An unusual aspect of Canada's soon-to-be-legal cannabis market is that the activists who led the legalization movement may find themselves excluded from the industry for which their efforts paved the way. Vancouver activists like Jodie and Marc Emery and dispensary pioneer Don Briere, for example, have criminal records for possessing and selling marijuana. Now those criminal records could be used against them in federal and provincial licensing systems that are under development to decide who gets to cultivate and sell recreational cannabis. [continues 769 words]
THEIR FUTURE SEEMS HAZIER AFTER HIGH-PROFILE CONVICTIONS, BUT DON'T BET ON THE EMERYS FADING AWAY For Canada's first couple of pot, Jodie and Marc Emery, it hasn't been happy trails of late. Their future in the marijuana legalization movement would seem hazier now after pleading guilty last month to trafficking and possession of the proceeds of crime that came with $195,000 in fines for each of them. The charges stem from high profile raids led by Toronto police last March at a number of Cannabis Culture dispensaries in Ontario and Vancouver, under the code name Project Gator. Three other business associates charged in the raids were fined between $3,000 and $10,000 each. Charges against 17 employees were dropped. [continues 1023 words]
Workers have been assaulted, but fear of raids stop some from calling police AFTER NEWS OF THE LATEST armed marijuana dispensary robbery, local cannabis advocate Britney Guerra appealed through a media release for any store owners who have been robbed to call police. The responses she got back shocked her. She knew there were robberies going unreported, but the problem was bigger than she suspected. Within 48 hours she had calls from four different Hamilton store owners who told her they had been robbed - perhaps by the same people - in the last month alone. [continues 705 words]
Fines, probation for Marc and Jodie Emery TORONTO * Prominent pot activists Jodie and Marc Emery have been fined and placed on probation after pleading guilty to a number of drug- related charges in a Toronto court. Marc Emery, the self-proclaimed "Prince of Pot," pleaded guilty to possession of marijuana for the purpose of trafficking, trafficking marijuana and possession of proceeds of crime more than $5,000. Jodie Emery pleaded guilty to possession of marijuana for purpose of trafficking and possession of proceeds of crime over $5,000. [continues 491 words]
The Liberal government has released its draft legislation for Bill C-45, known in shorthand as the 'Cannabis Act' for legalizing marijuana. And according to Kootenay Outdoor Producers Cooperative co-founder Todd Veri, it's better than just good news for small producers - it's everything they'd hoped for. "Our big concern was that they wouldn't allow outdoor growing or that they'd make life impossible for the co-operative model," says Veri. "Based on the report the government put together last year, we believed the government was going to go in the right direction but might need a nudge from us. It seems they took into account our documentation - we had five or six points we wanted to address and they addressed them all in the draft legislation." [continues 670 words]
Some cities want to prohibit all recreational marijuana sales; others have already started licensing dispensaries Ottawa's Cannabis Act, Bill C-45, passed third reading in the House of Commons on November 27, little more than seven months before the federal government's July 1, 2018, target date for legalizing recreational marijuana. The bill must be approved by the Senate and achieve Royal Assent but the writing is on the wall that legalization is on the way. The B.C. government has yet to reveal how it plans to regulate retail sales for non-medicinal marijuana. [continues 1445 words]
Safe-driving activists, pot dispensers and businesses all have their own views Two cannabis activists aren't impressed with the marijuana legalization plan Quebec announced Thursday. But a group that works to decrease impaired driving praised the proposed legislation. Here's a look at some of the reaction to Bill 157: Marc-Boris St-Maurice, a longtime pot activist and founder of the Montreal Compassion Centre medical-marijuana dispensary: "Their plan is still half-baked," he said, noting guidelines announced Thursday are in a draft bill that might change. [continues 849 words]
The marijuana industry is moving from counterculture to corporate. Not everyone is happy about it. On a grey Friday morning early last month, the Mayor of Niagara Falls, Ontario, took the stage to deliver the welcoming address at the Grow Up Cannabis Conference and Expo, one of the bigger industry events that have sprung up around Canada's burgeoning marijuana sector. Sporting a tie with what he described as "green flowers," Jim Diodati warmed up the audience with an anecdote about how as a politician he had braced for the "moment of truth," when he would be asked by the press if he had ever smoked marijuana (he had experimented once upon a time, he told a reporter, but was no longer a user). [continues 1484 words]
