7 charged in Saint John cannabis dispensary raids get discharges

Just shy of four months before recreational cannabis is legal in Canada, a Saint John judge has given conditional or absolute discharges toseven people charged after police raids on medical cannabis dispensaries.

The former dispensary workers were charged with possession and possession for the purpose of trafficking.

Inprovincial court Tuesday, Kyle Joseph Owens, Jonathan Lambert, Odessa Parsons, Mark Sean Splude, Anthony Robert Bryant, BoweAlex Merchant and Stephanie Lee Wilcox all pleaded guilty.

The seven, who either worked or rancannabis dispensaries in the city, were charged after raids on the outlets in thewinter 2017.Four of the seven employees had no prior records.

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Owens, Lambert, and Parsons received conditional discharges and were ordered to pay victim fine surcharges ranging from $400 to $600. Owens and Lambert were put on probation for a year and Parson for nine months.

They have to keep the peace and be of good behaviour and not work at or visit places where cannabis is sold.

Splude,Bryant,Merchant andWilcox all received absolute discharges.

Arguing for absolute discharges, defence lawyer Jeremy Doucetreferred to the coming legalization of cannabis, with Bill C-45 going into effect in October.

"The public view ofmarijuana prosecutions has shifted," said Doucet, adding that his clients earned minimum wage from the dispensaries and didn't profit directly from the cannabis they sold.

'Sense of relief'

The maximum penalties for trafficking and possession for the purpose of trafficking range from up to five years to life in prison, depending on the quantity of drugs seized.

Doucet requested an absolute discharge for Bryant, Merchant, and Wilcox, all of whom were working at HBB Medical when police executed search warrants on March 21, 2017.

Anything less, Doucet said, could negatively affect his clients' ability to move past the charges by hampering their employment prospects and limiting their ability to travel to the United States.

When someonegets an absolute discharge at sentencing, the court makes a finding of guilt but the conviction is not registered. The same happens with a conditional discharge as long as the conditions are met.

Doucet said his clients have already been "dragged through the criminal justice process" and subjected to a "media spectacle" that will be a sufficient deterrent to committing further crimes.

Judge Andrew Palmer agreed that a discharge "would not be contrary to the public interest" given the "changing landscape" around prosecuting cannabis offences.

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HBBMedical owner Hank Merchant said all of theformer employees should have received an absolute discharge with no probation.

"How does the system work?" he asked. "We hoped that the current system would allow for medical dispensaries to exist and provide necessary medication."

Merchant said hefeels a "sense of relief" now the proceedings have concluded against his former workers, but he's disappointed the regulations planned by the Brian Gallant government won't permit dispensaries such asHBB Medical to exist.

"We'll probably have to close our doors and let Mr. Gallant get on with his monopoly, " Merchant said.

'Thrown under the bus'

Police raided six medical cannabis dispensaries on Jan 24, 2017.

Odessa Parsons, a 32-year-old mother of four who sold cannabis to an undercover officer as an employee of King Canna, was represented by Brian Ferguson.

"The federal government is looking at giving pardons to people for possession," Ferguson said. "It's unfortunate if she's hit with anything but an absolute discharge."

Parsons saidthat she was "thrown under the bus" by her former employer, who promised to provide her with a lawyer, then failed to do so.

"It's been a headache, it's been costing me a lot of money to come back and forth," said Parsons, who was ordered to pay a victim fine surcharge of $400.

The case involving an eighth dispensary employee, Michael Scheerschmidt, was set over to July 30.

Twenty-one police officers from the Saint John Police Force, Kennebecasis Regional Police Service and the RCMP were involved in the raids. A second round of search warrants was executed on March 21, 2017.

On June 20, the federal government announced that cannabis will be legal in Canada as of Oct. 17, 2018.