‘Prince of Pot’ says Quebec cannabis sales plan will fail
Model will only boost black market, Emery says as he’s fined for distribution
Canada’s highest-profile supporter of the legalization of recreational cannabis said Quebec’s proposed model to sell the drug is doomed to fail and will only serve to keep organized crime in the marketplace.
Marc Emery, 60, made his comments to reporters at the Montreal courthouse while he kept a Quebec Court judge waiting to hear his guilty plea for his role in promoting a series of illegal cannabis dispensaries that opened in the city in December 2016.
Emery had to be summoned away from his scrum by his lawyer, Isabella Teolis, as Judge Yvan Paradis waited in a nearby courtroom.
The judge, who shook his head as Emery finally entered, agreed to a joint recommendation that he be sentenced to pay a $5,000 fine, plus an additional fine, for having distributed joints of cannabis at one of six shops that suddenly opened in Montreal on Dec. 15, 2016. The shops were supported by Cannabis Culture, a company Emery founded.
Emery told reporters he was only there to promote his company’s brand.
“I certainly was selling the pot for whoever owned that place (on Mont-Royal Ave.). My wife (Jodie Emery) called me three days before Dec. 15 (2016) and says ‘listen, somebody’s opening some shops in Montreal. Do you want to be there for them?’ I said ‘sure, because I am the representative for the brand, so I’ll go.’ I was surprised to see the extreme police reaction,” Emery said.
“I wanted the people of Montreal to know what it was like to have a real legalization experience and they got that. They lined up for blocks in freezing cold weather in December. I was really happy about that. They wanted to be there to celebrate what a real shop would be like in a free market, not like this ridiculous government monopoly we’re going to get in Quebec — which is absurd.
“The very people who have been persecuting us now want to be our dealer. It’s nutty. It’s crazy.”
Emery also alleged that organized crime and the Quebec government are working “in league” with the goal of keeping gangs like the Hells Angels healthy when it comes to selling cannabis on the black market.
“Why are there no dispensaries here (in Quebec)? There are free-market dispensaries in every other province, but not Quebec. Why did 20 police officers come to arrest me (on Mont-Royal Ave.) when one would have done OK? It’s because this is a corrupt province and the people are an afterthought. So, of course the Mob and the various forces of crime, along with government, ally to control this industry. There is no freedom in Quebec. There is not a good access to cannabis at a reasonable price, and so the government program here will be a disaster,” Emery said.
“The Quebec National Assembly has chosen the worst possible model to legalize cannabis, guaranteeing that the Mob will still have a very large role to play in Montreal and Quebec.”
Prosecutor Philippe VallièresRoland told Paradis the Montreal police “investigation” into the shops was mostly based on media articles that reported on their anticipated openings and that the goal was simply to shut them down, without finding out who actually ran them. He conceded there was a “social context” to be considered in accepting Emery’s guilty plea while the federal government is about to adopt legislation legalizing the recreational use of cannabis.
“He jumped the gun. It was not legal (at the time),” the prosecutor said.
Nine people who were arrested along with Emery in Montreal have since pleaded guilty to charges involving the possession of cannabis.
Most received sentences that included absolute discharges.
Emery has pushed for the legalization of cannabis in Canada for decades. He tried several times to get elected in British Columbia as president of the B.C. Marijuana Party.
His efforts drew national attention while he challenged a request made by the U.S. government, in 2005, to have him extradited from Canada for having sold cannabis seeds to Americans. Emery ceased the challenge in 2009 and was transported to the U.S. on May 20, 2010.
He ended up pleading guilty to one count of conspiring to manufacture cannabis and was sentenced to a five-year prison term. He was released from a U.S. penitentiary on July 10, 2014.