Dispensary ‘budtenders’ have their day in court
With pot legalization arriving in a few weeks, Ottawa’s courts dealt quickly on Monday with nearly a dozen retail clerks up on drug charges for working at illegal dispensaries.
Eleven former dispensary clerks filed into court to enter guilty pleas on various charges of drug trafficking and possessing the proceeds of crime.
The courts were saved the expense of lengthy trials and the accused, for the most part, will be spared criminal records.
“It’s the most efficient way of handling this,” said Brandon Owen, who was working at the Cannabis Culture shop on Bank Street when police raided it in October 2017. “Instead of dragging this on with potentially stiffer penalties for us all.”
Owen also called the court process “silly.”
“We are all sitting here in court today and meanwhile Ontario is preparing to open legal dispensaries.”
Ontario’s Progressive Conservative government has decided that cannabis will be sold in privatelyowned shops, rather than the publicly-owned outlets planned by the former Liberal government.
There are about 20 illegal pot shops in town. Police sporadically raid them, but they often reopen or new ones pop up.
The so-called “budtenders” in court Monday were arrested during raids on dispensaries between November 2016 and October 2017.
Shawn MacAleese, who was arrested in November 2016 at a Greentree shop on Montreal Road, said he was relieved to see the end of “one and a half years of court dates and craziness ... sick to my stomach most days, wondering, ‘Am I going to get the book thrown at me?’ ”
MacAleese said the Crown initially said it would seek jail time if he went to trial.
MacAleese and several others had planned to fight the charges using constitutional arguments, but he said they ran out of money.
They also took note of other budtenders who have pleaded guilty and received discharges. At least 17 other budtenders had pleaded guilty before Monday ’s mass court date.
MacAleese said he hopes to get a legal job in the industry. He dreams of opening his own mom-and-pop cannabis shop.
Sarah Leblanc said she has no regrets about working at the Cannabliss shop on Preston Street.
“I’m so not a criminal,” she said. “I didn’t feel badly pleading guilty to this. It’s medicine. That’s why I use it. Pain, sleep, stress, mostly all of the above.”
All the budtenders use cannabis medicinally themselves, the court heard, although not necessarily with a doctor’s prescription.
They said it helped a variety of their ailments, from irritable bowel syndrome to mental illness.
Four of the budtenders were handed absolute discharges by Justice Norman Boxall, while the Crown agreed to discharges in other cases, but they were adjourned to obtain missing paperwork.
Discharges mean a guilty plea is recorded but there is no criminal record.
In two other cases in which the accused had a prior record the Crown and defence initially agreed to suspended sentences.
Crown Attorney Pascal MeilleurDurand said the budtenders chose to break the law by working at an illegal dispensary. Several could have found jobs elsewhere, he said.
The Crown needs to send a clear message that even though Canada is in a period of transition, with the legalization of marijuana coming soon, “trafficking in the black market will not be tolerated,” he said in an interview.
Even after pot is legal on Oct. 17, it will only be sold in governmentregulated stores, he said.
Most of the budtenders appearing Monday had worked at Cannabis Culture, a franchise of the chain created by pot activists Marc and Jodie Emery.
“It was quite honestly one of the best jobs I’ve every had,” said budtender Anthony Floyd.
The shop was busy, with lineups out the door seven days a week, he said.
“But everything was done well. Even though we were the busiest store in the city, it didn’t feel stressed.”
His co-workers were friendly and supportive of staff who had mental health problems or needed to medicate with marijuana at work, he said.
“It was a very inclusive environment.”
Floyd said he relies on marijuana to control his anxiety, diabetes and other problems related to a compromised immune system.
The Cannabis Culture shop closed after the landlord enforced an eviction order and padlocked the door.