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When a shop openly selling marijuana opened a couple blocks from her home, Angie Todesco was astounded.

A year later, she shuffles through a file folder of official responses from authorities she figured might have some power to shut down a store illegally selling drugs. She’s written, emailed or called everyone from the prime minister to the Manor Park Community Association. “It doesn’t amount to a hill of beans,” she says.

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It’s not easy to get rid of a pot shop.

“Basically, everyone is just standing still and letting it happen,” is Todesco’s conclusion. “Nobody is responsible.”

The federal government has pledged to legalize recreational pot by July 2018. In the meantime, illegal shops proliferate, their numbers barely dented by sporadic police raids. There are about 18 marijuana dispensaries in Ottawa.

Todesco, 71, says she’s no “crazy lady” on a crusade. She’s a baby boomer who went to the University of Toronto back when parts of campus were “drug central” and she’s tried marijuana.