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An Ottawa judge has discharged drug-trafficking charges against a young clerk who worked at a marijuana dispensary but said she didn’t realize the business was illegal.

The woman was only 21, had no criminal record, has accepted responsibility and expressed remorse, and is at low risk of re-offending, said Justice Norman Boxall in his sentencing decision.

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It’s the first time a budtender charged in an Ottawa dispensary raid has received an absolute discharge on drug trafficking charges, according to the Public Prosecution Service of Canada. In Toronto, many of the budtenders arrested in raids on dispensaries have had their charges thrown out.

Selena Holder-Zirbser is one of about 44 people who have been charged in police raids on illegal shops in Ottawa. She says she took the $12-an-hour job because she needed to pay her rent.

In his decision, Boxall said it wasn’t up to the judiciary to decide who is prosecuted.