CLAMPING DOWN ON HEAD SHOPS

City takes first step in regulating retailers of marijuana
paraphernalia

By: Bartley Kives and Melissa Martin

The grass in Winnipeg may no longer appear as green to retailers of
marijuana paraphernalia, as city council has taken the first step
toward regulating head shops.

Council's property and development committee voted unanimously Tuesday
to ask city licensing experts to come up with a plan to ensure anyone
who operates a head shop -- including existing retailers -- must apply
for the licence and go through a public hearing process.

The plan, which requires executive policy committee approval today and
also faces council next week, will not ban pipes, bongs, papers or any
stores that sell them.

The intention is to slow or outright prevent the proliferation of head
shops, especially in the suburbs, where they act as "harbingers of
decay," said St. Vital Coun. Gord Steeves, the chairman of council's
property committee.

"This has nothing to do with city council passing judgment on people's
choices. The problem that exists is the stores themselves," said
Steeves, who said head shops tend to be despised by neighbouring
businesses and residents because they attract groups of people who may
smoke marijuana in public adjacent to those stores.

"I'm not at all interested in chasing people into their homes," said
Steeves, who concedes he smoked marijuana when he attended university.
"But like a lot of councillors, I don't like the idea of their
proliferation in the suburbs and decaying strip malls."

The plan to license head shops started after Transcona Coun. Russ
Wyatt complained there are too many concentrated in one corner of his
ward. He said marijuana paraphernalia retailers contribute to crime
because they encourage the drug trade.

The specific plan will require months to devise and is not expected
before council until 2011. Steeves said it will be difficult to
devise, because it will require city licensing experts to determine
how many pipes or bongs stores may sell in relation to other items
commonly sold in head shops, such as T-shirts, candles or hemp-based
toiletries.

For example, he suggested, existing rules govern the sale of
cigarettes or the display of video lottery terminals.

"It's going to get down to the fine details of what kinds of products
will be sold inside of these places, what are their uses, what are
their display capabilities, all these sorts of things," he said.

Steeves said the city likely won't determine where head shops may
operate. But any regulation will not be popular with existing
paraphernalia retailers.

"The whole scope of that is absolutely ridiculous," said Bart Stras,
co-owner of The Joint Head Shop, which has locations on Marion Street,
St. Anne's Road and Pembina Highway.

"It's our government trying to have a little too much control. I don't
understand why they want to spend valuable money trying to regulate
our industry, which isn't really that big in Winnipeg in the first
place.

"They're really blowing something out of proportion that isn't even
there."

There are at least eight head shops in Winnipeg, as well as about a
half-dozen stores where marijuana paraphernalia sales make up part of
their business.

Other head shop owners contacted Thursday described the proposed move
as "heavy-handed" and said they were concerned about where it would
go. But they declined to comment on the record.

Stras said even a concern raised last year about a head shop operating
near a school was unfounded, as he said there's little controversy
over Liquor Marts or cigarette vendors being placed near schools.

"They just think we're a menace to society," Stras said of head-shop
opponents. "But I'll have people in business suits drive up in a
Mercedes, get what they need and go... the demographic is very wide."