A Montreal court has ordered Canada’s Prince of Pot to pay a $5,000 fine after pleading guilty for his role in promoting several cannabis dispensaries in Montreal.
On Wednesday (May 30), longtime pot activist Marc Emery faced three charges for an incident relating to six brand new Cannabis Culture locations in 2016. Two charges for drug possession and conspiracy were dropped, but Emery pleaded guilty to trafficking.
“The lawyer’s bill was $7,500 and the fine was $6,500, including the victims surcharge, so it cost me $14,000 for something I didn’t make any money on, and had to spend two nights in jail to boot,” Emery told the Straight.
In court today in Montreal. Getting fined $6,500 for selling cannabis at a CC shop back on December 15, 2016. Quebec is the worst jurisdiction now/future: a few monopoly gov outlets and no home growing along with no free market dispensaries. The Mob is strong in this city.
— Marc Emery (@MarcScottEmery) May 30, 2018
On December 16, 2017, approximately 120 police officers raided several Cannabis Culture locations, 20 of which were specifically sent to very publically cuff-up Emery.
“One would have probably done the job,” he says, noting the officers who arrested him were wearing camouflage pants—a sign of protest established after Philippe Couillard’s Liberal government introduced municipal pension reform in 2014.
“It was a fabulous overkill and a tremendous waste of resources in a community that claims not to have enough resources to even pay their police.”
Video of Marc Emery being arrested at 2200 Mont Royal #Montreal pic.twitter.com/5549Def387
— Jodie Emery (@JodieEmery) December 16, 2016
The self-styled pot crusader says he was only at the Mont-Royale Ave. location as a brand ambassador, but knew long before the police arrived that his presence would attract unwanted attention.
“I knew, at the most, we had one to two days before I got arrested,” he says.
“I was arrested on day two.”
The crown prosecutor told media on Wednesday the decision to drop two charges and settle on one fine was a made with consideration to the impending federal legalization of recreation cannabis.
“Cannabis will be legalized eventually, so [that] has an impact on the sentence,” prosecutor Philippe Vallières-Roland told reporters.
Emery disagrees, suggesting it had more to do with a lack of evidence.
“It was sloppy. The real truth of it is that they [the police] did a bad job. I pleaded guilty to trafficking, but my lawyer said they didn’t really have an example of me actually selling pot. They only had examples of me giving it away free,” he says.
Emery admits to handing out several joints to guests waiting outside of the dispensary, which was enough to land him the initial trafficking charge.
“By the time the police came to get me there was no weed in the building and I couldn’t have been selling it because it was all gone.”
History of high profile arrests
Marc became an early target for law enforcement as he and his wife, fellow activist Jodie Emery, set up Cannabis Culture dispensaries across the country. His brash brand of political activism has led to nearly 30 arrests in Canada and the U.S.
“It’s been a bunch of weird, strange offences I’ve been convicted of,” he says.
Most of his previous drug-related fines hover in the average range of $2,000 to $5,000 for things like distributing cannabis seeds, promoting vaporizers, or giving away free hash. Some of his charges also carried jail time stretching from three months in Saskatoon for passing a joint to five years in a U.S. prison for selling mail order cannabis seeds.
Last year, the Emery’s were the centre-focus of an operation police coined “Project Gator”, which investigated several Cannabis Culture locations. Both Marc and Jodie were arrested and fined, each with $195,000, and placed on a two-year probation for a handful of possession and trafficking charges.
I get $195,000 fine (2 years to pay), Jodie gets $195,000 fine, Chris gets a $13,000 fine, Britney $13,000, Erin $3,900. We are all on probation for 24 months (Jodie & I) and 18 months (Brit, Chris and Erin).
— Marc Emery (@MarcScottEmery) December 18, 2017
Legalization looks “utterly depressing”
When asked about Canada’s legalization efforts, Emery likens the political environment to that of a Soviet-style command economy and believes criminalization of other outspoken dissidents will only worsen in the years to come.
“The whole situation across the Canada is utterly depressing, with so many ridiculous, absurd punishments,” he says.
“The government determines the price [of cannabis], picks the people to grow it, and picks the people to sell it. It doesn’t work. You have to let the people have a say.”
He predicts Canadian’s are simply going to continue buying from the grey and black market where they will encounter less stringent regulations, undercutting one of the Liberal government’s driving factors fueling legalization.
Nothing new for the longtime activist
With a cool positivity, he reflects on the 2016 raid saying he’s used to being arrested by now. Emery says he was more impacted by the number of locals who braved the frigid December temperatures to support ‘free market pot’ and activism, more so than the police intervention.
“It [the arrest] was all kind of a theatre,” he says.
“A costly theatre!”
