Repeated police raids couldn’t shut them down.

An offer from the province to go legitimate was rebuffed.

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Now, London’s illegal pot shops may soon find themselves in the crosshairs of a new foe: city hall’s bylaw enforcement unit.

Toronto’s police chief, Mark Saunders, said last week that municipal bylaw officers, not police, will take the lead in shutting down defiant dispensaries, noting the change will come after the province gives official designation to the bylaw enforcers.

London bylaw boss Orest Katolyk says his office is consulting with provincial officials to get clarity on how Ontario’s new cannabis rules, outlined in Bill 36, give new powers and responsibilities to his enforcement officers.

“That’s what we’re consulting on right now,” Katolyk said. “It’s all very new so we’re going to be having discussions between now and Christmas with the province on that.”

At least five black market pot shops and so-called compassion clubs – retailers that only sell cannabis to members with medical marijuana prescriptions – are still operating in London. Police have engaged the illegal businesses in a whack-a-mole-style battle, launching seven raids in three separate crackdowns on city pot shops since 2016.

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While police forces across the country have stepped up raids on dispensaries since recreational pot possession was legalized on Oct. 17, London police haven’t taken any action against the black market businesses since Sept. 20, 2017.

“The London Police Service and the City of London municipal law enforcement services, along with other partnering agencies, are collaborating in an effort to determine the roles and responsibilities of future cannabis sale investigations,” police spokesperson Const. Amy Phillipo said in an emailed statement.

Bylaw officials have played a role in past raids on dispensaries, though the operations were led by police.

“We laid charges and got convictions on operating a food shop without a licence on three of them,” Katolyk said, referring to dispensaries selling marijuana-infused edibles.

Bill 36, which received royal assent on Oct. 17, gives authorities beefed-up powers to go after pot shops and their operators.

Dispensary operators could be fined as much as $100,000 and receive up to a year in jail, while corporations could be fined $250,000.

While pot possession has been legalized, the only place Ontario residents can legally buy pot is through the government-run Ontario Cannabis Store (OCS) delivery service. Licensed bricks-and-mortar stores will open in April. Black market dispensaries were invited to apply to become legal retailers on the condition that they closed their doors by Oct. 17, but all of the London pot shops ignored the offer.

Meanwhile, problems plaguing the OCS, including delivery delays, product shortages and a data breach, have been blamed for fueling the demand for black-market cannabis.

Thirty-five per cent of Canadians who bought marijuana in the last month purchased it though an illegal source, according to a new Ipsos poll conducted on behalf of Global News.

dcarruthers@postmedia.com

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