Since doper Marc Emery has claimed title of the Prince of Pot, perhaps it is time to crown Justin Trudeau the King of Weed. Thus far, it seems reefer royalty is our prime minister's primary quest, as he is obsessed with pot's legalization - by Canada Day 2018, come hell or high times - while spending little time on substantive issues other than taxing small business out of business. Finance Minister Bill Morneau claims he will now tweak his tax reforms somewhat so that the family farm, for example, can be passed on to the next generation without painful penalties, but time will tell. [continues 525 words]
Grow Up Expo features Jodie Emery as speaker at convention focussed on impending legalization of marijuana next July Jodie Emery laughs when reminded of her last visit to Niagara Falls seven years ago. It started with a trip to MP Rob Nicholson's office on St. Paul Avenue for a protest. It ended waiting for two members of her group to be released from the Niagara Regional Police station on Morrison Street after they were arrested. Emery and several pro-marijuana advocates were hoping to speak with Nicholson, Canada's justice minister at the time, about the extradition of her husband Marc, who was facing five years in a U.S. federal prison for selling mail-order pot seeds across the border. [continues 746 words]
Grow Up Expo features Jodie Emery as speaker at convention focused on impending legalization of marijuana next July Jodie Emery laughs when reminded of her last visit to Niagara Falls seven years ago. It started with a trip to MP Rob Nicholson's office on St. Paul Avenue for a protest. It ended waiting for two members of her group to be released from the Niagara Regional Police station on Morrison Street after they were arrested. Emery and several pro-marijuana advocates were hoping to speak with Nicholson, Canada's justice minister at the time, about the extradition of her husband Marc, who was facing five years in a U.S. federal prison for selling mail-order pot seeds across the border. [continues 744 words]
Grow Up Expo features Jodie Emery as speaker at convention focused on impending legalization of marijuana next July Jodie Emery laughs when reminded of her last visit to Niagara Falls seven years ago. It started with a trip to MP Rob Nicholson's office on St. Paul Avenue for a protest. It ended waiting for two members of her group to be released from the Niagara Regional Police station on Morrison Street after they were arrested. Emery and several pro-marijuana advocates were hoping to speak with Nicholson, Canada's justice minister at the time, about the extradition of her husband Marc, who was facing five years in a U.S. federal prison for selling mail-order pot seeds across the border. [continues 747 words]
A police raid on a new downtown London pot shop resulted from citizen complaints, not because the illegal business was openly selling cannabis to anyone older than 19, the city's police chief says. Police swooped in on the London Relief Centre on Richmond Street last Wednesday, less than two weeks after it opened in defiance of the law, charging five staffers and seizing cannabis and cash. But unlike the spring crackdown on pot shops, when police raided five dispensaries across the city, last week's clampdown only targeted the Richmond Row operation, leaving London's four other dispensaries unscathed. [continues 340 words]
At the jam-packed Cannabis Culture store on Bank Street, staffer Ming Saad says she's not concerned about the provincial government's threat to shut down illegal marijuana stores. "We're not going to go down without a fight, and I hope the other dispensaries won't, either," she said cheerfully on Friday, shortly after the provincial government announced it will open 150 cannabis stores run by the LCBO by 2020. The illegal shops like Cannabis Culture that have sprouted across the province, especially in Ottawa, Toronto and Hamilton, were shut out of the provincial plan. There won't be any independently owned stores. The government also promised to close the illegal shops. [continues 1127 words]
Latest raids to curb illicit sales Toronto's seven Canna Clinics have gone up in smoke. A team of Toronto Police, working alongside the city's Municipal Licensing and Standards (MLS) officials, raided all seven illegal weed shops Thursday morning. In an investigation that stretched to Canada's west coast, a total of 12 warrants were issued for 15 locations - 12 of them in Toronto and three in Vancouver. According to Toronto Police spokesman Mark Pugash, that included five residences in Toronto with ties to the Canna Clinic operations, along with three similar residences in Vancouver. All seven clinics were padlocked and police were busy inside Thursday morning gathering evidence. [continues 237 words]
