A local business owner says she feels targeted and harassed by the RCMP.
Gillian Sampson, the owner-operator of Antigonish Medical Solutions, pleaded not guilty to three offences- trafficking, possession for the purpose of trafficking and possession of property obtained by proceeds of crime- while she owned the former Tasty Budd’s franchise in Antigonish following her arrest in Aug. 2017; she launched a constitutional challenge, and the Crown withdrew her charges in February.
Tasty Budd’s reps pleaded guilty to a trafficking charge, and were fined $50,000.
Sampson says she transitioned to a new, legal business, which is not a dispensary and doesn’t sell cannabis or cannabis products; instead, she provides patients with access to doctors who are willing to prescribe cannabis, as well as a safe storage mailbox system.
She says police seized all patients’ legal, licensed products from their personal mailboxes in her building- without warrants for the individual mailboxes- when officers raided her business in March and again in June.
Sampson tells The Hawk she feels like she’s being watched.
“It’s not comfortable trying to operate a business in the legal industry,” she says. “I’m being targeted, so it’s a very uncomfortable feeling.”
Sampson says she has a December court date in her latest case, but she can’t wait that long for some sort of action.
She says she feels nothing will change if she doesn’t share her side.
“I do feel like this isn’t the end- I feel like I need to do something, or this is going to continue,” she says. “I have not done anything up to this point- I haven’t had my say.”
Sampson, who uses medical cannabis, says she was only provided one dose of her prescription when she was held for 24 hours during her latest arrest, and the rest was thrown away.
She says she invited police, her MP and MLA, Antigonish’s mayor, Antigonish Co.’s warden and several other community leaders to an open house to explain what her business has to offer, but no one showed up.
RCMP didn’t respond to our request for comment.
