EDMONTON–Selling CBD without a licence is risky business, but some local stores are stocking it even as the pot police threaten jail time.

After waiting five months for purveyors of pot to get used to the new rules around selling marijuana products like CBD-infused oils, creams even dog treats, Edmonton police have a list of potential offenders that they will target. CBD, or cannabidiol, is a non-intoxicating cannabinoid derived from hemp or marijuana plants, while THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol, is the psychoactive cannabinoid that creates the “high” associated with cannabis.

Edmonton police busted Kush Klatch Herbal Emporium on 150 St. and 118 Ave. on March 6, their first arrest since cannabis was legalized in October. Cannabis liaison Const. Dexx Williams promised there would be “more arrests, for sure.”

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Store owner Nizarali Lakhani, 65, was charged with unauthorized possession of cannabis, possession of cannabis for the purpose of selling, and two counts of unauthorized sale of cannabis. Police say he was selling seeds, oils, pills, CBD creams, CBD waters and CBD-infused deodorant.

If convicted, Lakhani could face up to 14 years in prison under the Cannabis Act, which prohibits illegal distribution or sale, producing cannabis beyond personal cultivation limits or with combustible solvents, taking cannabis across Canada’s borders, giving or selling cannabis to a person under 18, or using a youth to commit a cannabis-related offence. Possessing more than the legal limit of 30 grams can carry a jail term of up to five years.

When reached over the phone Friday, Lakhani said he had been ordered not to talk about the charges.

But a quick tour around town this week proved some people are not getting the message and think they’re exempt from the rules.

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A woman working at a downtown Edmonton vitamin store was happy to help a customer find a 250-milligram bottle of CBD for $60 Tuesday, saying she used it to help get a good night’s sleep. She had no idea selling it was illegal.

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Trina Fraser, a cannabis lawyer with Ottawa law firm Brazeau Seller, said she hears from clients every day who think selling CBD is legal until they are warned by police.

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“Either people don’t understand that it’s not legal to sell these products, or they understand it but they just don’t care because they just think the way we regulate it is just ridiculous and what’s the big deal,” Fraser said.

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“I can go online (and) I can order these products, I can walk into various stores and businesses and buy these products. They’re very readily available.”

The woman at the vitamin store thought only THC was illegal to sell without a licence, and her supplier told her as much.

Fraser said manufacturers and wholesalers often erroneously assure retailers that unregulated CBD products are safe to sell since cannabis was legalized. Some of the misperception stems from the fact CBD is treated differently than THC in the United States and other countries. Canada’s legal framework, however, treats all cannabinoids the same way.

For a CBD product to be legal, it has to come from a producer licensed by the federal government and subjected to Canada’s regulatory framework, quality assurance and safety testing. It can only be sold in stores licenced to sell cannabis, so if you’re buying CBD anywhere other than one of Edmonton’s 11 cannabis stores, you’re breaking the law.

At an independent pet store in south Edmonton, a reporter found CBD-infused dog treats at $46 for a 227-gram bag.

An employee believed the product was in a legal “grey area,” and held off on stocking CBD products until he found a company that looked “legitimate.” The company told him not to advertise that he sells it, but he stocked it anyway. He said many customers ask for the product.

Edmonton Police Service spokesperson Cheryl Voordenhout said officers focused on educating businesses for the first five months after legalization, but now they must enforce the law, because it’s important that products sold to the public meet Health Canada standards.

“An illegal market potentially exposes people to health and safety concerns. Further, a regulated market allows retailers to be held to the same standards, and promotes a fair market for businesses that have gone through the appropriate steps to sell cannabis products legally,” she said.

Employees are not exempt either, police said, whether they are just following the rules set down by the boss or not.

Williams, the cannabis liaison, acknowledged some people who are selling CBD products at vitamin stores, farmer’s markets, trade shows and out of their homes are not aware they’re breaking the law, but he said that’s a problem for defence lawyers to sort out.

Rocky Mountain Civil Liberties Association director Sharon Polsky questioned why police are cracking down on a substance that does not cause intoxication.

Last year, the World Health Organization’s expert committee on drug dependence suggested delisting pure CBD as a controlled drug, finding it does not have psychoactive properties and has no potential for abuse or dependence.

Polsky said the punishment for selling CBD without a licence is disproportionate to the crime.

“Unfortunately, as with so many laws that are poorly written, this part of it might end up having significant detrimental impacts on a lot of people’s lives before it’s going to get to the Supreme Court in a number of years, just for the court to say, ‘This isn’t proportional,’” she said.

“You’re looking at a 14-year sentence for selling a product that has no impairment problems? White-collar criminals aren’t sent to jail for that long in Canada. But some poor kid who’s got a summer job or is working the booth at (a festival) is going to be facing tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees and years in jail and all of the fallout for their entire life, because they got a minimum wage job for an afternoon?”

Fraser believes Canada is overregulating cannabis in general, and CBD products in particular.

“It’s one of these situations where it’s happening so pervasively that it almost becomes kind of de facto legal because everybody’s doing it,” Fraser said. “You see it in pet stores, you see it in spas, you see it in all of these places to the extent that you would assume these products must be legal because you can buy them everywhere.”