Prohibition accelerates further as Canada goes deeper into cannabis "legalization". Dispensary owners lose not just their stores, inventory, and livelihoods... but also their homes.
Two high-profile crackdowns were announced this week. Chad Jacket of Grassroots Medicinal (Squamish), and Rejean Houle of Budzilla (Vancouver), both lost EVERYTHING, including their ability to bring safe cannabis to patients who rely on them. I happen to know both these guys, and can give personal insights into the situation. But first, here's what the mainstream media says about it:
"BC's Civil Forfeiture Office seeks to seize a pair of mortgaged properties in the Squamish and Pemberton areas valued at $1.93 million and more than $830,000 in cash seized (in recent raids)."
The headline "Province seeks millions in properties and cash" is technically true, but only barely. Clickbait sensationalism. Millions? Yeah, 2.7 million. In other words, a couple small houses in the burbs. Headline could have been "Province seeks 2 small homes from dispensary owners".
I was watching live last month when Chad's shop Grassroots Medicinal was being raided. The CSU (community safety unit) backed by armed RCMP took all the cannabis, paperwork, and electronics. Earlier this year, I heard that Budzilla had been raided and shut under similar circumstances. The reason for the raids is these shops aren't licensed under "legalization". And the reason for that is complicated, but it comes down to the fact that the government won't license them, or at least won't license them in any way that would be acceptable. For example, they would have to drop their safe and established suppliers, to sell government cannabis, which is unsafe and unpopular. They operated their peaceful taxpaying businesses for years before "legalization", and are only NOW being shut down, despite winning battles in the courts many times. Now that legal shops are finally opening, all the free market ("black market") shops are being raided. It's disgusting.
"It's legal now. Just get a license!"
Asking "why don't they just pay up for a license?" is a really silly question to anyone who knows the intricacies. They've set the system up so that licenses (and required upgrades) cost over a million dollars, and they only approve insiders. It appears the solution is just to buy a license and stop being raided, but that's not actually a real solution. Also:
Chad is 'person 1'. Rej was 'person 1' for years, but recently switched toward 'person 3'. (More on that below.)
Budzilla
- owner: Rejean Houle
- location: Kingsway, in Vancouver
- started off selling only to patients with medical documentation, then transitioned to recreational sales as "legalization" approached in 2018
- had a reputation for reliability, decent-quality safe cannabis, a wide variety of edibles, and a dab lounge
- no license to grow cannabis, but recently applied for one to sell it
- raided in September
- CSU took all the cannabis, $812k CAD, $4k USD, and 19 ounces of silver
MediKatie and I became friends with Rej over the past few years. He's a shy but somehow personable half-first-nations man, either with a blunt hanging from his mouth, or mixing up candies and baked goods. We ran his Budzilla edibles booth at 4/20 in 2016 (a 36 hour shift), and stood beside him at the battle of Cannabis Day 2015. I've done several productions on YouTube and FaceBook, promoting and defending his dispensary. One such video earned me a "strike" from Gooogle and nearly got my account shut. I organized a protest for him at City Hall the day after they shut his dispensary. I was even there to testify on Rej's behalf in Provincial Court at his important "variance" hearing, which he won. I've proudly repped a BUDZILLA shirt for years, in public and during TV interviews. I gifted him a special silver "Liberty Leaf" coin, and called him a brother.
The obviously-fake "legalization" approached in 2018, with a complete ban on outdoor sales such as our thriving weekly "420 Farmers Market", and on cannabis not produced by a Licensed Producer (LP). That's when Rej turned on a dime, attacking activists over FaceBook, distancing himself from patients, announced he was going recreational and legal, took down his Dresden flag, and began criticizing any mention of the free market or outdoor sales.
Locally, he had been considered a friend of the activists because he allowed us to gather at his store for meetups, and sponsored some of the early "420 farmers market" protests. After years of participating in, and profiting from outdoor cannabis markets, Rej now refers to them as "open drug markets" and agrees with Trudeau's new laws. It seems Rej did a 180 and gave up essential Liberty to purchase a little temporary safety.
Now, his store is shuttered, his life savings have been seized, his patients (like my friend Cassie with celebral palsy) are scattering in panic, the CSU is coming for his house, and he has rightfully lost all respect from local activists. I'd love to be standing by his side right now, our friendship intact, but he turned against me when he betrayed the free market and the people, pushing for me to be arrested as a criminal because he bought a license and I didn't.
@MediKatie and I continued fighting "legalization" with everything we had. Meanwhile, many of our former friends sold out to the new regime - scheming, snitching, and ratting their way to brief monetary gain... and losing all street cred in the process.
Grassroots Medicinal
- owner: Chad Jacket
- location: Squamish (near Vancouver)
- only sells to patients with medical documentation
- reputation for high quality cannabis, organic bud and extracts, clean modern store
- has a license to grow cannabis, but not one to sell it
- raided in November
- CSU took all the cannabis, $13k CAD, and USD stick drives
I've met Chad, and been to many of the same events, but we never got more involved. I respect him as a motivated, informed, and conscious freedom-fighter. Selling high-quality cannabis to patients for many years puts him in my good book. He didn't sell out. Civil disobedience of unjust laws is our right and duty as free people. He was right to fight legalization, and I continue to stand by him as he tries to get his home back.