4/20 participants extol virtues of pot as drug that helps you cope Leigh Filbert admits he lived the "rock-star lifestyle" in the past and acknowledges now his body is paying for it. Filbert suffered a stroke a little over a year ago that left the right side of his body paralyzed. He suffers from anxiety he also contends is paralyzing, emotionally. Attending his first 4/20 rally, Filbert biked around the Legislature grounds on Thursday "to gather constructive information" about the cannabis movement as he continues on his road to recovery. [continues 398 words]
Canada's best-known marijuana activists emerged from a Toronto court appearance vowing to hit the road on a national tour demanding true pot legalization, not "prohibition 2.0." Jodie and Marc Emery face charges including pot possession and possession for the purpose of trafficking after police raided their Cannabis Culture shops in Toronto, Hamilton and Vancouver. Out on bail, they were told Friday to return to Old City Hall court May 23. "This is no way to treat people in 2017 for something that will be legal next year," thanks to the sacrifices of activists including her husband, Jodie Emery told reporters. [continues 132 words]
Other Conservative candidates have expressed mixed reactions to the Liberals' proposal to overturn prohibition of the drug Conservative leadership candidates are split over marijuana policy, with Kevin O'Leary the only serious contender voicing support for legalization and Maxime Bernier refusing to say whether he'll vote in favour of the Liberal legislation to lift the prohibition on the recreational use of cannabis. Mr. O'Leary said up to 30 per cent of the population uses the drug medicinally and recreationally, and he believes the Conservative Party membership understands it has to embrace "a much larger constituency." [continues 929 words]
This week, the Trudeau Liberals introduced The Cannabis Act, legislation that will legalize the recreational use of marijuana. I am opposed to this legislation and I will vote against it, but the Liberals will use their majority to pass it. So when I am elected prime minister in 2019, I will repeal this legislation. Marijuana, like other pharmaceuticals, is a harmful drug and dangerous when not used under the supervision of a physician. As a physician, I know the impact this drug can have on the developing brains of children and young people. This is clear from the research, which shows that young people who use marijuana have lower high school graduation rates, which puts their future in jeopardy. Worse, the science shows that marijuana use in 18 to 25 year olds can result in brain deformities. [continues 411 words]
The queen of Canada's movement to legalize marijuana has not been afraid to cultivate her undeniable girl-next-door charm - or invite controversy - for the cause. And now, an escalating series of police raids that have shut down the Cannabis Culture chain Jodie Emery types eagerly on her iPhone. "This is a good one," she says. We're barely a minute into our interview at a small Ethiopian restaurant near the gay village, and she's on Twitter calling out Toronto police. It's absurd, she says, that they're spending resources raiding marijuana dispensaries with legalization just around the bend. Where the TPS is concerned, Emery can be forgiven for seeming a bit spiteful. It's just shy of three weeks since she and her husband, Marc Emery, who's riding shotgun tonight, were arrested at Pearson International Airport (on their way to a marijuana expo in Spain) and slapped with a string of marijuana-related offences - 15 for him, five for her, ranging from trafficking to possession of the proceeds of crime to conspiracy - after raids on their Cannabis Culture stores. [continues 1500 words]
Marijuana, cash seized from Cannabis Culture stores Cannabis Culture has been clipped again. The Broadview Ave. and Queen St. E. pot shop was raided just after noon Wednesday by uniformed and undercover Toronto Police officers. Two warrants were executed by police at the Leslieville location and a second one at St. Clair Ave. E. in East York, according to a Toronto Police spokesman. Before 2 p.m., several large evidence bags yielded copious amounts of bud, cash and unknown containers, which were loaded into the rear of a police minivan on Queen E. [continues 204 words]
