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Marc and Jodie Emery ordered to cease operation of Cannabis Culture
Posted On 13 Mar 2017
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NICK EAGLAND, VANCOUVER SUN
The business empire built by Canada’s “Prince and Princess of Pot” is on the verge of collapse.
Marc and Jodie Emery have been ordered to cease operating their Cannabis Culture dispensary business after they were arrested Wednesday at Pearson Airport while on their way catch a flight to Barcelona, Jodie said Saturday in a phone call from Toronto.
Emery said they were taken into custody by plainclothes officers as they exited an Uber vehicle and were later strip-searched and detained. She described their treatment by police as “disturbing and shocking” and said they were only permitted to speak with lawyers hours after the arrest.
“We’ve literally been stripped naked in the strip search and stripped of everything we’ve built, everything we’ve worked so hard for all these years,” Emery said.
The following day, police in Toronto, Hamilton, Ont. and Vancouver executed 11 search warrants, while three of the Emerys’ associates in Cannabis Culture 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 a bail hearing Friday, the five defendants were represented by Toronto lawyers Jack Lloyd and Dan Stein. All five were released on bail that afternoon with conditions, Lloyd said when reached by phone in Toronto. They are set to appear in court the morning of April 21, he said.
Emery described the conditions handed to her and her husband as “onerous.” The Vancouver couple are now required to stay and live in Ontario, though Jodie may visit her home city with court permission, she said.
