Mississaugas of the Credit Medicine Wheel, an unlicensed Indigenous-owned and operated cannabis store, is more than just a dispensary: it’s an attempt to fight back against “economic genocide,” its owner and operator said.
The store, operated by Ken Hughes of Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, is sovereign, meaning it’s operating outside of the scope of Ontario’s cannabis regulations and without a license — marking the first time a sovereign cannabis store has opened in Toronto.
While Medicine Wheel appears to be Toronto’s first, it isn’t the only sovereign cannabis dispensary in Canada. A map of similar stores compiled by the website Dispensing Freedom shows more than 250 sovereign shops operating coast-to-coast.