The Chad Smokehouse 420 franchise was set to open its ninth Alberta location last week on 50 Street in Innisfail.
“We sell smoke related products,” explained Michael Thorton, co-owner of the new business. He said products will be wide ranging from cigars, tobacco and herbs to clothes, videos, and smoking related paraphernalia.
The opening comes in the midst of controversy between municipalities where the franchise is already established.
A letter dated July 22 was sent from St. Albert to surrounding municipalities explaining its council had recently passed a resolution which asks administration to bring back proposals by Oct. 31 outlining “every possible measure that can be taken within the City of St. Albert to control or prohibit the selling of paraphernalia by local business that is best connected to the illegal drug industry,” the letter read. It was sent to Olds, Strathmore, Leduc, Athabasca, Strathcona, Sylvan Lake and Brooks councils. The letter, signed by Mayor Nolan Crouse, asked the seven other councils to forward their experiences with these types of businesses.
Chad Wentworth, of Chad Smokehouse 420, said he's not too worried about the movement by municipalities to revisit business licence bylaws.
“Everything we sell is legal,” he said. “You can't put a bylaw in after the fact, after a business has established itself.”
He said the business doesn't sell any products related to using meth or cocaine and insists everything inside the store is legal and is run by a legitimate team of sales staff, human resource and management teams.
“We have a more professional way of doing it [than other smoke shops]. We're customer service based and while you may leave other stores feeling a little sick, you're going to spend 10 minutes in our store and leave with a smile on your face,” he said of the stores' focus on customer service.
When contacted by the Province last week, town admin was unable to comment on whether or not they had heard from St. Albert or other municipalities expressing concern over the sale of some of the products available at the smoke shop.
Town manager Helen Dietz is away until September 6. The mayor and deputy mayor also couldn't be reached by press time.
“I know there hasn't been any discussions at council meetings that I've been at over the summer,” said Daryl Joyce, director of corporate resources. “… I wasn't aware myself of a smoke shop opening up in town. Our development officer would have been the one to review a development permit,” he said.
The development permit officer was unable to be reached by press time.
Wentworth expects there will be some controversy surrounding the opening of the new location from some members of the community.
“There will always be people who don't want it. It's like getting a triple-X store — there's going to be some push back.”
He said charges stemming around the possession of prohibited weapons following a search warrant executed in Olds May 17 is an example of an attempt to try and shut down the shop.
The previous owner of the smoke shop in Olds is facing charges related to possession of prohibited weapons and promoting or selling instructional material for consuming or facilitating consumption of illicit drugs. This came after a search warrant was executed May 17.
“They can't get us on anything,” said Wentworth of the store's zero tolerance for selling drugs. “So they're trying to get us on prohibited weapons,” he said, describing the weapon as a tobacco grinder with spikes on it.
“It's not meant as a weapon,” said Thorton. “You can't charge hardware stores for selling weapons,” he compared.
Thorton said the decision to open a smoke shop in Innisfail was his idea. A resident since 1978, and business owner of Sweet Leaf Services since 1999, he said a smoke shop would be a nice edition to the town.
“With the humidor in the back, we're going to sell cigars and I think there's going to be a lot of people interested in those,” he said.
His business, a lawn maintenance company, will still run from the back of the store, and the smoke shop will be housed in the front.
“I thought of renting it out to someone else but then I thought, why give them the money?” he said, laughing.
