A medical marijuana dispensary owner has been charged following a police raid of the business Tuesday.

Vice and Drug officers – armed with a search warrant – arrived at the Royal Farmacy on Main Street East around 1 p.m. Tuesday, where they seized $20,000 worth of marijuana and marijuana products including edibles.

Owner Shane Hansen wasn't in at the time, but he got a call from his wife and came down right away.

"They left all my other staff alone, which was good. I came down, they didn't handcuff me. Honestly the cops get a really get bad rap, but they were as respectful and cordial and polite as they could be," he said.

But the bust – and the resulting criminal charges – is frustrating to him, because he says they are providing medicine to ill people.

"I don't serve anybody underage. I don't serve anybody without a license. The odd time, if people come in… and they can justify to me that they're in need, I'll give them a very temporary compassion card and send them for their licensing and whatnot," he says.

This is what led to the bust. He says an undercover officer had come in looking for something to help his mother, whom he said had rheumatoid arthritis. Hansen's wife served him.

Now, Hansen says they are trying to figure out the next step. He was not taken into custody, but was instead released on a promise to appear in court on Feb. 1. The 45-year-old is charged with possession of marijuana and THC for the purpose of trafficking, and proceeds of crime under $5,000.

He is passionate about medical marijuana because he says it helped him to cope after his mother was murdered years ago.

"I was put on a lot of different pharmaceuticals that just exasperated everything and I spent a lot of years with addictions. Cannabis was really the only thing that kind of brought me out of it. It's the only way I can cope and function and sleep and eat," he says.

"My heart's in it. I'm very passionate about it."

He says he has around 800 clients who depend on his business.

It is both an exciting and frustrating time in the medical marijuana industry in Canada, he says—a grey area, with legalization seemingly on the horizon.

In a press release Wednesday, Hamilton Police acknowledged that the federal government has committed to "making changes to the laws and regulations in relation to marihuana."

"However, until such changes are proclaimed law, the present provision of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act in relation to the possession and sale of marihuana remain in force," they say.

"The Hamilton Police Service is dedicated to investigating all allegation of criminal activity, including the selling or trafficking of marihuana from dispensaries."

Hansen says the charges are intimidating, but that he is not out to challenge police.

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"I honestly expected this a lot sooner. It is the cost of doing business. We knew when we opened the chance we were taking, and that's a sacrifice I'm willing to take," he says.

"In eight months, we have had patients that, if they hadn't [come to us], they wouldn't be here right now…so it's absolutely worth it."