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Police believe a teen who was fatally stabbed in Vanier was just looking for a place to smoke weed purchased at an illegal dispensary when he wound up inside a crack den, this newspaper has learned.

Zakaria Iqbal, just 18 years old and a Gloucester High School student, died Monday night after an attack on Montreal Road.

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Detectives believe that Iqbal and his friends purchased marijuana at Dr. Greenthumb dispensary, also on Montreal Road. Employees at the dispensary said police visited the pot shop Tuesday as part of their homicide investigation, asking questions about who was there and when.

Though there is proposed government legislation, passed in the House of Commons on Monday, that will legalize recreational marijuana next year, privately run dispensaries will not be part of that framework. All pot shops in Ottawa — and the country — are operating illegally.

Dr. Greenthumb at 973 Montreal Rd. near Bathgate Drive, nearly three kilometres from the homicide scene, opened last summer in a strip mall. Staff, at the time, prided themselves on having the lowest pot shop prices in town: $8.50 a gram.