Thank you to Ryan Scott and Lisa Leger (Letters, March 16) and Scott Harrison (Letters, March 14) for shedding some light on the marijuana issue. Mayor Lefebvre, it is great to be so law-abiding. I agree if you are speaking about fair, reasonable,realistic laws. However, like our marijuana laws, that should have made marijuana legal 30 years ago, there are some unreasonable, unrealistic, unpopular laws that must be disobeyed to cause change. It is too bad that Rosa Parks could not come to discuss the issue with you. I am sure that Rosa would understand Marc Emery and his wife and many others suffering from the same discrimination. Do you think residential school survivors would recommend obeying the power establishment again? It was the law! [continues 57 words]
Canada's "Princess of Pot" flew home to Vancouver Monday to cut ties with the cannabis empire she and her husband spent decades growing. Jodie Emery returned to her Chinatown apartment for the first time since being released from custody earlier this month in Toronto, where she, her husband Marc Emery, and three other associates in the Cannabis Culture business were arrested and charged with a range of offences including drug trafficking. "I am so grateful to be back where the nature and the forest and the mountains can soothe my soul, after that concrete jungle," she said Monday in her first interview since returning to Vancouver. [continues 622 words]
Police crackdown on Cannabis Culture dispensaries clouds future of Prince of Pot The faint smell of marijuana smoke hung in the halls of Old City Hall on Friday, March 10; dozens had turned out for the bail hearing of Cannabis Culture dispensary owners Marc and Jodie Emery. Bail conditions for Cannabis Culture's Marc Emery include his not being involved in operation of the stores. The "Prince and Princess of Pot" were arrested, along with Chris Goodwin, Erin Goodwin and Britney Guerra, on Wednesday night and charged with a raft of marijuana-related offences, including trafficking and possession of the proceeds of crime. The arrests were part of Project Gator, a nationwide operation coordinated by Toronto police specifically targeting six Cannabis Culture locations in Toronto and Hamilton and Cannabis Culture's magazine offices in Vancouver, where computers were seized but no charges were laid against staff. Two Cannabis Culture stores in Ottawa were also raided, although police say those were not connected to Project Gator. [continues 617 words]
The arrest in Toronto on Wednesday of Marc Emery, one of North America's leading pot legalization advocates, may seem draconian to his many supporters. But the law is the law, and those who are alleged to flout it risk arrest, regardless of their reasons for doing so. No one knows this better than Mr. Emery. A diehard libertarian, he once spent four days in jail for violating Ontario's Sunday shopping laws. More famously, in 2005, he was arrested and eventually extradited to the United States, where he was sentenced to five years in prison for selling marijuana seeds to American customers. [continues 362 words]
Police say they seized $26,800-worth of marijuana; four people arrested KITCHENER - After issuing warnings to the region's growing number of unlicensed marijuana dispensaries, Waterloo Regional Police raided a prominent downtown cannabis retailer - seizing significant quantities of pot and cash. The Friday-night bust at Green Tree Medical Dispensary on King Street East came after an investigation that began last month into the businesses, which the police say remain illegal despite changing legislation on the horizon. Four people, three women and a male employee, were arrested and charged with possession for the purpose of trafficking in the raid. Officers loaded large bags of pot, hash, edible pot products and drinks into vehicles as they cleared out the downtown shop. [continues 432 words]
The news coverage of Marc and Jodie Emery's arrest and orders to cease and desist from having any communication and control of Cannabis Culture seems to paint a picture that they are being discriminated against and treated unjustly. Marc Emery has made a career and profits from thumbing his nose at the marijuana laws. Granted, some aspects of these laws need updating, but until they are, what he has been doing is illegal. I doubt that Emery would be as outspoken if he wasn't profiting. Tom Gray, North Delta [end]
'Prince' and 'Princess of Pot' face several drug-related charges after Toronto arrest Marc and Jodie Emery, Vancouver's first couple of cannabis, have been arrested, as police across the country raided seven of the couple's Cannabis Culture marijuana dispensaries, including a shop on West Hastings and a residence in Vancouver. The Emerys were charged Thursday with drug-related offences in Toronto, after raids in Toronto, Hamilton and Vancouver. They are due back in Toronto court this morning. The self-styled "Princess of Pot" were arrested Wednesday as they went to board a plane at Toronto's Pearson International Airport for a cannabis expo in Spain. [continues 665 words]
