Saskatoon marijuana lounge hosts closing pot party

The lounge, an extension of Lundstrom’s head shop Skunk Funk, opened in February and offered medicinal and recreational marijuana users a social setting to light up.

Lundstrom said on Monday, a trio of community services, health and fire inspectors showed up at the lounge and asked to enter and inspect the premises. He said he was told they had received a complaint he was preparing food in the lounge without a permit. Lundstrom said they only served pre-packaged food like chips and pop, and rather than let the inspectors in, he shut the business down.

He said the health and bylaw inspectors were fine with not inspecting the building if it was closed and the signs were taken down. He let the fire department inspect the building on Wednesday.

Lundstrom said he understands people may think he shut down to avoid being caught with anything but that was not why he locked the doors.

“The simple reason for me to close it down is because I don’t want to fight with the City because they’re way more powerful than I’ll ever be,” he said, adding he viewed this as the first step in what could be a long, drawn-out and expensive process to shut him down. “I closed down shop to try and save a little bit of face, and I decided to throw the smoke down party just to kind of say f-you a little bit.”

An avid pot legalization activist and user, Lundstrom said he opened the space to help change social stigma surrounding marijuana and offer a public place for social gatherings, events and educational seminars.

Lundstrom said fears of the legality of the space discussed in previous media stories scared away many regular customers, and the money from medicinal users have helped him keep up with rent payments.

“The powers that be don’t want to look at sensible policies, they just want to run their show and a guy like me better just shut up or they’ll take it away,” he said.

What was distinctly missing at Saturday’s event was the sounds of sirens and the flashing blue and red of police cruisers. A lone police vehicle did pass by the lounge but did not stop.

Before the event, Lundstrom said he expected to walk out in handcuffs. He said the threat of arrest wouldn’t stop him from hosting the event but going to jail would affect his family, including his two children.

Lundstrom said Skunk Funk will stay open, as it has for the past eight years. He said they’re currently working to add 350 square feet to the business. He also said he’s planning to start a non-profit group called Sensible Saskatchewan to get a ballot initiative to legalize marijuana.

panews@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @lkretzel

by Lasia Kretzel

Saskatoon marijuana lounge hosts closing pot party

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