Article content

It’s ridiculously easy to get weed from a storefront in Ottawa today.

With the number of pot shops in the city on the upswing, despite multiple dispensary employees facing drug-trafficking charges following police raids, the Citizen visited the city’s 17 known cannabis stores to find out how they’re screening customers.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or This is how easy it is to get weed at Ottawa's illegal pot shops Back to video

The dispensaries are, of course, illegal. But when many of them opened in Ottawa, operators stressed their businesses were serving people who needed medical marijuana.

During the Citizen’s informal audit, only four of 17 shops asked for any sort of official documentation to prove a medical official had approved cannabis as a treatment. One of the four wouldn’t discuss selling marijuana until the Citizen reporter signed a membership form. (The reporter declined to sign the membership form.)

Thirteen stores, meanwhile, indicated the reporter could purchase pot without medical approval.