Stores and homes in Ontario, Vancouver hit in 'Project Gator' Prominent pot crusaders Marc and Jodie Emery will appear in a Toronto court for a bail hearing Friday after police raided the couple's seven marijuana dispensaries in Toronto, Vancouver and Hamilton. The Emerys, purportedly en route to a cannabis expo in Spain, were arrested at Pearson airport Wednesday evening and charged with several drugrelated offences, including trafficking and possession for that purpose. They made a brief court appearance Thursday. "Marc, of course, plans to fight as hard as he can and as he always has for the true legalization of cannabis and the end of all arrests in Canada, as does Jodie," B.C. lawyer Kirk Tousaw said in a TV interview from Vancouver. [continues 572 words]
TORONTO - Prominent marijuana activists Marc and Jodie Emery were charged with multiple drug-related offences in Toronto on Thursday after police in several cities raided pot dispensaries associated with the couple. The self-styled "Prince" and "Princess of Pot" were arrested at Toronto's Pearson International Airport on Wednesday evening. They appeared briefly in a courtroom on Thursday afternoon before police announced the full list of charges they faced. Marc Emery faces 15 counts, including conspiracy to commit an indictable offence, trafficking, possession for the purpose of trafficking and possession of proceeds of crime, while Jodie Emery is charged with five similar counts. [continues 641 words]
Activist couple arrested in Toronto, face 15 drug charges Vancouver police raided Cannabis Culture, headquarters of marijuana activists Marc and Jodie Emery, Thursday morning at the request of Toronto police. The couple were arrested in Toronto Wednesday and face 15 counts, including trafficking, drug possession and proceeds of crime charges. Police across the country have raided seven shops in the Emery chain, branded Cannabis Culture. The federal government has said it will legalize marijuana this year. A Cannabis Culture employee, who identified himself as Chris, said police took marijuana products as well as routers and computers from the store on West Hastings Street near Cambie Street. [continues 424 words]
Hours earlier, activists Marc and Jodie Emery were arrested at Pearson Toronto police raided a Hamilton dispensary Thursday morning just hours after two prominent Canadian marijuana activists were arrested at Pearson airport. Undercover officers raided the Hamilton location of Cannabis Culture on King Street East - easy to spot from its bright green exterior, between Walnut and Wellington streets - manager Rex Mekkem said. "I'm just letting people know. Metro Toronto is raiding the Hamilton store," Mekkem said in a live cellphone video posted to his Facebook page Thursday just before noon. [continues 378 words]
Marc and Jodie Emery face drug charges after latest crackdown A dozen Vancouver police officers raided Marc Emery's Cannabis Culture headquarters on West Hastings Street on Thursday morning. Marc and Jodie Emery were charged with drug-related offences in Toronto on Thursday after police also raided seven of the couple's Cannabis Culture marijuana dispensaries. The self-styled "Prince" and "Princess of Pot" were arrested Wednesday evening as they were about to board a plane to Spain at Pearson International Airport. They were heading to Barcelona to attend the Spannabis marijuana expo. [continues 551 words]
The day after Marc and Jodie Emery were arrested by Toronto police, B.C.-based cannabis advocates and business people said they expect the retail bud business to continue as usual in Vancouver. Jeremy Jacob, the Vancouver-based head of a national industry association for dispensaries, said Thursday its members "have a good relationship" with the City of Vancouver and the Vancouver Police Department "and we expect that to continue. "We value the position the VPD has taken during this transition to a regulated market," said Jacob, president of the Canadian Association of Medical Cannabis Dispensaries and owner of The Village Dispensary near Vancouver's Granville Island. None of the Emerys' businesses are members of his association, he said. [continues 367 words]
Dispensaries: First couple of cannabis face multiple charges after police operations in B.C. and Ontario Marc and Jodie Emery, Vancouver's first couple of cannabis, have been arrested as police across the country raided seven of the couple's Cannabis Culture marijuana dispensaries, including a shop on West Hastings and a residence in Vancouver. The Emerys were charged Thursday with drug-related offences in Toronto after raids in Toronto, Hamilton and Vancouver. They are due back in Toronto court this morning. [continues 452 words]
