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Inside Weeds Glass & Gifts on Bank Street, store manager Nick Dumond spots a man outside, smoking a joint.

“Hey, man, are you smoking in front of my store?” he yells. “I’m trying to run a clean business here! This looks bad! Children could be walking by!”

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The toker had just left the store after dropping off pamphlets from the Cannabis Rights Coalition and imparting news of an upcoming rally hosted by the cannabis “community.” “Sorry,” he says sheepishly. “I medicate everywhere.”

Weeds is one of five storefronts that have popped up in Ottawa over the past few months illegally selling marijuana. All of them say they cater to medical marijuana patients, helping people with everything from arthritis to anxiety.

To the west, in a Carling Avenue building set up to look like a doctor’s office, staff in neat white shirts sell medication with names such as Rockstar and Pink Bubba.

“This is a medical dispensary,” Dumond says proudly, standing in his shop, behind rows of glass cases that contain dried marijuana buds, cookies, brownies, candy, oils, capsules and concentrates. He says he chases away the “yahoos” and potheads who wander in, trash-talking about drug dealers or trying to buy marijuana for non-medical reasons. They can get their pot anywhere on the street, he says.