A “smoke-in” in support of Winnipeg’s only medical marijuana dispensary is planned to take place just outside Winnipeg police headquarters Monday morning.

The peaceful protest at the Public Safety Building on Princess Street follows two visits Glenn Price said police made to his store, Your Medical Marijuana Headquarters, on Tuesday and Thursday of last week. The store owner says police are trying to force him to stop selling the medical weed because he has not been approved by Health Canada.

“I expect 10 to 40 people there, patients who need (medical marijuana) sitting around asserting their rights,” Steven Stairs, a Canadian cannabis advocate, said Sunday. “It’s going to be a peaceful demonstration to say what they’re doing is wrong. He’s being bullied into shutting down and I won’t stand for it ... This will close down patients’ chance to get medicinal marijuana and negatively affect their lives.”

Price plans to join the 11 a.m. protest.

“I would have sooner done it in front of City Hall, but (city council members are) all on holidays,” he said. “But they (police) visited me two times, so why not visit them?

“They came back to my shop on Thursday and, instead of four of them, there were six of them this time. They told people in my building that they were under investigation and if they came back, they could be arrested. I believe they asked everyone their names, what they were doing there and whether or not they worked there.”

They even told a part-time employee he should look for another job because he could go to jail, Price claimed.

“They told me I’d get charged for trafficking,” he added.

The Winnipeg police media office was closed Sunday and a duty officer declined comment. Police also declined comment last week, referring to the matter as an ongoing investigation.

The raids come in the wake of Vancouver introducing its own legislation to allow dispensaries to sell medical marijuana in defiance of Health Canada’s regulations. Victoria is about to follow suit and Toronto is seriously considering doing so, said Canadian Association of Medical Cannabis Dispensaries vice-president Dana Larsen.

“This is a trend,” Larsen said from Vancouver recently.

Since The Sun first reported the first raid last week, Price’s customers have increased from 225 to almost 400, he said.

“I’m helping people,” said Price, adding that he has documented proof that it can take up to three months to get medicinal marijuana through Health Canada’s official channels.

Price plans to resume selling medicinal cannabis at his shop on Tuesday. Stairs has invited patients to form a human chain in front of the dispensary that day to force police to “break through a wall of sick people” to reach Price and his customers.

jim.bender@sunmedia.ca

Twitter: @bendersun