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There are growing calls to shut down or regulate Ottawa’s budding marijuana dispensary business, as new — and illegal — storefronts pop up around the city.

Since the beginning of July, five more dispensaries have opened or plan to shortly, boosting the number in the city to nine. They are part of a wave of marijuana stores that have been opening across the country, operating in defiance of federal drug laws.

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Ottawa Coun. Mathieu Fleury says he has asked Ottawa’s chief of police to enforce the law and shut them down. He and other councillors who represent urban wards have also begun discussing whether the city should regulate where the dispensaries set up shop. Coun. Riley Brockington, who is upset about a cannabis store about to open across the street from a school in his River Ward, said the city can’t wait to act until the federal government makes recreational marijuana legal.

The umbrella group for Ottawa’s Business Improvement Areas invited two police officers to a recent meeting to provide information about the pot shops. The officers gave the same answer that a police spokesperson provided to the Citizen: They are aware of the dispensaries, and are investigating.