreational pot in stores run by the LCBO. He plans an “enforcement summit” with municipal and police leaders this fall to discuss how that can be done.

In Ottawa, 17 dispensaries have been raided since police began cracking down a year ago, but 11 of them reopened and more have popped up. There are about 20 dispensaries in town.

Court battles are also looming as lawyers make constitutional arguments that the illegal shops provide “reasonable access” to medical marijuana patients as required by previous court rulings.