Mark and Jodie Emery Plead Guilty to Slew of Charges

Mark and Jodie Emery, the former co-owners of the Cannabis Culture brand, pleaded guilty on December 18 to a number of cannabis-related drug charges for operating a chain of dispensaries. Both were fined C$195,000 and received two years’ probation. To date, the couple has never backed down from their stance on open cannabis trade in the face of opposition.

Cannabis Culture is the company behind a string of dispensaries, Cannabis Culture magazine and Pot TV. “Project Gator” was launched in 2016 to scrutinize the business practices of the Cannabis Culture dispensary chain and brand. Prosecutors say the dispensaries obtained cannabis illicitly and engaged in a number of other illegal activities. Three others pleaded guilty along with the Emerys, but fortunately, the federal prosecutor (also described as a “Crown,” or Crown Attorney Office in Canada) dropped charges against 17 Cannabis Culture employees.

Each is forced to pay a C$150,000 fine plus a C$45,000 victim surcharge, totaling C$195,000. “I think this fine is extraordinarily high, I even offered to go to jail for a year, but they weren’t interested,” Marc Emery said to the judge. The judge rejected Emery’s The Emery call themselves the “Prince and Princess of Pot,” and both are politically active in Vancouver and across Canada.

Jodie Emery told the judge that she believed cannabis would soon be legal. “We thought we could make a really big impact on what legalization should look like,” she said.

The payments between dispensary franchises and Cannabis Culture headquarters were picked apart and used by the prosecution to prove how much money the couple was making. At one point, Cannabis Culture was running 19 dispensaries in British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec. All Cannabis Culture stores are now closed.

The federal government plans on legalizing cannabis by July 2018, but each province currently handles cannabis differently. After sentencing, the Emerys both lit up a joint outside of the courthouse to celebrate the end of a long, painful process.