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“It gave me my freedom back,” former chair Aaron Bott said Friday, adding MACROS was Alberta’s only storefront dispensary.

“I never looked at myself as a criminal … I got into the cannabis industry to help people.”

He thinks the Crown dropped the individuals’ charges to avoid a Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms challenge that would have argued the medical pot system interferes with the ability of patients to obtain what they need.

Health Canada currently licences 38 cannabis producers, which must ship their products to customers, but Bott, 42, argues this isn’t fair.

“Even though there’s a legal source, not all Canadians can access that legal source. There’s cost, and if you don’t have a fixed address you can’t get your medicine sent to you, because it has to move through the mail. (Also), you have to have a credit card.”

As well, producers can’t sell the concentrated cannabis oil some people want, Bott said.

A spokesperson for the federal drug prosecutors couldn’t be reached for comment.

Bott is now part of committee representing dispensaries, clinics, licensed producers, consultants and other members of the cannabis industry aiming to advise the provincial government on how to handle recreational and medical sales once federal law is changed.

The group plans to hold several meetings and submit a report by April.

Bott also hopes to meet with Edmonton city officials to look at municipal permits for local dispensaries, which are allowed in some Canadian municipalities and shut down in others.

“I don’t want to blindside them anymore. I want to work with them this time. I want to show them we did this for 12 years without any complaints.”

gkent@postmedia.com

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