Emerys out on $30Gs bail in wake of pot shop cop raids The "Prince" and "Princess" of pot scored bail of $30,000 each on Friday. Marc and Jodie Emery - who own the Cannabis Culture brand - were arrested at Toronto International Airport Wednesday while travelling to a pot festival in Spain. Police seized $250,000 in cash in several currencies, 65 kilos of marijuana and 2.4 kilos of cannabis extract and other drug paraphernalia after searching seven Cannabis Culture stores - five in Toronto - and several homes Thursday, Toronto Police said. [continues 264 words]
The owners of three London pot shops are among eight people charged in a crackdown on marijuana dispensaries. But a critic said he doubts the charges announced Friday by London police will hold up in court with Canada set to legalize the drug. Five men and three women face a combined 24 counts of possession for the purpose of trafficking following police searches of five marijuana dispensaries across London on March 2. Those charged include Mal McMeekin, 34, the Tasty Budd's franchise founder; Kara Barber, 30, owner of Healing Health; and Charles Colvin, 28, chief executive of the Chronic Hub. [continues 324 words]
The Cannabis Culture marijuana dispensary on Bank Street that was raided by police on Thursday reopened Friday morning. The shop was back in business by 10:30 a.m., according to two people working at nearby businesses on Bank Street near James Street. The Cannabis Culture franchise first opened two weeks ago. Police arrested five men at the shop Thursday morning and charged each of them with five counts of possessing a Schedule II substance for the purpose of trafficking (marijuana, THC oil, THC shatter, hashish and CBD oil) and one count of possessing the proceeds of crime under $5,000. [continues 189 words]
TORONTO - Prominent marijuana activists Marc and Jodie Emery were charged with multiple drug-related offences in Toronto on Thursday after police in several cities raided pot dispensaries associated with the pair. The self-styled "Prince" and "Princess of Pot" were arrested at Toronto's Pearson International Airport on Wednesday evening. They appeared briefly in a courtroom on Thursday afternoon before police announced the full list of charges they faced. Marc Emery faces 15 counts, including conspiracy to commit an indictable offence, trafficking, possession for the purpose of trafficking, and possession of proceeds of crime, while Jodie Emery is charged with five similar counts. [continues 312 words]
Marijuana dispensary determined to make pot accessible, regardless of response of law enforcement "We have nothing to hide," Cannabis Culture employee Mat Ferguson said about 30 minutes before Brantford police officers raided the facility for a second time in as many days. After shutting down the Colborne Street West marijuana dispensary and arresting a 36-year-old Stoney Creek man who was charged with two counts of possession for the purpose of trafficking and possession of property obtained by crime on Tuesday night, officers were back at the facility Friday laying charges against four other people. [continues 670 words]
Police raid five marijuana dispensaries just two days after MP and former Toronto police chief Bill Blair, Ottawa's point man on pot policies, visited London. 'I think it's a waste of resources,' said one witness to the swoop. After months of turning a blind eye, London police cracked down on illegal pot shops Thursday in co-ordinated raids on five dispensaries that left marijuana activists crying foul and questioning the timing. Employees were arrested and pot and other evidence seized during the raids, which came two days after former Toronto police chief Bill Blair, now a Liberal MP and Ottawa's point man on its plan to legalize recreational marijuana use, visited London on his Canada-wide tour to talk to police chiefs and city officials. [continues 568 words]
Brantford police have shut down the Cannabis Culture store for the second time in less than a week. Members of the police street crime unit executed a search warrant at the Colborne Street West business on Friday less than an hour after local media had visited the store to interview employees. Police took at least two people into custody during the raid. Officers remained on scene for the better part of the day. Prior to being taken into custody, Mat Ferguson, a spokesperson for the store, had provided a tour of the business to an Expositor reporter. [continues 459 words]
Cannabis activist Marc Emery opens marijuana dispensary in city, police shut it down days later While his wife Jodie Emery was at Parliament Hill in Ottawa lobbying in defence of marijuana dispensaries, Canada's best-known pot activist Marc Emery - also known as the Prince of Pot - was in Brantford protesting the shutdown of Cannabis Culture on Colborne Street West by Brantford police. The Brantford Police Service street crime unit arrested a 35-year-old Stoney Creek man, who witnesses said was the owner of the store, at about 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday and charged him with possession for the purpose of trafficking. [continues 534 words]