After many years of hard and honest work, he built his way up to a small home for his family. The news is making him out to sound like a greedy drug baron. Surely, this could have been handled more appropriately, with less harm to innocent people, like his kids? Sure, investigate him, if there's concern he avoided paying taxes or something. But to make an example out of him, by destroying him for peacefully transacting in cannabis with adult patients that needed it? That's disgusting, and it's even worse that it happened under the guise of "legalization".
"Why so much cash?"
Even under "legalization", Canadian banks won't touch money that has been involved in cannabis sales. Only the biggest LPs are able to get special arrangements with banks. Everybody else must keep all their operating funds - and their life savings - in cash. THAT is why those sums appear so large. It's these people's entire business inventory, cashflow, income, and savings all in one spot. Isn't that dangerous? Sure, thieves are a real issue, but the main problem is cops. Thieves usually can't get into a good safe. The city can, by sending cops (violence), a warrant (persuasion), and a locksmith if necessary. Cash means crime, to police - even when it doesn't. Never get caught with more than a couple notes of the same denomination.
Silver and Cryptos?
It's a bit eerie seeing police brag about seizing precious metals and USB drives with crypto keys. Of all the other stuff they could have mentioned along with the cash, they mentioned 19 ounces of silver, and a few USB drives? That's not an accident.
The message is: Nothing you consider money (or currency) escapes us. We're coming for the fiat cash, but if you have anything with intrinsic value, we're taking that too.
The kicker? That silver used to be mine.
As I mentioned, I once gifted Rej a 1oz Silver Sativa, as a sign of brotherhood and respect, early in our friendship. He kept it in his office at the store.
Then when I got sick in 2016 and couldn't work, I needed to sell some silver to pay bills. Rej heard about it, told me to come by the shop with the coins, and he forked over twenties until I had enough to pay my rent. He told me he was happy to do it, because he believes silver is real money, and said he was going to keep the coins in his office safe.
[ So you see, he wasn't ALL bad. Sure, he operated outside the law. But I've known a lot of people like that, and a great majority of them (especially in the cannabis activism world) are incredibly high-quality people that I'm blessed to have met! ]
But those coins (the Silver Sativa, and a bunch of RCM Canadian Wildlife series) are very likely the 19 ounces of silver mentioned in the police report. I'm kinda offended they got that, along with everything else.
Rats!
I would never wish acts of cannabis prohibition (like raids, arrests, seizures, closures, censorship, etc) on anyone, not even my worst enemy, and I mean that. Never.
You don't get your street cred back when you rat on someone in the community for cannabis, and for good reason:
Cannabis should never have been illegal. Those who know it, don't punish each other for cannabis so-called "crimes". Weed snitches get stitches, and that's how it should be. It's a self-correcting system and it works well this way. The cannabis black market (or free market, or underground, or whatever you'd like to call it) has very few rules, but this is one of them, and everyone is taught it when you first get involved. Knowing this is part of learning the ropes in the cannactivism community. (Hell, I learned it waaaay back, when I started and ran a grow-op for 2 years.) Other crimes? Yes, other crimes can and should be dealt with however appropriate. But cannabis "offenses"? You either turn a blind eye, or you offer your assistance, but you NEVER rat, you NEVER inform, and you NEVER take pleasure in ANYONE being busted for weed.
That said, Rej essentially did me and @MediKatie this way, so it's hard not to take that a little personally. I don't enjoy seeing him get taken down, and I feel sick about his patients going without right now, but if it had to be someone, then it's probably best it was Rej. Maybe the remaining few dispensary owners in the area were spared a few more weeks because the CSU was working on the Budzilla and Grassroots Medicinal raids. Maybe Rej bought some good people a little time. If so, at least he was of service to the community once more before he went.
I wonder if he thought this might happen, when he was taking down that yellow flag from the dab lounge wall?
That said,
I hope he and Chad are both exonerated of the charges, and their dispensaries and homes returned to them, but at this point that seems impossible. Prohibition is only growing. They mean business (literally... a trillion dollar industry). It looks as though real cannabis is going fully back underground like it was in the 80s and 90s here, except now, they're tracking us with infrared drones and keyloggers. (Good thing we stoners aren't the paranoid type, because this is getting a little creepy.)
This was just 2 of 100s of dispensaries serving the people of BC that have been raided and shut for the legalized corporate monopoly.
None of the raids should have happened. Nobody peaceful should be in prison. Nobody's homes should be getting seized and sold by government. None of that cannabis should have been touched by police. The silver and the cryptos should be back in their owners' safes, as should the cash. Millions of lives have been harmed by prohibition and it continues to get worse every year.
"Legalization" is a lie. End cannabis prohibition!
DRutter
