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Canada: Prince of Pot pleads Guilty in Montreal Cannabis Dispensaries Case Payl Cherry Montreal Gazette Wednesday 30 May 2018 Cannabis activist Marc Emery pleaded guilty Wednesday afternoon to charges filed against him, at the Montreal courthouse, in a case involving six pot dispensaries that opened briefly in the city more than a year ago. Before he made his appearance, Emery kept the judge waiting while he spoke to reporters before he pleaded guilty. He said it was “nutty” that the Quebec government will control the sale of marijuana in the province. He said the Quebec government was corrupt and therefore not able to sell the product. At his previous court date in April, a lawyer representing Emery said he planned to “dispose of” the case during his next hearing. Emery was in Ireland at the time and the case was carried over to Wednesday. Less than two hours before the hearing was scheduled to begin in the afternoon, Emery tweeted about what he expects to happen. “In court today in Montreal. Getting fined $6,500 for selling cannabis at CC shop back on Dec. 15, 2016. Quebec is the worst jurisdiction now/future: a few monopoly (government) outlets and no home growing along with no free market dispensaries. The Mob is strong is this city,” Emery wrote in his tweet. Emery has pushed for the legalization of cannabis in Canada for decades. He tried several times to get elected in British Columbia as president of the B.C. Marijuana Party. His efforts drew national attention while he challenged a request made by the U.S. government, in 2005, to have him extradited from Canada for having sold cannabis seeds to Americans. Emery ceased the challenge in 2009 and was transported to the U.S. on May 20, 2010. He ended up pleading guilty to one count of conspiring to manufacture cannabis. He admitted that from 1994 to July 2005, he and other people ran a cannabis seed distribution business called Marc Emery Direct. From B.C., they sold to customers through mail and telephone orders, including to addresses in the U.S. Emery advertised the company in magazines and through a business website on which Emery estimated he had sold more than 4 million seeds over a decade. As part of his sentencing memorandum filed in the American case, Emery noted that he never hid what he was doing and that “Revenue Canada gladly accepted taxes on all of his sales.” He also stated that profits from the sale of seeds were used to support efforts to legalize cannabis in Canada and the U.S. “It was my sincere belief that the prohibitions on cannabis are hurtful to U.S. and Canadian citizens and are contrary to the U.S. and Canadian constitutions. I was, however, overzealous and reckless in pursuing this belief, and acted arrogantly in violation of U.S. federal law,” Emery wrote in a letter included in his memorandum. According to the plea agreement filed in a U.S. District Court in Seattle, the prosecution estimated that 75 per cent of Emery’s customers were based in the U.S. The Americans also sent a Drug Enforcement Administration undercover agent to his retail store in Vancouver and bought seeds from him in person. While pursuing his extradition, the DEA referred to Emery as “one of the attorney general’s most wanted international drug-trafficking organizational targets” in the world. Emery’s lawyer replied by calling that characterization “gross hyperbole.” As part of the plea agreement, Emery was sentenced to a five-year prison term and he was released from a U.S. penitentiary on July 10, 2014. Since his return to Canada, Emery has continued to push for the legalization of cannabis. This includes his promotion of the six shops that opened briefly in Montreal in December 2016. The dispensaries opened shortly after the Liberal government appointed a task force to study the possibility of legalizing the recreational use of cannabis. The Montreal police closed the shops the day after they opened and seized 18 kilograms of cannabis. Nine people who were arrested along with Emery in Montreal have since pleaded guilty to charges involving the possession of cannabis. Most received sentences that included absolute discharges. http://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/prince-of-pot-to-plead-guilty-in-montreal-cannabis-dispensaries-case
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