Cannabis Culture outlet had opened on Colborne Street West on Sunday The legalized pot debate erupted in Brantford on Wednesday after the arrest of the owner of the newly opened Cannabis Culture store on Colborne Street West. Police said that a 35-year-old Stoney Creek man is charged with possession for the purpose of trafficking. He was arrested Tuesday night after the police street crimes unit said it determined marijuana was being sold to customers without medical marijuana licences. Police closed the business on Wednesday while they awaited a search warrant. The arrest and the subsequent "holding " of the building by police attracted a handful of protesters advocating for the legalization of marijuana. [continues 652 words]
Marijuana activist Jodie Emery brought the fight over illegal dispensaries to the seat of government Wednesday, with a rally on Parliament Hill that kicked off the opening of a new Ottawa store that sells pot to anyone over 19. Emery is a well-known marijuana activist, who runs a successful chain of stores called Cannabis Culture with her husband, Marc Emery. The couple are known as the "prince and princess of pot." At a small rally on Wednesday, Emery and a dozen supporters railed against the government's "injustices," including arrests of dispensary staff and strict regulation of access to the drug that has resulted in raids on illegal shops. [continues 111 words]
As the feds prepare to legalize marijuana, the task force appointed to conceptualize legalization has now recommended the drug be sold in plain packaging. I can't imagine this being implemented successfully in Vancouver. This city famously has more pot shops than Tim Hortons restaurants and from Point Grey's Wealth to Marc Emery's Cannabis Culture they all have unique brands designed to attract a particular clientele. They are also all operating outside the law and have been - in some cases - for years. Now, the federal government wants to legalize pot and force the blooming industry to comply with their rules but just like you can't close Pandora's box once it's been opened, it will be extremely difficult to shove all the brands and businesses built around marijuana into one uniform, plain package. [continues 273 words]
Police stay silent on their plan if store reoffends A leading Canadian marijuana activist is standing behind a bid by Auntie's Dispensary to reopen after a police raid shut them down. Last week, Halifax owner Shirley Martineau and three others were charged - and had their inventory seized - after complaints led the Halifax Regional Police to take action. Martineau, who hasn't returned phone calls, vowed to reopen and has volunteers working at the shop right now. Toronto marijuana legalization activist Jodie Emery, who is married to fellow activist Marc Emery, knows what Martineau is going through. [continues 682 words]
Marc Emery, the so-called Prince of Pot, remains defiant about flouting pot laws in Canada despite his arrest in Montreal on Friday. Emery was one of 10 people arrested when police raided the Cannabis Culture shops around town. Emery was released from detention Saturday. After his arraignment, he flew back to Toronto the same day. He is scheduled to appear in court in Montreal on Feb. 15. Although it has been reported he was slapped with three charges - drug trafficking, possession for trafficking, and conspiracy - Emery said he was only charged with two offences. [continues 199 words]
Police seize 18 kg of marijuana, confiscate cash and equipment Montreal police arrested Canada's self-proclaimed "Prince of Pot" Friday night and seized 18 kilograms of cannabis a day after the splashy opening of six illegal marijuana dispensaries across the city. Dozens of officers raided the stores at supper hour, arresting 10 people and confiscating an undisclosed amount of cash and equipment relating to the sale of marijuana. Police would neither confirm nor deny that they nabbed Marc Emery, but his wife Jodie posted a video of him being taken away. [continues 740 words]
Say what you will about his methods, but Canada's self-proclaimed "Prince of Pot" knows how to make an entrance. Throngs of admirers stood in the snow Thursday and cheered Marc Emery on as he rolled up to the opening of an illegal marijuana dispensary on Mont-Royal Ave. He held court in the shop for half an hour as he made an impassioned case for the legalization of pot - logic-based arguments honed over a career of marijuana advocacy. [continues 989 words]
