There are growing calls to shut down or regulate Ottawa’s budding marijuana dispensary business, as new — and illegal — storefronts pop up around the city.

Since the beginning of July, five more dispensaries have opened or plan to shortly, boosting the number in the city to nine. They are part of a wave of marijuana stores that have been opening across the country, operating in defiance of federal drug laws.

Cities and towns should get a piece of the $5 billion in expected revenue once marijuana is legalized in Canada, say municipal leaders around Ontario.

Making sure municipalities get their share of the cash will be a focus of several talks in Windsor next month when members of the Association of Municipalities of Ontario gather for their annual conference.

Towns and cities deserve to have more funding, considering they carry the load when it comes to policing and social services, explained Gary McNamara, Tecumseh Mayor and AMO president. 

New challenges

Legalizing marijuana will only add new challenges for municipalities, McNamara told CBC News.

Drugged driving is a growing problem, police fear.

As pot dispensaries become more prevalent in Ottawa, there is growing concern about people driving while high.

In May, Canada’s leading drive-safe group held a series of meetings with new members of Parliament to discuss what it calls the need to implement better roadside testing technology, before legislation to legalize marijuana is passed.

Mothers Against Drunk Driving appealed to the government to do away with current drug-recognition evaluations, and implement “drug wipe” roadside saliva tests, similar to the Breathalyzer tests that detect alcohol, to tell on the spot whether a person is impaired by drugs.

The cannabis industry is full of healers, individuals who set out to solve significant medical problems and found marijuana to be the natural solution.

One cannabis entrepreneur based in Toronto aptly named Charlene Freedom, is a pioneer in the oil and cream sector, and she plans on expanding her business as the marijuana community grows over the crumbled walls of prohibition.

They don’t own a car or a computer. They don’t even have a phone.

Two Canadian marijuana dispensary chains have moved into Ottawa, opening three stores and planning more. Stittsville is also about to get a marijuana dispensary, which will bring to six the number of store-front businesses illegally selling marijuana in Ottawa.

The newest shop, Green Tree Medical Dispensary, opened on Montreal Road on Sunday with a selection of dried buds, cookies, candy and marijuana-infused drinks on display in a glass case.

The Ottawa stores all cater to medical marijuana patients. Medical marijuana is legal in Canada, but only for patients with a doctor’s prescription who purchase it from growers licensed by Health Canada, who send the medicine by registered mail.

CBSA says its agents were simply enforcing the law, as marijuana remains illegal in Canada.

Parents of children suffering from epilepsy say a recent move by Canadian border agents to seize shipments of medical marijuana oil from an American company could have a catastrophic effect on their children’s health.

The families have sent letters to the federal government pleading for the border to allow shipments of Charlotte’s Web, a type of marijuana oil that has been touted by some researchers as an effective therapy for hard-to-treat forms of epilepsy.

It's a remarkable transformation. Even a shocking one. 

Especially considering the unlikely remedy. 

Six-year-old Tyler used to be tormented by hundreds of painful seizures a day. Which would leave him absolutely exhausted at bedtime. 

Even so, his doting mother would still have to pin him down to his mattress until he fell asleep. Otherwise, his small, frail body would continue to thrash about, robbing him of any rest and respite.

"Now he sleeps through the night, because he's having far fewer seizures," says single mother, Angele Vanier, 32. "It's amazing how much progress he's made over the past several months. He has a new lease on life."

When Gillian FitzGibbon’s doctor suggested she try cannabis to reduce her chronic knee, hip and ankle pain, she figured anything was better than the cocktail of opioids she had been prescribed for years, medication that she said left her in an “abyss.”

As health-care providers sound the alarm over rising opioid addiction and the lack of available pain management alternatives, some patients like FitzGibbon — along with their physicians — are turning to cannabis derivatives for relief.

Pot dispensary owners erupted in anger as Toronto City Council’s licensing committee voted to defer discussion of possible rules for storefront medical marijuana operations until October, denying them the ability to address city councillors.

“People are dying every day, calling my shop, crying for their family members,” yelled Brandy Zurborg, co-owner of the Queens of Cannabis medical marijuana dispensary, one of dozens caught in up in last month’s massive sweep by police and bylaw officials.