An Open Letter Regarding Marc and Jodie Emery

I’d like to clear a few things up for you. Whatever you think of Marc Emery – and we certainly have had and still do have our major disagreements and differences – we are not friends, but that will not keep me from saying this: the action he and Jodie Emery took in opening Cannabis Culture dispensaries across Canada serving adults over 19 showed thousands and thousands of people across this country what a store selling cannabis as a regular consumer product could look like. Canadians voted with their dollars, each CC practically had lineups around the block upon opening – most of those people had never had the chance to see a medical dispensary in operation. People liked what they saw, regular people,regular Canadians. The government noticed and it was a threat to the plans they have for cannabis distribution. Others followed their 19 plus model.

The actions against them and their three co-defendant activists in the “Project Gator” raids are unjust, heavy handed, and pretty damn shocking. Equating a franchise model to “organized crime” is disingenuous and the fear tactics about “the new drug shatter” are ridiculous. I don’t want to see any of my media friends repeat that – you should know better. Shatter is nothing more than an extract made from cannabis (similar to hash and oil that I KNOW for a fact a lot of you ‘remember’, let’s be real) Responsible producers now use safer closed loop systems for extract production, and many patients find it a more effective way of medicating. Further, the reason the police are using “shatter” to spin you, is because they KNOW they’ve long lost the public relations war on pot, and the Canadian public doesn’t support cannabis arrests.

I’ve never been a fan of the Emery’s, and I have been vocal about that at times; but as an observer watching it all unfold in the media and seeing two locations, I fully support their actions in opening the Cannabis Culture stores, and I was in court yesterday and I am incensed that the government is using these extremely heavy handed tactics in what is clearly a political move.

Note – the investigation started the day after Jodie made some excellent points when interrupting the Toronto Police press conference after last year’s Project Claudia raids attacking other dispensaries. Now 5 people – Marc Emery and Jodie Emery, but also long time Toronto activists Chris Goodwin and Erin Goodwin and Hamilton’s Britney Anne Guerra face serious charges.

No prison for pot! This is political – and the bail conditions even silence their speech about Cannabis Culture, they can’t even operate their media sites. This is Canada, and that is just not right.