Former Cannabis Culture dispensary on Bank Street may soon be a legal cannabis store
The building on Bank Street in Centretown that was once home to one of the city’s most popular illegal dispensaries may re-open this spring as a legal cannabis shop.
An Ontario pot-shop lottery winner has proposed opening a store called HOBO Recreational Cannabis Store at 391 Bank St. near Gladstone Avenue, the site of the former Cannabis Culture dispensary.
The store location was posted Tuesday morning by the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario for public comment.
Only 25 stores are set to open this spring as the province rolls out the first wave of privately-operated cannabis shops. The right to apply for the licences was decided in a lottery.
The HOBO shop proposal means Ottawa will probably land three of the five stores allocated for Eastern Ontario. A store called Superette has been proposed for Wellington Street West, and another called ByWard Market Cannabis, Fire & Flower, is proposed for York Street. Two stores have been proposed for Kingston.
The lottery winner proposing the HOBO store is Karan Someshwar. It’s not known if Someshwar is working with a cannabis retail chain or another corporation, which has been a popular approach among some winners looking for help in creating their stores. The shops are supposed to be open by April 1.
The Cannabis Culture dispensary opened at the Bank Street location on Feb. 22, 2017. It was associated with the Cannabis Culture brand created by Canadian marijuana legalization activists Jodie and Marc Emery, but operated as a franchise.
Jodie Emery, left, celebrating at the store opening in February 2017 with Sherry Morrison, an activist and medical marijuana user whose son worked at the store and was later charged in a police raid. OTTwp
Jodie Emery arrived in Ottawa to lead a small band of protesters from Parliament Hill to the store for the grand opening. An undercover police office was among the first customers that day, however, and the store was raided by police in early March.
The clerks working inside were charged with drug trafficking, but the store re-opened. Cannabis Culture was raided again by police in October 2017, with more charges laid against clerks, but the dispensary again quickly re-opened.
Cannabis Culture on Bank Street was closed for good in December 2017, when Ottawa police helped the landlord enforce an eviction order. Jean Levac/Ottawa Citizen Jean Levac / OTTwp
It closed for good in December 2017 after the landlord posted an eviction notice on the door and hired a bailiff to change the locks. Cannabis Culture lost a court bid to have the eviction overturned so it could re-open the business.
The Cannabis Culture store was often bustling, the lobby area packed with customers waiting their turn to be allowed into the locked back room where the cannabis was stored.
The store sold to customers over age 19.
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