CULTURE CLASH
Ottawa Cannabis Culture store closed, pot ‘prince, princess’ nabbed in Toronto
Ottawa police raided a Cannabis Culture shop on Bank Street on Thursday, the same day raids were conducted on the same operation in three other Canadian cities.
Police struck at the heart of a large Canadian chain of illegal marijuana shops Thursday, raiding Cannabis Culture locations in Ottawa and three other cities.
And it wasn’t just store clerks who were caught up in the sweep. Marc and Jodie Emery, known as Canada’s prince and princess of pot, were arrested at the Toronto airport Wednesday night on the eve of the raids.
The Emerys created Cannabis Culture and have been opening franchises across the country. Now they’re in a Toronto jail, facing charges of conspiracy, trafficking and possessing the proceeds of crime. They were to appear for a bail hearing Friday.
The arrests and raids have poured gasoline on an already fiery debate over marijuana as the country waits for the federal government to make good on its promise to legalize recreational pot. Hundreds of illegal dispensaries are now operating across Canada. But the activist Emerys pushed the envelope by selling not just to medical marijuana patients, but to anyone over 19.
“This is a political action against us,” Jeremiah Vandermeer, the chief of operations for Cannabis Culture, said in an interview from Barcelona, Spain. The Emerys were on their way to meet him there for a cannabis trade show when they were arrested. “I am so livid about this.” The cannabis community helped get Prime Minister Justin Trudeau elected, said Vandermeer, and now he has “turned his back on our community.”
Legislation to legalize recreational marijuana is expected this spring, but it could be a year or more before rules are in place.
In the meantime, what some have dubbed a Wild West atmosphere prevails, with various interests jostling to get ready for the lucrative new pot market, and police and municipal authorities taking wildly different approaches.
Vancouver has adopted a regulate-not-raid approach, with police generally turning a blind eye to dispensaries while the city enforces licensing rules to control how and where they operate. Toronto police have conducted a series of raids, and they organized “Project Gator,” targeting Cannabis Culture.
Five Cannabis Culture locations in Toronto, one in Vancouver and one in Hamilton were raided Thursday morning. Search warrants were also executed on homes in Toronto, the Hamilton area and Vancouver, which Vandermeer says included Jodie Emery’s Vancouver home.
In Vancouver, only one of the five Cannabis Culture shops was raided, and it doesn’t sell pot — the West Hastings location is a vapour lounge and contains offices and a TV studio. Police did not charge anyone, Vandermeer said. They were looking for documents.
In Ottawa, police closed the Cannabis Culture shop on Bank Street in a raid that wasn’t part of Project Gator but was timed to coincide with the other raids.
Five men were led out in handcuffs and charged with various counts of trafficking and possessing the proceeds of crime.
It was the 12th police raid on an Ottawa marijuana dispensary since November. There are still about a dozen shops in town.
Several staffers at other dispensaries came by Cannabis Culture to offer their support during the raid.
Isaiah Wright, who used to work at a Green Tree dispensary before it was shut down by police, called the raid “ridiculous.”
Wright, 19, said he uses marijuana to control his anxiety. Cannabis Culture was providing people with medicine as well as serving recreational users, he said.
Another man banged on the door of the locked shop in frustration. “Are you f---ing serious?” he yelled. “How am I going to f---ing sleep tonight?”
The man, who would only give his first name, Luke, says he’s a truck driver and relies on marijuana to help his insomnia and back pain.
Vandermeer says cannabis activists will continue their campaign of civil disobedience, which he compares to movements for gay rights and against segregation.
“Are they going to arrest all of us and put us in jail?” he says. “Show me where the bodies are piling up. Where is anyone getting sick or dying from marijuana?”
Jodie Emery was in Ottawa two weeks ago, leading a protest on Parliament Hill before marching to the opening of the Ottawa Cannabis Culture store on Bank Street.