Receiving cannabis shipments has become a routine practice for Taylor Caldwell: she gets a call with the approximate time of delivery, it arrives, she signs the paperwork, then adds it to the store’s inventory.
But Caldwell, general manager of Kindling Cannabis Leaside, said the delivery on Dec. 28, 2024 was anything but routine. She got a call that the order would be there by noon, but she says it never arrived at the shop near Eglinton Ave E. and Laird Dr.
“Nobody showed up. We didn’t hear anything back. When I did finally get a hold of that same delivery driver who called us, he said again that it would be there in about an hour,” Caldwell told CBC Toronto.
When it didn’t arrive, Caldwell said she tried the driver multiple times again, but the calls started going to voicemail. To her surprise, when Caldwell contacted the Ontario Cannabis Store (OCS) on the next business day — the province’s sole provider of cannabis for licensed stores — she was told the shipment had in fact been delivered, and a representative from OCS sent her the paperwork.
“The initials didn’t even match any of my staff,” Caldwell said. “I suggested to them that there is a store two doors down, and it’s possible that it was delivered to the wrong location.”
Caldwell said the OCS representative confirmed to her the shipment was signed for by the neighbouring shop, and that someone from that business had left it in her back alley. She then proceeded to check her security camera footage for the rear of the store.
Around midnight, one hour after the store closed, an individual is seen dropping off around a dozen boxes in the alley behind her store, according to the footage, which was viewed by CBC Toronto. Not long after the boxes are dropped off, someone else appears.
“It was about two minutes later, almost exactly, that somebody came, opened one of the boxes, looked in to see what it was, and then immediately started stealing them,” Caldwell said.
Caldwell said OCS has since compensated the store for the order, but she’s frustrated by what she calls a lack of sufficient action by the regulatory authorities: the OCS and the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO).
“I want to know why they haven’t done anything, why there hasn’t been any follow up … with at least $10,000 worth of cannabis now on the streets,” said Caldwell. She says the retail value of the drugs is likely between $15,000 and $17,000.
A spokesperson from OCS told CBC Toronto that 99 per cent of its shipments are delivered successfully and that incidents like these are “rare.” Toronto police and the AGCO both confirmed they are currently investigating.
‘Policies were not followed,’ OCS says
According to the OCS, another licensed retailer is not permitted to sign for a product that isn’t theirs, and there’s a process for when a retailer may receive the wrong shipment.
“OCS policies require stores to re-seal any opened boxes and contact the OCS immediately so that we can retrieve the product,” a spokesperson told CBC Toronto in a statement.
“In this instance, OCS policies were not followed.”
It’s unclear why the packages were signed for, or why they were left for Kindling Leaside after hours. It’s also unclear who left the large boxes containing the drugs in the alley.
The owner of the neighbouring cannabis store, the Happy Spliff, did not respond to emails and was not available when CBC visited the shop last Friday.
The OCS maintains that of its 1,300 wholesale orders on average a week, nearly all are delivered without issue.
“On occasion human error does occur,” the spokesperson said.
What further frustrated Caldwell, she says, was that the incident left her shop without sufficient stock ahead of New Year’s Eve — a time of typically high demand.
“We placed our emergency order on Monday, but they weren’t able to get it out to us until Thursday. So still without our product for New Year’s Eve,” said Caldwell.
Calls for more consistent enforcement
Caldwell said she’d like to see better enforcement by the AGCO in instances where policies aren’t followed — and she’s not alone.
“There definitely doesn’t seem to be a uniform enforcement or a consistency in the enforcement,” said Matt Maurer, partner and chair of the cannabis law group at Torkin Manes LLP.
He said that can be frustrating for licensed retailers, who must follow a series of comprehensive rules and regulations to operate.
While there is proactive enforcement by the AGCO, Maurer said much of the enforcement is complaint driven. Even then, he said, it can still be unclear who is actually handling enforcement — be it the AGCO, Health Canada or police.
“The system is set up, in terms of the bureaucracy, it’s hard for a lot of those complaints to get to the AGCO. And then there’s a whole bureaucracy of how we deal with it,” said Maurer.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the AGCO said it maintains a “robust inspection and enforcement program” and of the 4,100 inspections in the cannabis sector last year, almost 2,500 were proactive.
The theft from Kindling Leaside is “currently under investigation,” the spokesperson said, noting the case has been assigned to “a specialized unit responsible for leading serious and complex regulatory cases.”
“Given that this matter is complex, and remains the subject of an ongoing police investigation, we will take appropriate action in accordance with the law and our regulations once investigations are complete and we are able to review the evidence,” the spokesperson said.
That means Caldwell will have to wait longer for answers as to how the shipment of thousands of dollars worth of cannabis went so terribly wrong — or where it even ended up.
“We have no idea who’s accessing that cannabis,” she said.
