Niagara Regional Police executed a warrant at Fun Guyz on St. Paul Street in downtown St. Catharines in March 2023
A man who worked at a magic mushroom dispensary in downtown St. Catharines, an illegal enterprise described by a judge as “flagrant and notorious,” has been granted a conditional discharge.
Judge Andrew Brown said Philip Garcia had “diminished culpability” as he was not the mastermind behind the operation but merely the sole employee who happened to be behind the counter when police raided Fun Guyz in the spring of 2023.
“I do not minimize the cost to our community when drug traffickers set up storefront operations to sell illegal substances,” Brown said in Ontario Court of Justice in St. Catharines Friday.
“I also note that in this, and perhaps other cases, the owner-operators were not either identified or charged.
“It is possible that the owner-operators choose to employ persons without criminal records and who are otherwise of good character, recognizing that these visible storefront operations are doomed to attract the attention of police and be closed within a short time.”
The judge said it is possible the defendant, and others like him, are “mere grist for the mill for these operators.”
“In other words, a cost to owner-operators of doing business,” he said.
Garcia, who had no prior criminal record, was granted a conditional discharge on a charge of possession of a controlled substance for the purpose of trafficking.
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