Crown prosecutors have dropped several charges against four people arrested in a high-profile police raid at a Saskatoon medical marijuana dispensary.
The charges, dropped Wednesday in Saskatoon Provincial Court, all related to marijuana derivatives like cannabis oil.
Six charges each against Mark Hauk, the 36-year-old owner of The Saskatchewan Compassion Club, and a 24-year-old man were dropped, and three charges each against a 23-year-old woman and 39-year-old woman were also thrown out.
The Crown said, at the time of the arrests, all of the accused were legally entitled to be in possession of marijuana derivatives because all four had valid medical marijuana authorizations and no licensed producers existed in Canada.
“Currently the federal Crown takes the positions that anyone with a medical marijuana authorization for derivatives should be going to a licensed producer, but at the time of the arrest of the defendants, there was no licensed producer that had licence to sell medical marijuana derivatives,” said Crown prosecutor Janelle Khan.
“So at the time of these incidents, given the state of the law of Canada, they were entitled to be in possession of derivatives.”
Canada’s only three licensed producers, all based in Ontario, started up after The Saskatchewan Compassion Club arrests, according to the Crown.
All four accused, including Hauk, are still facing trafficking and possession charges related to dried marijuana.
Hauk is expected back in court next month.
