Toronto police allege Cannabis Culture marijuana dispensaries are part of a large franchise operation involving high-level drug traffickers.
Vancouver residents Marc and Jodie Emery were granted bail last Friday, March 10, after being arrested at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport Wednesday, March 8, as they were purportedly headed to a cannabis expo in Spain.
According to Toronto police, Marc Emery has been charged with conspiracy to commit an indictable offence, three counts of trafficking, five counts of possession for the purpose of trafficking, five counts of possession of proceeds of crime and one count of failure to comply, while Jodie Emery was charged with five similar counts.
Toronto Drug Squad Acting Inspector Steve Watts said the operation, dubbed Project Gator, was designed to disrupt the operation of “high level drug traffickers.”
“The public should know that this isn’t an altruistic venture, this is purely a profit-motivated venture,” said Watts in a statement. “Anyone with a prescription for marijuana can go through Health Canada, who have an abundant supply.”
Cannabis Culture franchise owners Chris Goodwin, 37, Erin Goodwin, 31, and Britney Guerra, 29, were also arrested and charged with similar offences. Following their arrests, police in Toronto, Hamilton and Vancouver raided five Cannabis Culture locations, as well as two homes in Toronto, one in Stoney Creek, Ont., and one in Vancouver. Police seized $250,000 in cash in several currencies after executing 11 search warrants.
Toronto police are concerned the products being sold are not regulated by Health Canada and present health concerns because there is no way to know how potent they are or if they include any chemicals unfit for human consumption. Authorities noted that analysis of some dispensary products by independent labs has turned up rat feces, insecticides and mould.
“It appears benign because it looks like a regular store front, but it’s not,” said Watts. “It’s straight-up drug trafficking and about making as much money as possible.”
But lawyer Kirk Tousaw, who represents the Marc and Jodie Emery, sees the Cannabis Culture franchise in a completely different light. In a statement released the day after the arrest, Tousaw said: “This latest salvo in Canada’s senseless war on cannabis and cannabis consumers is a moral outrage and has no place in a free and democratic society.”
Tousaw noted the Canadian public has supported legalization of marijuana for many years. Last week, Canada’s Health Minister Jane Philpott said the federal government is committed to introducing legislation to legalize marijuana before summer, but admitted it could take some time before the new law takes effect.
“Clearly any legislation that gets introduced has to go through the parliamentary process,” Philpott told reporters at a press conference in Ottawa last Thursday. “It has to be duly considered by the House of Commons and ultimately the senate as well. And there are often regulatory processes that have to be put in place so people need to recognize that things take time. This is something that has to be done correctly.”
Tousaw questions the time it’s taking for the federal government to legalize marijuana.
“Our Prime Minister has promised to legalize cannabis. That promise is now two years old. Yet the arrests continue and the harm continues to be done by this terrible law,” Tousaw said in his statement. “This is Canada in 2017, some 45 years after Mr. Trudeau’s father accepted the Le Dain Commission’s findings that prohibition was an abject failure that should be repealed. In that span, hundreds of thousands of good Canadians have been harmed by prohibition. Enough is enough.”
The Le Dain Commission, an inquiry into the non-medical use of drugs and named after its chair Dean Gerald Le Dain, was a Canadian government commission started in 1969 and completed in 1972. In part, the commission recommended the repeal of prohibition against the simple possession of cannabis.
Meanwhile, VPD media spokesperson Staff Sgt. Randy Fincham said it wouldn’t be appropriate for Vancouver police to comment on Toronto’s investigation.
