Jim Watson wants police crackdown on new Ottawa pot lounge

Mayor Jim Watson wants Ottawa police to crack down on a new bring-your-own marijuana vapourizing lounge in Vanier.

• BuzzOn pot smoking lounge opens in Vanier

While it'sillegal to possess marijuana without a medical prescription, the manager atBuzzOnon Montreal Road said that everyone is welcome.The lounge opened over the weekend to those willing to pay a $5 cover fee to socialize with other marijuana users.

Watson said police should enforce the law.

"It's plain and simple. My perspective is, if there's illegal activity in that operation on Montreal Road, then the police should move in," Watson said Wednesday.

"It's somewhat unchartered waters, but my belief is that it's an illegal activity and the police should be taking appropriate action if illegal activity is taking place. And if they're smoking marijuana in a storefront, then that's illegal."

Police visited the lounge on Monday but left without laying any charges. Ottawa Police Chief Charles Bordeleau said earlier this week that officers will continue to monitor the lounge.

Lounge managerWayne Robillardsaid that consuming marijuana is a "petty matter" compared to other problems that should take up police time in Ottawa.

"I have some sympathy for the police who are really stuck between a rock and a hard place. It's a shame they are being forced (Mayor Watson flipped the issue back to them) to waste valuable resources on such a petty matter," he wrote to CBC in an emailThursday.

No smoking or drug dealing in lounge

The rulesatBuzzOnareno tobacco, alcohol or drug dealing.

The lounge gives marijuana users a place other than "street corners and parks, which would offend prohibitionists,"Robillardsaid.

"In the end, we are simply providing a need for those who are suffering and seeking a place of comfort and understanding," he said.

Though it's the first in Ottawa,marijuana lounges exist in other Canadian cities, including Toronto, Halifax and Winnipeg.

• Former police officer opens cannabis lounge in Winnipeg
• Saskatoon medicinal pot lounge pushes legal envelope
• Halifax marijuana lounge to partially reopen after raid

Those who pay to get inare offeredvapourizer machines, which heats the marijuana enough to release the THC, the active ingredient in the plant, without burning the stems andbuds. Users inhale the THC coming out of the machine through a plastic bag.

Neither the province's Smoke Free Ontario Act nor the city's smoking bylaws cover marijuana.

The building that houses the lounge is zoned as a"place of assembly," and as such is not violating the city rules, said Jan Harder, chair of the city's planning committee.

BuzzOn is owned by a numbered company.