Toronto police raided dozens of medical marijuana dispensaries Thursday, sometimes kicking in glass doors, after condemnation from Mayor John Tory and written warnings from city staff about adhering to current laws failed to halt the free flow of pot.

Officers swooped down with warrants on locations from Kensington Market to the Danforth, laying charges and leaving with bags of drugs, iPads and other seized items.

Some residents passing the storefronts thanked police, while others called it a waste of time as Ottawa prepares to legalize recreational marijuana next year.

Police, who worked with city licensing staff, refused to say how many shops were raided, how many people were charged, whether the charges involve city bylaw infractions or Criminal Code offences, or how much marijuana was seized, in what was dubbed “Project Claudia.” The city said licensing officials visited 45 storefronts.

Chief Mark Saunders will disclose details Friday morning, Const. Caroline de Kloet said, adding that the raids “targeted various locations that have been identified as trafficking in marijuana outside of the marijuana-for-medical-use regulations.”

The Star revealed May 1 that a crackdown was coming in a story about the proliferation of marijuana shops — some demanding prescriptions, but others with lax screening that allowed recreational users to walk out with bags of pot.

Amid the legal haze, pot shops have flourished across Canada. But city staff say they are legal under current law only if prescription-carrying patients get their pot, via mail or courier, from a Health Canada-approved distributor located in an area zoned industrial.

Tory called the situation “almost out of control,” and a poll showed significant but dwindling public support for the shops as they proliferated. As of Wednesday, licensing staff had issued written warnings to 78 property owners, out of 83 known dispensaries.

Thursday morning, about a dozen officers hit Cannawide on Kensington Ave. and Toronto Holistic Cannibinoids on Baldwin St. Cannawide employee Whitney Scheefer said she and others were slapped with trafficking charges.

“Our door got kicked in. We just got our warning letter yesterday ... Something is not f---ing making sense,” she said.

Under light rain, police hauled large plastic bags of marijuana from Cannawide to the trunk of a cruiser, along with electronics, leaving display cases bare.

Joe Le and Tony Dinh, who suffer from arthritis and brain edema respectively, dropped by Cannawide only to discover they’d have to fill their prescriptions elsewhere. “I’m going to be hurting soon,” Le said. “Honestly, the stuff from the L.P.s (Health Canada-licensed producers) is weak, and you don’t have any choice; it’s just the one strain.”

“Sometimes it comes late, too,” added Dinh, prescription in hand.

Ian Dawkins, executive director of the Cannabis Growers of Canada advocacy group, said he was “appalled” by Thursday’s raids and charges, given the impending legalization.

Dawkins acknowledged dispensaries have cropped up more recently in the GTA in the wake of a crackdown on dispensaries in Vancouver, in part because of supposedly lax regulation in Toronto.

“I suspect many of them will reopen, try to find a new location now. Some of them might go into the shadows,” he said. “Because of police actions, cannabis is just going to be pushed back into the hands of organized crime.”

Dawkins pointed to Victoria, B.C., where pot retailers have also mushroomed, as a possible model. Proposed bylaws there would declare existing dispensaries illegal, but then allow variances on a case-by-case basis. Shops would go through rezoning and reapply for a business licence under rules governing things such as proximity to schools and age restrictions.

Some Toronto members of the advocacy group told Dawkins they’d been slapped with trafficking charges; he warned of litigation against the city at taxpayers’ expense.

Lawyer Kendra Stanyon, who represents several clients raided in Project Claudia, says “there’s a strong constitutional argument” that dispensaries can legally serve properly licensed medical marijuana patients.

“Access to affordable medicinal marijuana, access to the right strains and method of consumption is part of the essential right to access medical marijuana for this recognized group,” she said Thursday night.

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The country’s current Marijuana for Medical Purposes Regulations, which allow mail-only distribution to patients, were struck down by a federal court judge in Vancouver in February. Ottawa has until August to draft new rules in line with the Charter.

Rebecca Gibbins, a mother of four who lives on Kensington Place, directly behind Cannawide, said the dispensary, launched several years ago, blended nicely into the neighbourhood.

But nearby competitors gave the area “a completely different feel,” with consumers “milling around constantly,” said Gibbins, who has complained to her councillor, MP, the mayor’s office and police.

“Everyone kept passing the buck. The feds said it was a municipal licensing issue, the licensing people didn’t want to act until knowing what the feds were doing, the police were waiting for direction ...”

Police also raided several dispensaries along Danforth Ave. near Hampton Ave. A man was seen replacing glass smashed out of the door of MedicalClub.ca.

Police who raided S.W.E.D. Dispensary were seen removing multiple bags of what appeared to be marijuana and vials of oil.

“Thank you,” a man told an officer standing outside the dispensary. “It’s about time,” a passing woman remarked to another officer.

“What a waste of time,” said another man.

Robin, who declined to give her last name, arrived at S.W.E.D. intending to fill her prescription. She blamed city hall for not following Vancouver’s lead in setting regulations and licensing those who follow the new rules.

“I was in Vancouver and we didn’t see this stuff,” she said near the smashed-in door.

Tory did not respond to a request for comment on Thursday’s raids, but did talk about “these so-called dispensaries, which are bogus” on CP24 the previous night.

“You know what they are? They are the people who were chased out of Vancouver when they brought in a licensing system, and they all said, ‘That’s no problem; we’ll go down to Toronto,” Tory said.

“They’re conducting activities that are not within the law, and I just think we can’t have them popping up on every street corner and near schools, and messing up the livelihood” of small business owners.

With files from Fakiha Baig

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