Stepping down
CEO of marijuana dispensary chain quits following police raids
The chief executive officer of the Tasty Budd’s Compassion Club says he’s stepping down from the troubled marijuana dispensary chain.
But Norman Arthur Lawrence said he’s not leaving because Saltwire Network revealed Wednesday that he shot a man to death in a Spryfield daycare parking lot in August 1995. He was charged with first-degree murder in the death of Michael Forsyth, but convicted by a jury in 1998 on the lesser charge of manslaughter.
Instead, the 46-year-old said he’s quitting because he should have seen problems brewing before police raided four homes and five storefronts of the medical marijuana outfit last Friday and one store again Tuesday, resulting in dozens of criminal charges including trafficking against Lawrence and eight others.
“I dropped the ball when it came to watching out for the best interest of these stores,” Lawrence said.
The company’s president, Malachy McMeekin, apologized in writing Monday for alleged illegal activity he claimed was limited to the company’s Lower Sackville store.
“I should have seen it first,” Lawrence said in an interview Wednesday.
“I did nothing wrong in this company except for failing the company by not recognizing that there was a few bad apples in that barrel and I couldn’t wean them out. We have a very good vetting process when it comes to Tasty Budd’s and I figure that I got bamboozled.
And because I got bamboozled I figure that the whole company got bamboozled. And, you know what? It just shines a negative light.”
Lawrence said he was the CEO of Tasty Budd’s for 18 months.
He had planned to resign Tuesday when “the police came through the door and re-arrested” him and three others at the company’s storefront in Cole Harbour.
Lawrence, who lives in Westphal, was arraigned in Dartmouth provincial court Wednesday on three counts of trafficking a controlled substance, three counts of possession for the purpose of trafficking and one count of possessing property obtained by crime.
Judge Dan MacRury ordered Lawrence, who he released from custody, not to be within two metres of any cannabis dispensary and not to own or participate in any such business.
He’s also forbidden from being in the company of anyone known to be in possession of cannabis products without legal authorization and from having a pager unless he gives the number to police. In addition, he cannot possess weapons while on bail.
Lawrence will return to court Oct. 11, the same day the three other people arrested Tuesday will be arraigned.
Last Friday, RCMP raided five Tasty Budd’s stores and four homes, laying 69 charges against nine individuals.
Nearly two decades back, a judge sentenced Lawrence to 10 years in prison for killing Forsyth.
In 1994, a judge sentenced him to three years in prison for aggravated assault for nearly killing Darren Smardon by beating him with a piece of wood.