Emerys and associates released on bail
Conditions include not operating or being at pot shops
They’re thumbing their nose at government, the federal government in particular. ... Quite clearly the message from government to those police forces is: ‘enforce the law.’
Canada’s first couple of cannabis and three associates were released from jail Friday evening in Toronto after a string of arrests and raids over the previous two days that gripped the attention of legal observers and pot advocates across the country.
Marc and Jodie Emery, Canada’s “Prince and Princess of Pot,” were arrested Wednesday in Ontario. The following day, police in Toronto, Hamilton and Vancouver executed 11 search warrants, while three of the Emerys’ associates in their Cannabis Culture dispensary franchise business were also arrested.
The five defendants were charged Thursday with a range of counts, including drug trafficking and conspiracy to commit an indictable offence.
At Friday’s bail hearing, the five defendants were represented by Toronto lawyers Jack Lloyd and Dan Stein. All five were released on bail Friday afternoon with conditions, Lloyd said when reached by phone in Toronto. Those conditions include not operating or being at Cannabis Culture locations.
The Emerys, longtime staples of B.C.’s pot advocacy scene, own the Cannabis Culture brand that has been used by a chain of marijuana dispensaries in B.C., Ontario and Quebec that has expanded over the last two years.
Although Canada’s Liberal government has said it plans to introduce legislation later this year to legalize non-medicinal marijuana sales and use, pot dispensaries remain illegal under federal law.
While hundreds of dispensaries have spread like weeds across Canadian cities in recent years, the Toronto police probably chose to target the Emerys because of their especially high-profile and envelope-pushing strategies, said Rob Gordon, a professor of criminology at Simon Fraser University.
“One of their characteristics is always to cross the line in as dramatic and public a manner as they can, because that’s how they advance their particular cause,” Gor- don said, adding police may have wanted “to make an example out of them.”
“They’re thumbing their nose at government, the federal government in particular,” Gordon said, adding the Toronto police may have felt pressure “from on high.”
“Quite clearly the message from government to those police forces is: ‘enforce the law,’ ” Gordon said.
The pot sold in retail dispensaries across the country probably comes from a range of sources, said Gordon. Possible sources include growers licensed for personal medicinal production selling their surplus, or unlicensed grow-ops, whether run by criminal organizations or small-scale farmers. Gordon said he wouldn’t be surprised if some pot makes its way north from American states like Washington where recreational use has been legalized.
Details of the supply chain for Cannabis Culture, as with every other storefront dispensary in the country, remain unclear. The source of their cannabis is illegal, even for dispensaries that have received business licences from municipalities like Vancouver and Victoria. There are 39 producers across Canada, licensed to produce cannabis, but their only legal distribution channel is to sell through the mail to patients registered with Health Canada.
Earlier this year, Jodie Emery told the Financial Post the pot sold at Cannabis Culture locations comes from “brokers who get it from those with medical growing licences. Many of the connections have stood for decades.”
“She equates the growers to farmers at a local market,” The Post reported.
“They are proud of their product and would like to come forward, but prohibition forces them to stay in the dark.”