Farm Assists marijuana lounge in Halifax partially reopens

The owner of Halifax's first medical marijuana lounge stayed true to his word and reopened part of his store Tuesday morning, despite being shut down in a police raid and charged with trafficking marijuana.

Christopher Enns — who owns Farm Assists — and his fiancée Sherri Reeve were charged with drug trafficking, possession for the purpose of trafficking, breach of an undertaking, proceeds of crime and production of a controlled substance after the lounge was raided last week.

Enns was back at the Gottingen Street shop and the doors reopened at about 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday.

"This is my community and I'm not willing to watch it die and just shrivel away," he told CBC News.

"I'm going to protect my child and make sure it's here tomorrow."

Enns said he will continue to sell smoking related products and is open for patients to come in and vaporize their own marijuana. For now, he said he is not selling marijuana from the dispensary section of the store.

The 29-year-old man was released from custody on Monday afternoon under conditions limiting him to the terms of his Health Canada medical marijuana licence — meaning he cannot produce, possess or use marijuana under any other circumstances except as his licence allows.

He's due back in court on Sept. 29.

Won't go to the streets

Betty Johnson is one of the people who used marijuana grown by Enns under his Health Canada licence. She said she won't go to the street to buy marijuana, even if Enns can't supply her. 

Johnson has terminal brain cancer and has been using marijuana for the past two years to regulate pain. She got a medical marijuana licence after many courses of traditional treatment with radiation and chemotherapy.

"Once I realized there wasn't going to be any hope for me, I either had to think of something else or just live with it," she said.

Halifax Regional Police officers seized marijuana and cash when they raided Farm Assists on Friday. The lounge raid was one of three sweeps that day, which police said were all connected.

Police also seized hundreds of marijuana plants from a secluded warehouse in East Chezzetcook, tucked away in the Eastern Shore Industrial Park. They also seized more drugs and cash from a house down the road from the warehouse.

Sources told CBC News the house belonged to Enns and Reeve, 47.

Johnson said news of the raid was horrible news for her.

"I was devastated," she said.

"I thought, 'Here we go again.' People thought we have a shop going here and selling it on the street. We don't sell it on the street. We sell it only to our patients."

Health Canada, the regulator of medical marijuana, has said storefronts and dispensaries that distribute cannabis are illegal, adding it's up to local authorities to deal with stores that distribute marijuana.

Halifax Regional Police said anyone who sells marijuana, including at a marijuana lounge, is breaking the law.