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As the province faces backlash on its directive to police agencies to step up enforcement on illegal cannabis dispensaries, it is providing only a vague explanation of how it estimated the number of dispensaries provincewide.
“In early December, an initial assessment estimated that at least 118 brick-and-mortar illegal cannabis stores were operating in Nova Scotia,” a Justice Department spokesperson wrote to CBC News in an email this week.
The timing of the province’s directive to police on Dec. 4 suggests the initial assessment was done shortly before the announcement.
The province originally said in a news release that it had done a “provincial review” to find the 118 illegal outlets.
CBC News requested that review using freedom of information legislation, but the Justice Department responded that no such document exists.
CBC asked the department for a more substantial explanation of how its initial assessment was done, including who did the work, when it was done, the methodology and information sources.
The province responded that the number was based on “standard intelligence” and added, “focusing here misses the point. It’s about preventing harm, not statistics.”
Provincial law strictly controls the sale of cannabis, which is done through Nova Scotia Liquor Corporation outlets. There are 51 legal cannabis outlets across the province; one is located on a First Nations reserve.
‘Smear campaign’
Critics of the province’s announcement have included Mi’kmaw leaders, former attorney general Becky Druhan and academics.
A dispensary owner from Millbrook First Nation told CBC he felt the Mi’kmaq were being targeted with the announcement, although the province’s justice minister stated that was not the case.
“I thought that it definitely wasn’t a public safety crackdown, it was just fearmongering,” said Matthew Cope, the owner of two High Times Station dispensaries in the Halifax area.
Cope said he feels the province’s statements amounted to a “smear campaign” that criminalized First Nations people.
“I was really offended that they used that type of language, because language matters,” he said.
“Other people stop looking at your actual rights … when they see the damaging things that people that they perceive to be in power are saying.”
Police defer count to province
In a recent interview, RCMP Supt. Jason Popik answered questions about the dispensaries number put forward by the province. Popik is the district officer for southwest Nova Scotia and has been a key leader for the provincial RCMP on cannabis.
“I’ll defer to the province of Nova Scotia because I’m sure they’ve done their math,” he said.
Popik oversaw some RCMP seizures in southwest Nova Scotia affecting 13 different stores in two weeks. He’s aware of the number of stores in his district, but said there are other districts to consider.
“I could certainly see the number [118] being reasonable,” he said, though he was not able to provide a number for the province.
In response to followup questions, an RCMP spokesperson confirmed the organization does not maintain a provincial‑level count of illegal dispensaries, and referred further questions to the province.
Halifax Regional Police also referred questions to the province.
The NSLC responded that it does not collect any information on “illicit cannabis operations,” and focuses instead on evaluating its own network of stores to ensure “we have the right stores in the right locations and that we are operating in a fiscally responsible manner.”
Treaty rights at issue
Cope, the dispensary owner, asserts that he has a treaty right to sell cannabis and told CBC he believes the motive behind the crackdown is about “maintaining a monopoly.”
“In provinces that support privatized sales of cannabis, there is no moral dilemma of whether or not First Nations people can sell cannabis, because everybody’s allowed to sell cannabis in those provinces,” he said.
Each province uses a different system to regulate cannabis. For example, New Brunswick operates provincially run Cannabis NB stores but has a process to approve some private retailers to sell under their own banners.
In addition to owning two cannabis dispensary outlets in the Halifax area, Cope is a fisherman who has been charged in cases relating to lobster and elvers.
Cope says he has a treaty right to fish, and says he’s prepared to use the courts to put forward his arguments about a moderate livelihood fishery, similar to the rights he asserts regarding cannabis.
In 2024, a provincial court judge disagreed with a group of defendants, including Cope, who made constitutional arguments about the right to sell cannabis. But Cope says he’s not deterred from his dispensary business.
“I’m just going to stay the course. I have full confidence that once we have a fair chance in court that it’ll come out that this is an everyday commodity that falls under the treaty right to trade,” he said.
Cope says his store has faced police seizures in the past, but not since the Dec. 4 announcement of stepped-up enforcement.
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