SASKATOON – The owner of a Saskatoon community medical marijuana dispensary says he will not close his doors after receiving a recent letter from Health Canada warning him to cease operations or face a police investigation. Mark Hauk, founder of the Saskatoon Compassion Club, says he opened the business in reaction to federal regulations he calls unreasonable. The only reason he says he would close his doors would be if those regulations were changed.

In its letter to Hauk and 12 other similar dispensaries across the country, Health Canada wrote that his operation must stop within 30 days or else the agency would turn his case over to RCMP. Hauk could face up a $5-million fine and spend as many as two years in prison.

It's not that Brent Zettl thinks there's no place for a medical marijuana dispensary in Saskatoon.

It just shouldn't be dispensing marijuana.

Rather, he said it has a role to inform the public and people who use medical pot.

Zettl is president of Prairie Plant Systems Inc.. The company has worked in the medical marijuana field since 1990. Zettl asked to speak to the planning and development committee about the city's first medical marijuana dispensary.

"I'm here to straighten out some facts," he said.

"These storefront operations should be seen as drug traffickers." - Brent Zettl

​Zettl takes issue with claims made by the dispensary on several fronts.

TORONTO, Sept. 04, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Marijuana Access Canada (MAC) is comprised of a network of Board Certified physicians in the provinces of Ontario, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and will be expanding into British Columbia and Quebec in the next coming months. MAC connects patients with a Board Certified physician, who is able to write a legal prescription for medical marijuana that is fully compliant with the Marijuana for Medical Purposes Regulations (MMPR) as outlined by Health Canada.

After four months of planning and preparation, Saskatoon's first medicinal marijuana dispensary is now open for business.

The Saskatchewan Compassion Club opened its doors to the public on Monday. For many, like Mandy Tarala, the new dispensary will offer a way to fill medical pot prescriptions quickly and easily. "It's going to be absolutely huge for me in the aspect that I no longer have to wait for my medicine (and) I don't have to order it online," Tarala said. "Also, I have some support (locally) - that way I'm not waiting for an email back or waiting on hold."

Mark Hauk, of the Saskatoon Compassion Club, is set to open up a new medical marijuana dispensary on Second Avenue.

A new medical marijuana dispensary will open its doors today on Second Avenue. The man behind the dispensary, Mark Hauk, will also be in front of council to ask for the city to regulate the industry.

Hauk is with the Saskatchewan Compassion Club, an organization that describes itself as assisting people in medical need to get a prescription for marijuana and to find a safe and quality supply of the drug.  

Hauk said the current rules on medical marijuana aren't working. 

"The federal system right now, is causing sick and dying people in our community to needlessly suffer," he saidSays wait times and prices are a factor

The founder of a Saskatoon-based compassion club hopes to bend the ear of city council to get them to look at medical marijuana dispensary regulations.

Mark Hauk submitted a letter to Saskatoon city council requesting to speak at their Aug. 20 meeting to try and get officials to see marijuana as medicine rather than a street drug.

What I'd like to ask of city council is that they consider implementing medical marijuana dispensary regulations similar to what Vancouver and Victoria have recently done,€ Hauk told News Talk Radio.

Hauk said it'€™s important local governments tackle the issue of regulating dispensaries before they start popping up haphazardly all over the city.

REGINA — Amid the flowers in a downtown Swift Current planter this week were buds of another kind.

On Monday, RCMP weeded a suspected marijuana plant from a flower pot in the 300 block of Central Avenue North.

Suspected, said City RCMP Staff Sgt. Gary Hodges, because “we didn’t send it away for analysis, nor are we going to.” But “it looked like it based on our experience.”

RCMP seized and disposed of the plant.

Hodges has “no clue” how it got there.

“There’s all kinds of speculation: Did somebody plant it there as a joke? I don’t know where the city gets their plants from — did somebody at the greenhouse nursery put it (there)? There’s numerous, millions of ways it could have got there.”

LEADER, Sask. – Hundreds of marijuana plants were uncovered by RCMP at a grow-op on the weekend in southwest Saskatchewan. On Friday evening, officers initially conducted a traffic stop in the town of Richmound, Sask.

RCMP arrested a man and woman and seized a significant amount of marijuana from the vehicle.

As a result of the traffic stop, a search warrant was executed at a residence in Richmound early Saturday morning. A “large and sophisticated” marijuana grow operation was located inside.

Approximately 433 plants were seized. RCMP say the street value of the marijuana exceeds $430,000.

As a result of the investigation, three people were charged with offences including production and possession for the purpose of trafficking in cannabis marijuana.

REGINA — The RCMP has uncovered a large marijuana grow-op in a small community in southeast Saskatchewan.

A total of 433 pot plants were found over the weekend inside a residence in the village of Richmound, located about 450 kilometres west of Regina. According to an RCMP news release, the plants had a street value of more than $430,000 — a sizable cash crop for an agricultural area, about 80 kilometres north of Maple Creek near the Alberta border.

RCMP said the investigation was prompted by a traffic stop in Richmound on Friday by members of the Leader detachment. What was described in the release as “a significant amount” of marijuana was seized from the vehicle. An adult male and female were arrested and charged with possession for the purpose of trafficking.