National Post (National Edition)
Canadians consume nearly as much pot as wine: report
Fines, probation for Marc and Jodie Emery
OTTAWA • The country’s cannabis black market was worth as much as $6.2 billion in 2015 — nearly as much as the wine market, a new report by Statistics Canada estimates.
The report released Monday used several estimates of the price of marijuana to determine the market would have represented around 70 to 90 per cent of the size of the $7-billion wine market in the most recent year it studied.
Assuming a price range of $7.14 to $8.84 per gram, it also estimated that cannabis was roughly half to twothirds of the size of $9.2-billion beer sector for 2015. The report estimated cannabis consumption in 2015 totalled 697.5 tonnes. “The study estimates that the volume of cannabis consumed tended to increase over time from 1960 to 2015, due in part to the increase in consumption among adults,” Statistics Canada said. “Indeed, the relative importance of the different age groups to the volume of cannabis consumption is estimated to have changed significantly over time,” the agency said.
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 selfproclaimed “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.
Three others with ties to the Emerys pleaded guilty to similar charges.
All other charges against the Emerys were dropped and the judge accepted a joint recommendation for sentencing the couple.
Each must pay a $150,000 fine plus a $45,000 victim surcharge and spend two years on probation with conditions to keep the peace and be of good behaviour and not to participate, directly or indirectly, in any illegal marijuana dispensaries.
“I think this fine is extraordinarily high; I even offered to go to jail for a year, but they weren’t interested,” Marc Emery said to the judge.
Jodie Emery told the judge she knew what she was doing was illegal but was hoping in the future it would be legal.
“We thought we could make a really big impact on what legalization should look like,” she said.
The federal government is set to legalize recreational marijuana in July, 2018, but its sale has been left up to the provinces.
The prosecution read out an agreed statement of facts Monday that showed the substantial amount of cash earned at numerous dispensaries.
“Marc and Jodie Emery had established a sophisticated franchise model with the goal of operating dispensaries all across Canada,” said Crown attorney Kiran Gill.
She said police began Project Gator in 2016 to look into Cannabis Culture, the marijuana brand operated by the Emerys that moved into the burgeoning dispensary business.
The prosecution said it was able to piece together the vast sums of money involved after police raided various Cannabis Culture locations across the country along with raids at the company’s headquarters in Vancouver.
Franchisees had to pay Cannabis Culture a $25,000 franchise fee plus a $3,000 monthly fee. Marijuana and cannabis products, from weed to edibles to merchandise, had to be procured by the franchisee.
“Their marijuana is obtained illicitly,” Gill told court.
Franchisees also had to pay six per cent to 10 per cent royalties on total sales to Cannabis Culture, court heard.
A Cannabis Culture dispensary in downtown Toronto, owned by Marc Emery and Christopher Goodwin, was sending $20,000 to $45,000 in weekly royalties alone to headquarters in January, 2017, according to transaction records police seized.
“That’s not money generated by the franchise itself, just the six-per-cent royalties,” Gill said.
The couple’s arrest at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport in March was followed by co-ordinated raids in several cities of pot shops associated with them.
The Cannabis Culture brand was used at one point by a chain of 19 marijuana dispensaries in British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec, but the number of stores has since dwindled to eight, according to their website.
Three other people arrested in March — 37-yearold Christopher Goodwin and 31-year-old Erin Goodwin, both of Toronto, and 29-year-old Britney Guerra of Stoney Creek, Ont. — also pleaded guilty to drug-related counts.